Large or small ?

[silverbullit]

Greetings to all at the tiling forum.

I have got some tiling issues for a small toilet and a bathroom which me and my partner are going to have refurbished with new bath and shower and toilet etc , it is going to be slightly different than we currently have it as we are going for a wider and slightly longer bath unit and enclosed flush system and all of this we wish to have tiled all around to match the walls. We have selected some tiles that we like and i am being led to believe that the tiles we have selected are going to be a pain to fit as they are 300mm x 900mm and they are ceramic. This was not our first choice of tile as we originally chose travertine tiles and there was also going to be a problem fitting them so we changed our initial choice to ceramic for the wall and porcelain for the floor.

The problem now is that the builder is insisting that the walls have to be absolutely dead flat to the point that he will have a plasterer in to do the job and it will take two days to complete just the plastering , the size of the bathroom is about ten feet by six feet , the small toilet is aboit six feet by about four feet.

Today i have run one of the big tiles over the wall to check its trueness and there is only a maximum of 1mm difference in the flatness of the wall at worst , another problem i am being told is that as the ties are so long he wont be able to fit more than 3 rows at a time as they will be heavy and he would have to use floor tile adhesive ,but if i was to go with small traditional size tiles he could lay them all at once , this puzzles me as i bet there is not much in the overall difference in weight of all the tiles needed to finish the job.

Finally the chap has said that he would be happier if we was to have smaller tiles for him to fit !!! .

Can anyone shed any light on laying large tiles as opposed to smaller ones and also let us what the normal general rules are for what we are about to undertake , we have a budget for this and i can see that the budget is going to be long gone by the time the builder finshes his replica of a bathroom from Buckingham palace !

Finally , we would like to hear from anyone in the Pulborough area who may be able to give us a quote for undertaking the job and giving us an estimate for it.

Please dont think i am being negative but i just want a fair crack of the whip so i think some other estimates would be a good idea so anyone know anyone out there who can help?.

Best regards.

silverbullit

 

[Deleted member 9966]

hi silverbullit

300x900 tiles are rather large and you will need a cement based powdered adhesive to fix them with. is your builder doing the tiling? if so, he will be unwise to plaster the walls first because plastered walls only take around 20kg per square metre of weight, and you need to consider the weight of each tile, plus adhesive, plus grout.... go over the 20kg psm rule and you might be into the realms of "accident waiting to happen"... just imagine if you're sitting in the bath when one comes away from the wall.

my advice is to get a professional tiler in to quote for you. if you post a new job in our I'm looking for a wall and floor tiler Forum, our members will contact you directly.

:welcome:, you've come to the right place for tiling advice.

GRR

 

[silverbullit]

Thank you for the quick reply. I am not entirely sure about who will do the tiling as he initially indicated that he would have another specialist in to do the Travertine tiles , i could be mistaken but he may be looking to get the same guy in for the latest tile selection.

I will follow your suggestion and post another thread in the floor tiler forum and see how that goes , but once again, many thanks for the information.

 

[CJ CERAMICS]

hi silverbuilt,
as grr says the weight of the tiles would be a real issue for me.
are the walls studded or dabbed onto brick?
if they are studded plasterboard i would want to remove the plasterboard and replace with cement boards firmly secured with extra noggins to ensure no movement.
no way would i tile such large tiles onto plaster.
this is my opinion and tilers with more experience of large tiles may give a different opinion but i would not take the risk.
chris

 

[silverbullit]

hi silverbuilt,
as grr says the weight of the tiles would be a real issue for me.
are the walls studded or dabbed onto brick?
if they are studded plasterboard i would want to remove the plasterboard and replace with cement boards firmly secured with extra noggins to ensure no movement.
no way would i tile such large tiles onto plaster.
this is my opinion and tilers with more experience of large tiles may give a different opinion but i would not take the risk.
chris

Hi Chris.

The walls are rock solid as its a bungalow that was built in the sixties , there is no plasterboard anywhere in the whole house as far as i can tell , the bathroom walls are very solid as is the small toilet and as for whats currently under the tiles i can only asume that its traditional old school materials and methods of construction.

I wonder if i can ask what the difference in weight per square meter would be if the whole wall was tiled with smaller tiles of the same thickness but to the same square meterage as the big ones would be covering, would the weight would be the same as its covering the same area ? .

I will be asking for someone to come over to our place in the West sussex area to maybe give us a quote as i wish to be sure i am doing this job safely and cost effectively at the same time, i will ask that request from the tiling forume in a little while as i am in work at the moment and juggling jobs a bit.

Many thanks

silverbullit

 

[Tomtiler]

hey i have done lots of bathrooms with those sized tiles usually get them from porcelanosa and i must say havnt had any problems only thing is the awkward to use and that if the walls arnt flat u can just hand fix ive had no problem completing a bathroom in one day so the whole thing about doing three rows is complete crap

only thing i can think of is thats he trying to change ur mind to smaller tiles to make his job easier rather than respecting the clients decision and doing the job they want

 

[DHTiling]

Hello and welcome...if those are your tiles of choice then get someone who can fix them......Travertine would have been nice as well...The importance is the wall prep..once that is ok for the tiles in question then jobs a goodn.

 

[silverbullit]

Hello and welcome...if those are your tiles of choice then get someone who can fix them......Travertine would have been nice as well...The importance is the wall prep..once that is ok for the tiles in question then jobs a goodn.

Hi chaps.

the last two replies were spot on i think , i was getting the feeling that the builder was putting wet blankets on every stage that we had thought out , and to be totally honest i know its not about what he would be happy to fit , its what we want up on that wall. He was keen to tell us he is not the cheapest but he is the best and he takes his time , he reconed on about three weeks to do our two rooms..one bathroom and a toilet.

I could see this being an uneccasary money pit with us being cleaned out if we are not careful.. dont get me wrong , i am not looking to do this on a tight budget but there is not that much cash about to scatter about without a thought , i want a good job done but i dont want someone who commands rates that would not be out of place for a job in Buckingham palace as the way things were going the plastering job he wants to do would have been 100 straight in all directions with zero tollerance for unevenness , i could understand that requirement if the tile was diamond buffed to a mirror reflection but as i explained to him... they are not mirror finished but spray finished from a gun so the surface is not that reflective in finish.

I have posted a request on the tile forum under new job to see if there is anyone who can give us a quote for the job in our area.

Thanks to you all for the support and advice , see you on the tile forum.

Many thanks.

silverbullit.

 

[CON5933]

Hi silverbuilt:welcome:
You're in good hands here,

 

[brian c]

:welcome: and good luck.

 

[beanz]

900mm ceramics would be a bit of a concern for me, unless they are porcelain, as i'd imagine they would be pretty bowed. I agree with the others though, no reason that a decent tiler couldn't fit them!?!
Travertine would look nice, but is more expensive to fix, so it's really just down to what you want to spend.
3 weeks sounds reasonable, but hard to say without knowing all the job entails. These projects always take a little longer than you think they will, so take finish times with a pinch of salt.

 

[White Room]

Hi and welcome

 

[foxman]

I say change your builder, you dont need to skim whats the point waste of money your tiling over anyway , my choice would be to reboard the room in hardibacker so you can hang approx 45 kg psm if the tiles are a large format i would back skim the back of the tile as well.There are some very good tilers on this forum who will be able to help you out good luck. Mick.

 

[bassman]

:welcome: To the forum :guitarist: