tile faults

handyman · Post by **handyman** » Tue Jul 14, 2009 7:42 am

Doing a job now where the porcelain tiles (20"x10") are all exactly the same size

but after I laid a few tiles, I finally spotted the problem. They are bowed on the flat, so when you put a straight edge on them, theres about a 1mm space at each end

This also varies.

This gets worse, as they have to be laid in a brick pattern, so the low of the 2 before hit the high center of the next, so doubling the fault.

Also had porcelain a few weeks ago, again perfect size, but the darker colour floor tile (same range, light on walls, dark on floor) was 1mm bigger in one dimension.

Anyone else get these faults before you even start?

handyman · Post by **handyman** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 7:31 am

must just be me then

thescruff · Post by **thescruff** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 7:59 am

Faulty batch

handyman · Post by **handyman** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 7:16 am

2 in a row

DIY_Johnny · Post by **DIY_Johnny** » Sun Aug 02, 2009 6:38 pm

Funny that, I haven't been on here in months, but first post I looked at is very relevent

I was tiling the kitchen floor today and yesterday and I notice that some tiles are not exactly the same length / width. They are wickes tiles and say 330 x 330 on the box. But some are about 328 square.

Makes a bit of a t#t of my grout lines

DIY_Johnny · Post by **DIY_Johnny** » Sun Aug 02, 2009 6:41 pm

Oh and I have opened them all and mixed them all up.

Am using same color tile grout so will hide it a little me thinks

lamntile · Post by **lamntile** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 4:54 pm

NewbieJohn wrote:Funny that, I haven't been on here in months, but first post I looked at is very relevent

I was tiling the kitchen floor today and yesterday and I notice that some tiles are not exactly the same length / width. They are wickes tiles and say 330 x 330 on the box. But some are about 328 square.

Makes a bit of a t#t of my grout lines

I had a customer the other week bathroom had been tilled about a year ago but she had got some extra tiles to go with the ones she already had for tilling the toilet, When i opened the boxes they were about 2 mm smaller than the existing. When i told her that they were a dif make etc all i got in reply was " well BnQ told me they would match" needless to say the originals no longer available and grout lines on one wall are dodgy to say the least.

DIY_Johnny · Post by **DIY_Johnny** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 5:30 pm

Can’t understand how they can be off, I assume you have a mould, tile clay pressed into this mould and baked in a kiln. Is that right? I measured my wall tiles, says they are 300 long, all are 298. Luckily they are the same length

bathstyle · Post by **bathstyle** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 7:18 pm

Doing some 600 x 300 Porcelain today, expensive tiles, very slight bow to them, I'm talking a fraction of a millimetre, tiles have very square edges and can be a pain to get flat.

I have not come across a manufacturer that makes perfect tiles yet

DIY_Johnny · Post by **DIY_Johnny** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:45 pm

Just took a photo of the tiles, as you can see they are a bit off. What do you do in this situation

Grout lines will look poor if I use a different color that the tiles. And as I laid more tiles the error in lines was getting larger and larger

bathstyle · Post by **bathstyle** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 10:03 pm

Just use a grey or black grout and be assured that it will look absolutely fine (from my house

)

thescruff · Post by **thescruff** » Tue Aug 11, 2009 10:24 pm

If you center the slightly smaller tile with it's opposite, and have a slightly wider gap, it shouldn't look too bad when they're grouted.

DIY_Johnny · Post by **DIY_Johnny** » Wed Aug 12, 2009 7:56 am

Yes, when i tiled the bathroom I made a bit oif a t#t out of cutting the tiles, gaps near walls were too big and uneven, the grout improves the look a lot, was surprised!