making up a mosaic for a door threshold

[Alan M]

hi there.

i will be putting down a floor in a few weeks . there are mosaics across the thresholds. they are 1" squares and 2 rows. iv tried 15-20 tile shops and cant find anything close . is has creams ,blacks,off whites,and teracotta type coloured stone.
the shop that they were got in closed 3 years ago so there is very little chance of finding them.
i got a few tiles . some kind of stone. they are 3" ish square.
could i cut them up with my grinder and smooth the edges and knock off the sharp edges.
would i need to stick them to some kind of backing , if so what.

do you think this would work . any advice please

thanks in advance

 

[kilty55]

sorry alan is this to match up with exisiting tiling?

 

[Alan M]

sorry . its a new threshold but about 4-5 foot away , so it will be seen at the same time

 

[kilty55]

ok mate,maybe a pic would help some of the guys advise where you could get similar...i know phil hobson and macten did a job recently where they sourced and cut the tiles down

 

[Alan M]

will do.
they were bought in a 12" square sheet and cut into 2 square wide stips. i have tiles that will match the colour needed. they are solid stone.

 

[user123]

If I get this right you have some ready cut tiles for the mosaic part but not enough? If yes, how about making a kind of doormat design, with the mosaic tiles you have around larger tiles, or get some matching glass mosaics to feature in the middle? Or in alternate stripes? The possibilities, as ever with mosaics, are endless ..

 

[Musivarius]

If you get the stone you want and want to smooth off the edges, if you've got a cement mixer just chuck them in there with a bit of silver/kiln dried sand and give them a couple of hours and they'll be sorted. Just don't use sharp sand or it will colour the lighter ones.

 

[Alan M]

my camera isnt working right for some reason . il use my other one tomorrow.
iv got 3" square tiles that i want to cut into 9 smaller 1" pieces. i will sand or rub with a diamond stone off the sharp edges. .i dont want to loose th esquare edges thow
what do you think i should stick them to.

 

[Musivarius]

If you want to set them onto a mesh to hold them together then www.mymosaicworkshops.co.uk have mosaic mesh (Mapanet) at about £4.50/sqm. It won't add to the height and is Mapei so good stuff.

 

[Alan M]

what would you use the stick the mosaic to the mesh. that site sugests tightbond 2 but thats a pva based adhesive and isnt waterproof. id be thinking more along the lines of gorrila glue. thats waterproof and will stick to anything. if i put them upside down on a board with a spacer between them and a little blob of PU glue.
what do you think

 

[Musivarius]

Yeees, I did wonder, I was just looking it up. That's why I keep on sites like this.
They are good at their work but I still think the issue of PVA hasn't spread to most of the mosaic world. I imagine Gorilla glue's fine. I asked the tech dept. at Bostik and they recomended 'Serious Stuff' (I said it was for an exterior mosaic). I have used CT1 but it's a bit pricey at £10.00 a cartridge.

Doing them in reverse how you've said sounds perfect, it's a pain using a caulking gun but that sounds like the ideal solution. When I've used the CT1 for my stuff (10mm x 10mm x 4mm) I would just squeeze some out onto an old tile and then use a small spreader stick.