centered tile layout (a bad idea??)

[GandalfMB]

Hello guys,
A few days ago I came across a pretty interesting article "Why a centered tile layout is a bad idea" and it made me think. It turns out that quite a lot of professionals don't bother finding the middle of the room/area they are tiling, they just start off the most visible wall with a full tile and put all the cuts where they won't be seen. Most of the tilers I know here are always banging on about symmetry and similar/the same size cuts, etc. How can we start off a wall that's bowed (especially a brick/block wall) and doesn't form 90 degree angles with the other walls?

I have to agree that symmetry is only good if it's visible. :) What do you think?


Thank you.

[arco_iris]

IMHO (main experience with carpet tiles, but have done floor & wall ceramics often), it is more important to get floor tiles as square as possible to the room as a whole and the easiest way to do this is to find the centre of all four walls, may be 300mm out from the skirting, then join opposite points together with a chalk line.

Then you work out whether that centre line is going to be a grout line or the centre of a tile, in both orientations, to see what size the cuts are going to be. This does not necessarily mean that there is a whole tile, or four tiles ( + ) slap bang in the middle of the room, but it automatically takes account of any wall that runs out or is bowed. Obviously there can be slight variations to this centring to cope with doorways, open plan kitchen/diners (half & half), etc.

Working off one wall is just plain lazy (imho).

[wine~o]

, having said that If you have a room that is known to be perfectly square it can be done.

(I did my conservatory with 600 x 400 porkies and because of the size /layout there was minimal cutting involved)

[dewaltdisney]

If it looks right it is right. I think if you are approaching this as an amateur DIY'r then it is worth the time laying out tiles dry and seeing how they look. A bit laborious but at least you can calculate the edge cutting needs so you do not end up with slither tile cuts to fit. In this instance a shift to slightly off centre can save a mountain of work but it has t look right.

Of course a pro tiler can see all this in his head and layout accordingly.


DWD

[GandalfMB]

Thank you all. No perfectly square rooms where I am, haha. Yes, that's what I am used to, finding the middle of the floor (snapping lines/using a laser) and laying out the tiles to see how they fit. Having less cutting to do sounds great but if there are any major discrepancies in width I might get a nasty V gap if I start off the wall. :( Cutting 1-2 centimeters off the first row of tiles could help but I think the idea is to start with a row of full tiles in the most visible part of the room.

[Nos]

Interesting subject, I was just talking to the DW about this the other day, the new house floors will all be tiled, but in the lounge we are having some "Fancy" tileing work, the lounge is 7x5 with two large alcoves, the alcoves and the floor will be tiled in grey inwards to about a meter from the walls, then there will be a 200mm mosaic band, and then the infill tiles are a creamy colour they will be laid in the center area but they will be laid on the angle, so by the mosaic, there will all be cut "Triangles", Iam glad Iam not laying that out

[TigerUK]

No expert here. I'm doing my kitchen and the criteria I used was to make sure I didn't have tiny bits in the ends.

It's the kitchen floor that has access to the garden. I wanted full tiles on the garden doorway.00 Anything small would come off from the repeated pressure on the edge.

I purposely didn't go for centre on the tangential sides. The kitchen is a big square and has a big table in it and you cant see both of these edges anyway. I chose the layout for least cutting, since tiles tuck under the skirting on the kitchen units I could get full tiles on one side