Quartz stone wall tiling

[accord24]

Am going to be asked to half tile some Health Club changing rooms using quartz stone tiles, Not used these before, but have heard that they can be a bit of a nightmare. Before I agree to do the job can anybody give me some advice on 1, Adhesive (I was thinking 2 part ) 2, Cutting. I use a water cooled saw for ceramic etc tiles will I need another blade ? 3, Tiles are going onto a solid wall which has been Emulsion painted , What prep would you recommend ? 4, To seal or not to seal . Don't know what make of tile but knowing the company they will go for budget if poss.

 

[DHTiling]

These are very basic tiling questions , are you a tiler by trade ?


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[accord24]

No im not a tiler by trade just looking for advice

 

[Saltire69]

lol dont do it

 

[Time's Ran Out]

There are too many issues in your question to be able to provide a responsible reply. Stone tiles, emulsion walls and lack of knowledge are courting disaster. This work requires a specialist but if the budget is tight I'd be recommending they go for BQ bumpy white and tubbed adhesive.

 

[Martyn Leeds]

If you're not a tiler, why are they 'asking' you to do the tiling?? and no doubt you've told them its not your trade and that you've declined the job and told them to get a tiler to do the tiling? or is that a bit odd.

 

[accord24]

Because I have done my own tiling at home and this is known to the owner of the health club. He will ask if I can do this tiling (He knows Im not a tiler) Because there is a difference between tiling my own Bathroom/Kitchen and taking this on I thought I could get an opinion on the difficulty. I had more or less decided before I asked on this Forum that if I am asked I will tell him to get someone in. Still I would have appreciated some reasons as to how difficult these tiles are to fit, instead all I seemed to get was don't do it or if your not a tiler why are you being asked at all. Anyway my fault I understood this forum was for amatuers and trade alike .

 

[andy8758]

Because I have done my own tiling at home and this is known to the owner of the health club. He will ask if I can do this tiling (He knows Im not a tiler) Because there is a difference between tiling my own Bathroom/Kitchen and taking this on I thought I could get an opinion on the difficulty. I had more or less decided before I asked on this Forum that if I am asked I will tell him to get someone in. Still I would have appreciated some reasons as to how difficult these tiles are to fit, instead all I seemed to get was don't do it or if your not a tiler why are you being asked at all. Anyway my fault I understood this forum was for amatuers and trade alike .

Hi Accord. I will answer your original questions: 1 - white rapid set flexible adhesive is generally best for natural stone. 2 - best cutter for any natural stone is overhead wet cutting electrical tile cutter with good quality diamond blade. 3 - check fastness of wall surface - you may need to remove paint/plaster or more - best solution is probably to over board with tile backer boards screwed into solid sub strata and waterproof is in a wet area - least prep will be a good tiling primer (acrylic or SBR) 4 - natural stone always benefits from sealing - there are a number of companies producing sealers - we all have our favourite.
Which brings us to point of this forum. Providing good quality advice to amateur tilers (doing your own home tiling) is readily given - even if the person wants to undertake more specialised jobs (e.g. wet room installation, under floor heating installation). There are genuine concerns by many full time specialist tilers that some trade tiling work is being under taken by people with little or no understanding of the issues that must be considered and dealt with when offering paid services for tiling. That can either be odd job men offering to take on tiling work beyond their skill level (e.g. natural stone tile installations on walls) or other tradesmen (or women) who subscribe to the view "anyone can tile its so easy" (classic comments from Nick Knowles types) and offer to undertake any tiling work without the knowledge and skill base. We are not the only trade that discourage people from taking on that work. Frankly installing granite is not much more difficult than installing simple ceramics - but the is much more preparation and finishing work required and a sound knowledge of the issues and experience in doing the work is highly recommended as well as requiring specialised tools and equipment to get a good finish. That explains why you have been challenged about asking these questions - we suspect you are about to quote to complete work that you will be unable to complete to an acceptable standard, and one of us may be called upon to rectify the problems your work has caused and it creates a bad impression of the tiling trade. As someone above said "don't do it."

 

[accord24]

Thanks Andy, Still not going to take it on . You have given the only civil reply. For the record I was not expected to quote a price, but as I am not doing the job they will get someone else probably not a professional either. Some people will always try to get jobs done cheaply and be prepared to accept a less than perfect job. Thanks again for your reply still not sure these forums want to help people who want advice and are not in the trade.

 

[Ian]

Thanks Andy, Still not going to take it on . You have given the only civil reply. For the record I was not expected to quote a price, but as I am not doing the job they will get someone else probably not a professional either. Some people will always try to get jobs done cheaply and be prepared to accept a less than perfect job. Thanks again for your reply still not sure these forums want to help people who want advice and are not in the trade.

It's not that the forum members don't want to help (there is an answer for most tiling questions if you use the search function), it's just that there seems to have been an influx of have a go tilers in recent years, probably a result of the recession, all the pro tilers on here are trying to do is protect our trade from being damaged further. We see at least one job posted on here per week where someone has taken on a job that is above their skill set and have either wasted the customers money or, even worse, left them with a dangerous piece of work that could fall down at any time, causing untold damage and even death. It's one thing asking a question or two about a job on a forum but, if you need to be told how to do it from start to finish and what materials you should be using, I think it's safe to say you shouldn't be doing said job.

 

[Stef]

Simple question,
Would you go on a plumbing forum & ask how to fit a boiler?

People on here want to protect our trade & are sick to the back teeth of people coming on here & asking how jobs are done!!
I'm sorry if you feel this response is harsh but we tradesman on here have spent years & years perfecting our trade.
You can't just come along & ask how to do a job start to finish.
Members on here help out the public day in day out.

 

[Tony73]

Am going to be asked to half tile some Health Club changing rooms using quartz stone tiles, Not used these before, but have heard that they can be a bit of a nightmare. Before I agree to do the job can anybody give me some advice on 1, Adhesive (I was thinking 2 part ) 2, Cutting. I use a water cooled saw for ceramic etc tiles will I need another blade ? 3, Tiles are going onto a solid wall which has been Emulsion painted , What prep would you recommend ? 4, To seal or not to seal . Don't know what make of tile but knowing the company they will go for budget if poss.

one more coat of emulsion before you tile