Water, oil, grease, built up grime etc. create slippery conditions. Floor applications with these conditions require extra caution in product selection.
Latex Modified thin-set is recommended for all Porcelain Tile, either Thru-Body-Color or Glazed.
Strong random shading enhances the natural beauty of many tile products. To achieve optimal results when using products with random shading, tiles should be selected from multiple cartons and shading arrangement planned before installation.
For Thru-Body-Color Porcelain Tiles, special care should be taken when grouting with dark pigment colors. A Grout Release is recommended to prevent the finely powdered pigments in grout from lodging in the pores on the tile’s surface.
Any rectified (true-edge) series of tiles with rectangular sizes, should use a 3/16” grout joint when used in an off-set or brick-joint pattern.
Pre-grout sealing is recommended when installing all Natural Stone and Natural Stone Decorative Accents. This helps prevent the grout from staining the stone during the grouting process and to ease in grout clean-up. After installation, sealing of the Stone will reduce porosity and increase stain resistance. Use a penetrating sealer before applying any ‘surface’ sealer, be it a glossy or a matte surface finish that is desired.
Overage, yes you need it. Almost all tile installations demand some cutting of tiles to complete the installation, this usually requires that a percentage of extra tile needs to be on hand for the installers.
It is surprisingly common for ceramics to become damaged or broken during shipping, cutting, and/or the installation procedure, some overage will keep your project on schedule and save you time.
A basic guideline is 10% more than the total square footage required to actually cover the intended surface area. Another important consideration is the size of tile being installed, overage perhaps as low as 2-3% for some mosaics and as high as 20% for larger formats such as 12”x 24” and larger.
Repairs that may arise (particularly in shower stalls and bathtub surrounds) will be easily accommodated with some overage from the original factory batch run. Special consideration should be given to any possible changes you or the next owners of the property may decide to do, especially where floor mounted cabinets are used.