Donalson on tue 1 apr 03
Linda is correct.. There are no building codes when it comes to =
ceramic tile, to be used on the floor. The tile store people are simply =
covering their respective arse, and discouraging any future competition. =
There may however, be some issue of liability, down the line if your =
product happens to crack or chip. You may have a problem finding a =
contractor to install your tile, at least until he/she is sure of the =
dimensional conformity of your handmade tile. Tile installers move =
fast... and are well paid...tile that are not truly square can really =
slow em down. That is likely the source of their reticense to install.
=20
In over twenty years of residential construction in California and =
New Mexico, I have seen many problems associated with tile floors.. =
Most often these problems were a direct result of installing tile over a =
wooden subfloor, that was underpinned with dimensional lumber joisting. =
Wood has a tendency to move, for years sometimes, and this expansion and =
contraction can actually cause till to crack. One solution that a tile =
contractor friend of mine came up with was to install perforated, =
tempered, masonite (pegboard) on top of the wood subfloor, before =
installing the tile. Never did have a problem when this procedure was =
followed.=20
=20
If your install is on a concrete slab, you must pay close attention =
to any cracks that appear in the slab. There are fiberglass roll =
products that you can apply over the cracks before the tile go down. =
Left unattended, a crack in the slab will eventually lead to a cracked =
tile, or a series of cracked tile.
Grouting can also crack frequently. There are a number of grout =
additives that you can add in the wet state that will give the grout =
some ability to move slightly...without cracking. Well worth the extra =
few bucks.
Make at least 20% more tile than you have carefully figured you will =
use... you will likely need em all.
Good Luck,
Craig AZ
terry sullivan on tue 1 apr 03
Linda, Craig, and others are quite correct.
There are few, if any, codes on floor tiles installed residentialy, but
there are some when it aplies to use in a commercial building, and a few
municipalities have extended code requirements but these are very few
indeed and mostly on the no. east coast. There are also some
contractors that have their own opinions and rules.
One reason most contractors don't want to do a custom tile job was
listed by Craig Donalson: namely it will most likely take more time and
require a custom fit. Most contractors are trained to use machine made
tile in non artistic standard application. Some are a bit leary of doing
such custom work and don't know how to bid such jobs. So they just say
no or give some BS answer to get out of dealing with it.
And tile store personel; gahhh !@##*! Usually only the store owner
knows much about actual tile setting and the regular staff don't know
shit. I mean lets face it; the sales person is making $ 7-10 / hr. A
tile setter makes three to five times that at least. My expirience is
that even most journeyman tile setters often have limited knowledge of
tile and materials. Heck, Linda Blossom, who is mostly self taught,
knows more about some pretty advanced tile setting techniques, than most
tile setters.
In fact she's got one or two methods she's developed herself ( who would
ever thought of screwing custom made tile to a bathroom cieling so it
could easily be removed for pipe access).
The use of a tile for flooring is basicly whatever you want. However;
one should use lots of practical common sense or the choise will be a
bad, and sometimes dissastrous, one. Issues like tile body, thickness,
glaze hardness and gloss (slippery ), freeze / thaw factors, expected
traffic and load, as well as substrate.
Misty, and anyone else on the list, if you want to discuss a particular
tile and / or setting situation I'll be glad to help you privately off
list. There are just to many factors to answer a general question
effectively.
Terry Sullivan
Director and Chief Gofer
Nottingham Arts
www.nottinghamarts.org
who in a previous life was a licenced ceramic tile contractor (C-54) in
southern california and owned Laguna Mission Tile co. We were the
largest ceramic floor tile installer in Orange county for many years (
that's like many 100,000's of square feet per year of every type of
tile). Also a graduate of the Ceramic Tile Institute. So I know a few
things about this stuff.
Arnold Howard on tue 1 apr 03
How fast can a skilled person lay tile? I am laying about 800 square
feet of tile in my house. The most time-consuming part, for me, is to
clean off the mortar from the tile edges before it dries and to scrape
out the mortar from between the tiles. That takes more time than laying
the tile itself. I have not yet reached the grouting stage.
Thanks,
Arnold Howard
Paragon Industries, L.P.
www.paragonweb.com
From: Donalson
You may have a problem finding a contractor to install your tile, at
least until he/she is sure of the dimensional conformity of your
handmade tile. Tile installers move fast... and are well paid...tile
that are not truly square can really slow em down. That is likely the
source of their reticense to install.
Craig AZ
John Jensen on tue 1 apr 03
Sounds like a lot of tile. I laid about 100 square feet a few years
back. As I recall it took better part of a day for each 5 x 10 area,
including cleaning up the joints. I had a tile saw. These were mixes
size tiles including 6 inch 6x12 and 12x12. Being down on you knees and
paying such attention to minute angles and little globs of mortar is
pretty exhausting, as you must know by now. Grouting was a little less
demanding, but I found that by the six or seventh time of wiping the
whole area down with clean water, I was pretty tired of the whole
business.
Lois Ruben Aronow on tue 1 apr 03
On Tue, 1 Apr 2003 15:33:30 -0600, you wrote:
>How fast can a skilled person lay tile? I am laying about 800 square
>feet of tile in my house. The most time-consuming part, for me, is to
>clean off the mortar from the tile edges before it dries and to scrape
>out the mortar from between the tiles. That takes more time than laying
>the tile itself. I have not yet reached the grouting stage.
>
Cleaning off the grout haze from the tile is a time consuming chore.
--------------------------------------------Updated with Spring Juried =
Show and Sale news!
http://www.loisaronow.com=20
Stephani Stephenson on tue 1 apr 03
There may be confusion regarding 'code' versus 'specs' on this tile
issue.
Sometimes a particular project may have 'specs' written in for the type
of tile to be used.
Usually this will be for flooring to be used in commercial or public
spaces or
in government contracts/jobs.
The 'specs' will specify what grade of tile is to be used and the
standards it must meet.'
You will be made aware of the specs when you bid the job
you can have your tile tested, if you decide to go for these types of
jobs.
Specs work to protect the contractor , the purchaser and actually , the
manufacturer/ tilemaker as well, for these types of projects.
Everyone knows that the tile passes certain tests and is equal to the
job, especially in high traffic situations
for a vast , vast majority of jobs , tiles aren't 'spec'd' in this way,
so it isn't an issue.
TCA and CTI are resources for info and testing:
Resources:
Tile Council of America: http://www.tileusa.com
Ceramic Tile Institute: http://www.thetiledoctor.com/ctioa/index2.cfm
Stephani Stephenson
steph@alchemiestudio.com
http://www.alchemiestudio.com
Janet Kaiser on wed 2 apr 03
We can relate to that:
>tile that are not truly square can really slow em down. That
>is likely the source of their reticense to install.
With several hundred tiles already down and a few thousand still to go, it
is the variations in size and shape which are the real problem. We now have
to see whether the next few rows are going to have very large gaps between
the individuals tiles or if we should make some 4 x 5 inch (10 x 13 cm)
tiles to make the rows straight again.
Either way it will probably look ugly and/or "unskilled" and a botched job
somewhere or other... All due to the tiles not being a uniform size. Those
who say that it does not matter have no idea... When tiles are irregular
and uneven they look really bad. No way would a professional tiler touch a
project like this! It would spoil his/her reputation for ever.
Sincerely
Janet Kaiser
**********************************************************************
TRUTH is too precious to tell every fool who asks for it...
****** This post was sent to you today by Janet Kaiser *******
The Chapel of Art / Capel Celfyddyd
8 Marine Crescent, Criccieth LL52 0EA, Wales, UK
Tel: ++44 (01766) 523570 URL: http://www.the-coa.org.uk
**********************************************************************
| |
|
