tile spacer law

[Deleted member 1779]

I've seen tiles fitted WITH NO SPACES before.

Mainly in hotel rooms and in my mates villa in spain. They just butt them together!

its nice to see a bit of grout though!

 

[FreeD]

looks like the whole of the London underground is going to have to be redone then 1mm max on them.

 

[hillhead]

i tiled a beautiful polished marble bathroom a few months ago and used 1mm spacers,never again!!!!:yikes:

 

[mistral]

i tiled a beautiful polished marble bathroom a few months ago and used 1mm spacers,never again!!!!:yikes:

A tile shop I used to do work for was obsessed with small grout joints and was always specifying 1mm on walls and 2mm on floors. He even tried to go down to 1mm on floors!!!! Seemed not to understand that not all tiles are the same size..........

 

[hillhead]

A tile shop I used to do work for was obsessed with small grout joints and was always specifying 1mm on walls and 2mm on floors. He even tried to go down to 1mm on floors!!!! Seemed not to understand that not all tiles are the same size..........

that bathroom i done i had the floor and walls with 1mm joints.looked like glass the floor in particular but the walls had a small chamfer around edges but i filled the grout nicely out to the face.

 

[mistral]

that bathroom i done i had the floor and walls with 1mm joints.looked like glass the floor in particular but the walls had a small chamfer around edges but i filled the grout nicely out to the face.

Agreed it looks great when finished....... but a bit of variation in tile size and it's a nightmare.

 

[Stan001]

And BS5385 also suggests that the tolerance for grouting gap below 6mm wide is plus and minus 1mm.
So for a …
2mm gap you can finish that off at 1mm to 3mm wide
and for a …
1mm gap you can finish that off at 0mm to 2mm wide
So there you go; today’s conspiracy theory is that the tile spacer manufacturers have bribed the British Standards guys to make 2mm the minimum because with a 1mm grout gap average allowance you actually don’t need a 1mm tile spacer – you could just butt them all up and officially ‘jobs a good’n’ – sweet!



…. I’ll get my coat.

 

[Fekin]

Personally I never go below 2mm for walls and 4mm for floors.

 

[poynton phil]

I laid some opus patterned porcelain on a floor last year, and it stated on the box, for the best result use a 2mm joint.

 

[smurf21]

Most of porcelanosa's stuff rec 1mm joints, we did some displays at their showrooms and everything had to be 1mm walls and floors 1.2m long tiles and 1mm joint:mad2: said thats fine on perfectly flat timber displays but they rec it to a customer on dodgy walls and you try telling that customer that to achieve that showroom finish with that tile and that joint they need a replaster or reboard at X amount of pounds and the job goes south,,,,,, imo spacer width within reason should be at the fixers discretion.

 

[brian c]

depends how well calibrated the tiles are aswell to what spacer i use,i tend to use 3mm for walls and floors,i did a job last week with rectified quartz tiles and the customer wanted 1mm joints but i advised that the floor would probably fail as it was a plywood floor and 1mm joints is a no no due to deflection,expansion and contraction etc....in the end she opted for 3mm....:smilewinkgrin: also told her i was deadly serious in that i wouldnt guarantee the floor.

 

[gizzy2007]

yeah it all depends on the tile some have chamfered edge which when you but it it gives you a 2mm space some have flat edges which you need to space

 

[tilestars]

what about the old johnsons tiles which where manufactured to be butt jointed, isnt there something in the british standard which says that 2mm is the standard unless the tiles have been manufactured for butt jointing ,i may be wrong, its a long time since i read the british standards

 

[DHTiling]

what about the old johnsons tiles which where manufactured to be butt jointed, isnt there something in the british standard which says that 2mm is the standard unless the tiles have been manufactured for butt jointing ,i may be wrong, its a long time since i read the british standards

British standards have changed since the days of butt jointing on lugged tiles.

Standards change to meet the way houses etc are built..and to cope with more demanding substrates.

 

[disco]

Well that kind of answered my question. Ive just come back from Vietnam where I stayed in some pretty nice hotels whilst stood in the shower I noticed that all of the tiles were butt jointed (as you do) and even though they had a slight chamfer they looked damn good Im thinking about trying it on one of my jobs Ill make sure the walls are pretty rigid and use a good flexible adhesive but if there is movement the first to go is the grouting Ive never seen tiles snap because of movement.