Trim tile is further classified as surface (or sur-
tiles, leave the paper facing on until the adhesive
face bullnose) and radius (or radius bullnose).
dries, then dampen the paper and remove it.
Surface trim is essentially flat tile with one
Disadvantage: Paper facing obscures tile joints,
rounded edge. Radius trim, also known as
making them tougher to align. Back-mounted
quarter-round, curves dramatically to conceal
sheets are easier to align, but the bond between
the built-up bed on which it is set. Both types
the tile and the adhesive may be compromised
of trim include a range of specialty pieces that
slightly because the backing remains stuck in
finish inside corners, outside corners, and
the adhesive.
wall joints.
Water reSiStance and durability
There are almost as many physical distinctions
manner, tiles are rated for walls, floors, and
among tiles as there are tile types, but the most
counters. A reputable tile supplier will give you
important traits to consider are water resistance
good advice on appropriate uses and durability
and durability.
and will stand behind the tiles you buy.
Water resistance. Here, three of four official
P R O T I P
categories of tiles include the word vitreous,
Tools
which means glasslike, and suggest how much
ask your tile supplier about
Many tile suppliers sell or rent tiling tools and
the tile will resist or absorb water. The categories
appropriate adhesives each time
offer workshops on techniques and tool use.
are nonvitreous, semivitreous, vitreous, and
you buy tile. the correct choice is
impervious. Nonvitreous is the most absorptive,
not always obvious. Vitreous por-
Tools and safety. Tiling is deliberate, methodical
celain tile, for example, is not
and impervious the most water-resistant.
work and is not as inherently dangerous as some
porous and requires a strong,
Use nonvitreous tiles on dry areas, such as
remodeling tasks. Still, it poses hazards, so for
polymer-modified thinset.
interior fireplace surrounds and hearths. Use
starters, note these minimal safety rules:
semivitreous or better on shower walls, tub sur-
Use a voltage tester to ensure that
rounds, backsplashes, and areas that are inter-
power has been shut off to outlets, fixtures,
mittently wet. Use vitreous and impervious tiles
switches, and devices you’ll work near. In
for wet installations such as pools, hot tubs, and
addition, ensure that bathroom and kitchen
outdoor surfaces in rainy climates. In general,
receptacles have GFCI protection, as spelled
the less water a tile absorbs, the less hospitable it out in chapter 11. Corded power tools
will be to bacteria and mold. That’s why hospitals should be double insulated and grounded
and laboratories usually use impervious tiles.
with a three-prong plug. Or use cordless
tools instead.
Durability. Tile durability ratings, based on
Rubber gloves reduce the risk of electric
structural strength and surface imperfections,
shock and prevent skin poisoning from
typically assign softer, weaker tile to less
prolonged handling of mortar, adhesives,
demanding areas and harder, impervious tile to
sealers, and the like.
heavily trafficked, wet, and outdoor areas. In like
Wear goggles when cutting tiles, whether
making full cuts with a wet saw or nibbling
Classic vitreous porcelain tile is often
bites with a tile nipper. Tile shards can be as
used in bathrooms because it resists
stains and sheds water.
sharp as a scalpel.
Wear a respirator when mixing masonry
materials, applying adhesive, cutting
cementitious backer board, and so on.
Knee pads will spare you a lot of
discomfort. Buy a pair that’s comfortable and
flexible enough to wear all day. Flimsy rubber
knee pads won’t protect your knees.
452 chapter 16
Open windows and turn off pilot lights
on gas appliances when using volatile
adhesives or admixtures. Closely follow
manufacturer’s instructions.
baSic tool kit For tile
Safety equipment: rubber gloves, goggles,
respirator mask, voltage tester, and knee pads.
Measuring and layout: straightedges,
framing square, spirit level, pencil or felt-tipped
pen, chalkline, tape measure, story pole, and
scribe (or an inexpensive student’s compass).
Setting and grouting: notched trowel,
margin trowel, plastic spacers and wedges,
beater board, rubber mallet, grout float,
round-cornered sponge, and clean rags.
Cutting: snap cutter, tile nippers, utility
knife with extra blades, and wet saw.
Cleanup: sponges, rags, plastic buckets,
plastic tarps, and shop vacuum.
Straightedges are indispensable for
Miscellany: hammer and wire cutters.
tile layout and installation. They tell
you whether surfaces are flat and
MeaSuring and layout
help you align tile edges.
Substrates are never absolutely flat or perfectly
plumb, so layout is a series of reasonable approx-
imations. Clean tools give the most accurate
readings, so wipe off mortar or stray adhesive
Snap cutters work great for straight
before it dries. Here’s what you’ll need:
cuts on vitreous tile. With this
A 4-ft. spirit level is long enough to give
model, you score the tile in one pull
you an accurate reading. It’s indispensable for
and then push down on the tool’s
checking plumb and leveling courses of wall
wings to snap the tile along the
tiles. If a 4-ft. level proves unwieldy on the
scored line. Here, blue painter’s tape
keeps the cutter’s wings from
short end walls of a bathtub, use a 2-ft. level or
scratching the tiles.
a torpedo level instead.
A tape measure lets you measure areas to
be tiled, triangulate diagonals for square, and
perform general layout.
A chalkline allows you to mark tile layout
lines before applying adhesive.
Straightedges are useful for aligning tile
courses, marking layout lines on substrate,
and guiding cuts on backer board and
plywood. Professional tilesetters have metal
straightedges of different lengths, but wood’s
OK if it’s straight and sealed to resist water.
A framing square is used to establish
perpendicular layout lines on floors, walls,
and countertops.
A story pole is a long, straight board
marked in increments repr
esenting the
average width of a tile plus one grout joint (see
“Storytelling” on p. 466). With it, you can
quickly see how many tiles will fit in a given
Wet saws are relatively cheap to rent, and they cut almost any type of tile cleanly. Wear safety
area, as well as where partial tiles will occur.
glasses and hearing protectors when using one. To extend blade life, change the water often.
tiling
453
A handheld grinder with a diamond blade can
cut curved lines in tile (make a series of shallow
passes) or plunge cuts for holes in the middle of a
tile. Be sure to stop the cuts short of your cutlines
and remove the waste with a pair of nippers.
Because a grinder is noisy and throws lots of dust,
use it only outdoors, and wear a respirator mask
and eye protection. An oscillating multitool (see
p. 49) with a grinder blade is a good alternative.
A utility knife scores cementitious backer board
(which you snap like drywall), marks off tile
joints in fresh mortar, cleans stray adhesive out
of joints, and so on. However, if you’ve got a lot
of backer board to cut, use a handheld grinder
with a diamond blade instead.
Using nippers is more like nibbling an ear of corn than chomping through a
hamburger. Twist the nipper handles slightly as you break off little pieces of
the tile’s edge, and be patient.
Setting and grouting
Setting means positioning and adhering tile to a
substrate. Grouting means sealing the joints
A scribe is used to fit sheet materials
between tiles with a special mortar.
(cementitious backer board, plywood) to a
bowed wall or to transfer the arc of a toilet
A notched trowel spreads adhesive. Two edges
flange to a tile.
of the tool are flat, designed to spread the adhe-
sive initially. Then, on subsequent passes, use the
cutting
notched edges to comb a series of parallel ridges,
which will spread evenly when the tile is pressed
Always wear goggles when cutting or nipping tile, into it. Notch height should be about two-thirds
especially when using power tools.
the thickness of the tile.
A snap cutter works well on manufactured vitre- A margin trowel is a utility tool that’s great for
ous and impervious tile. This tool has a little cut-
P R O T I P
mixing small batches of powdered adhesives,
ting wheel—make sure it’s not wobbly or
cleaning mortar off other trowels, buttering indi-
chipped—that should score the tile in one pull.
keep tile from overheating and
vidual tiles with adhesive, and removing excess
Then reposition the handle so the “wings’ of the
cracking as you drill by immers-
grout or adhesive that oozes up between tiles.
tool rest on the scored tile, and press sharply to
ing it in a water-filled box just
Plastic spacers and wedges enable you to
snap it. Note: When using a snap cutter, it’s tough
larger than the tile—build the
shim individual tiles so their edges align to your
to get a clean break on nonvitreous tile, tiles with
box from scrap wood and caulk it
layout lines.
textured surfaces, and floor tiles. For those you’ll
so it won’t leak. if countertop
need to use a wet saw.
tile is already installed, build a
A beater board is just a flat board placed over
dam of plumber’s putty around it
tile sections and rapped gently with a rubber
A wet saw, which you can rent, is especially use-
and add water before drilling.
mallet to seat the tiles in the adhesive. Not all
ful for cutting nonvitreous or irregular tiles or
Mexican and other handmade
tilesetters use a beater board. Many just press
trimming less than 1 in. off any tile. It cleanly
tiles tend to crack when drilled
tiles in firmly or use a fist to seat them better.
cuts all tile types. To make U-shaped cuts around
without mortar support under-
soap dishes and the like, make a series of parallel A grout float (rubber-faced trowel) applies grout
neath, so install them before
cuts with the wet saw before removing the waste
drilling. to avoid electrical
in a process that takes at least two passes.
with tile nippers.
shocks, use a cordless drill.
Holding the face of the grout float at about 30°,
sweep the grout generously over the tile and pack
Tile nippers allow you to cut out sections where
it into the joints. Then, holding the float almost
tiles encounter faucet stems, toilet flanges, and
perpendicular to the surface, remove the excess
the like. Nippers require some practice and lots
grout, unloading it periodically into a bucket. To
of patience. Take small nibbles—use only part of
avoid pulling grout out of the joints, make your
the jaws—nibbling away from the sides of a cut
passes diagonally across the tile joints.
into the center, gradually refining the cutout. As
you approach your final cutlines, go slowly.
Round-cornered, tight-pored sponges are less
likely to pull grout out of tile joints. After grout
A carbide-tipped hole saw is perfect for cutting starts to haze over, wipe lightly with a dampened
holes for faucet stems and pipe stubs. To be safe
sponge, rinsing the sponge often. Get several
around pipes and water, use a cordless drill with
types of sponges. Kitchen sponges with scrub
this saw.
454 chapter 16
A small group of setting and grouting
tools. Clockwise from upper left:
grout floats, notched trowels, hand-
drill mixing bit, and sponges (of
which you’ll need a variety).
pads on the back are useful for removing stub-
born grout.
Mastering The MeSS
A mixing bit in an electric drill can mix large
amounts of powdered adhesives or grout. Slow
Controlling the mess is a big part of successful tile setting. If you’re tiling a tub sur-
mixing speeds of 300 rpm to 400 rpm work best.
round, cover floors with builder’s paper or plastic, mask off cabinets, and line the
Keep the bit immersed to minimize mixing in air,
bathtub with a heavy canvas drop cloth before you start. Masonry debris is abrasive,
which weakens the batch. Wear a respirator.
so vacuum as it accumulates. Also, keep a clean 5-gal. plastic bucket (joint compound
pails are perfect) full of clean water for sponging mortar, adhesive, or grout off tools.
Materials
Last, a bundle of clean, dry rags is useful for buffing dried grout haze off tile and
soaking up messes.
Here’s a quick survey of materials you might use
to create a durable tiling job.
Think of the job as if it were a layer cake. For
example, in floor tiling, the bottom layer (con-
ceptually the table under the cake)
would be the
floor joists. Nailed to the joists, in most cases, is a
plywood substrate. For a wet installation such as
a shower wall, next comes a waterproofing mem-
brane, followed by a setting bed of cementitious
backer board or a mortar bed. Troweled onto the
setting bed is a setting material, typically thinset
adhesive or organic mastic. Tiles are applied to
the setting bed, and once the bed has hardened,
tile joints are grouted. Later, a sealer may be
applied to make tile and grout more water- or
stain-resistant.
Methods and materials are rarely predictable
in a renovation, so it’s a good idea to survey the
back or underside of the surface you’re about to
tile, both to see how many layers there are and to
check if they’re in good condition. You can pull
out a heating register to see a cross section of the Because handmade tiles are irregular, they often need to be moved slightly flooring, for example. Or test-drill a small hole in after they’ve been set in adhesive. Use plastic shims to raise tiles so they’re an inconspicuous spot to determine the thickness level with others in the course.
tiling
455
and composition of an existing wall, floor, or
countertop.
zzzzzz typical Wet installation Floor
Tile
Thinset
Setting bedS
Grout
Tile can be set on a variety of setting beds. Keep
in mind that the substrate below the setting bed
must be securely attached to the framing. That
assembly must be thick and stable enough to
support loads with minimal deflection (1⁄360 of
the span). And when used in damp or wet areas,
it needs to remain unaffected by sustained expo-
sure to water.
Mortar beds. Where walls aren’t plumb or floors
aren’t flat, mortar beds are usually the best set-
Backer board
ting bed. They can easily be screeded level or
(setting bed)
plumb to create a flat surface. In fact, a mortar
bed is the only practical choice if you’re tiling the
1/8-in. gap
sloping floors of a shower stall. But few novices
Mesh
Plywood
have enough skill to float a mortar bed. If your
substrate
surfaces are badly out of whack and you’re not
Waterproofing membrane
experienced in floating mud, hire a pro for this job.
Backer board. If walls and floors are reasonably
plumb and level, backer board is a durable set-
Renovation 4th Edition Page 106