Butting up

[fish]

Hi

I have to lay a honed travertine tile floor using 405mm x 405mm x 12mm tiles however the client would prefer not to have them grouted. Is it possible to butt them up instead? the tiles seem reasonably even.

ta

 

[DHTiling]

Any reason why the customer doesn't want grout.?..

There will still be some gaps even if small that liquids will get down etc ..

and welcome to the forums......

 

[grumpygrouter]

Hi

I have to lay a honed travertine tile floor using 405mm x 405mm x 12mm tiles however the client would prefer not to have them grouted. Is it possible to butt them up instead? the tiles seem reasonably even.

ta

I wouldn't be happy doing it.

Grumpy

 

[fish]

They don't want dirty grout in the future! They have friends with another very old property and their entire downstairs has limestone flooring and because it's so old it obviously isn't grouted.

 

[DHTiling]

Use an epoxy grout then no probs with dirt.....use one as near a colour to the stone as possible then it will blend in....i personally wouldn't leave exposed joints/gaps in any flooring.......this will just be a dirt trap.....So i would use a small joint 2mm and epoxy it.....

 

[fish]

I guess a 2mm grout line isn't much in a 405mm tile run if i can persuade them that it will still look good and be maintenance free-ish. Difficult when they have seen no grout appearing to work fine though.

Cheers

 

[enduro]

Tell them if they were not so dirty it will be fine, and the jobs yours...people like honest tilers :lol:

 

[DHTiling]

I can only advise on what i would do....there are jobs i have seen with tight tiling but these tend to be terrazzo type jobs but still have some sort of slurry grout then ground and honed finished....
i always advise a joint of some kind for movement/stress related problems...in my opinion tightly butted floors will expand and then start to tent up at some point causing them to de-bond.......but each to there own mate...if that's what the customer wants then so be it....lol lol....but make sure you explain the pitfalls of butt jointing..

 

[wetdec]

You must grout it no matter how close together you fix them. When trav is filled in the factory a number of pores and holes get missed due to air or water being in them when the filler is applied. Quite often these cant be seen but they are there and when the floor is washed a few times these pores get black and make the floor look dirty. Mapei have become the stone fixers choice because their ultracolour Jasmine is a good colour and so fine it will fill the majority of these holes. There is a little more to this but this should be enough to swing it with your punter. 3mm minimum in 15yrs I never saw a perfectly square piece

Good luck

 

[fish]

Thanks for the info - I think they can have grout or somebody else do the job, all things considered, trying to butt up modern honed travertine doesnt seem like a good idea.

Cheers