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External corners with natural stone tiles

Posted: Wed May 06, 2009 3:25 pm
by spikey
I've got some small (100*50mm) travertine tiles, brick style on 300*300mm sheets. I need to tile around a boxed in waste stack (210*185mm approx) so have an external corner to tile around.

Is it best to use an edging strip for the external corner or to cut the tiles at 45 degrees to butt them together?

And if butting them together, from a laying out point of view should I aim to butt a half-tile to a full tile to give a "true" brick effect or just cut a 90 degree V into the sheet at 210mm in and then "wrap" it round the corner?

Anyone any experience of this and what looks best?

Posted: Thu May 07, 2009 3:16 pm
by m3 fitter
the external edges require polishing, with a flex polisher or same to achieve the same finish as the face of the tiles, and yes by rights the edges should be bonded or half bonded as per the sheet, if you start at the external edge on both sides, you should marry up ( if the stack boxing is square )
link to the polisher, there are different models aswell on this site
http://www.moleroda.com/acatalog/FLEX_E ... Tools.html

Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 10:47 am
by spikey
Thanks for the reply m3. Sorry though I'm not sure I fully understand what you are saying.

Are you saying I should just cut the tiles straight, "finish" the cut edges to match the faces, and then overlap one side over the other to give an appearance of a full depth "brick"? In which case would you leave a grout space between or put stone against stone?

Is that better than doing a mitred joint which wouldn't need any refinishing of the tiles?

Posted: Mon May 11, 2009 3:19 pm
by m3 fitter
a mitred edge will be difficult with travertine, as the stone has many pockets / holes, and doesn't respond well to mitreing as it's soft, and the answer is yes, cut the tiles straight and re-finish them with a flex, leave a 3mm joint, as this should correspond to your adhesive depth after depression approx