grout gap/ porcelain tolerances

[dancn]

I'm about to buy and lay some porcelain 600X600.I like the look of the cut edge with a tight grout gap. I looked at some recently and and checked the the tile tolerance from the packaging +/+0.5mm.
So if these are rectified and a 1mm grout gap is required then grading of the tiles will be required right? (50m2)
Is achieving a good result going to a lot of pain, with such a tight grout gap( floor is flat)

 

[Martyn Leeds]

1mm grout line isn't gonna happen


In my opinion

 

[White Room]

BS states minimum 3mm for floors.....

 

[thompsonbrown]

I would also look at expansion joints on such a big floor

 

[cam_low]

are you a tiler or diy ?

 

[Sean SML Tiling]

I agree with whitebeam 3mm joint.

 

[AMA Tiling]

Yeah, 3mm but don't sone state that on the packaging. I've went to 2mm only to be caught out by the dimensional variations. Veiry few work out perfect at 2mm but I suppose that's why some of us do this for a living 🙂 I do meet clients and they have given a job elsewhere cos I've refused to butt them tight or even use 1mm spacing. They know best I suppose 😉

 

[Ajax123]

1mm grout gap is highly like to fail. Minimum 3mm but for 600 x 600 porcs I would go 4mm with 10mm expansion gap at edges.

 

[beanz]

I pretty much always go 2mm with rectified tiles. If they are cheap tiles with large variances, then I go to 3mm. I wouldn't dream of dropping to 1mm, as that leaves you absolutely no room to manoeuvre! And no expansion at all.

 

[charlie1]

Same as beans, rectified tiles of good quality then 2 mm on floors and walls if it's a small bathroom, this allows me to tie in the grout lines, larger floors and poor tiles I will go up to 5mm grout joints with 10 mm perimeter expansion.

 

[dancn]

perimeter expansion i can acheive 10mm , in places up to 25mm.
I have the time and space to grade the tile widths so I think this would be help.
2mm looking more realistic then.
My thinking was the whole tiled area as a slab would need movement, hence perimeter gaps, or metal joints.
So the theory behind the wider grout gap is that the grout gaps will compress/contract, is there a special grout that can cope with this.?
going for creamy tile/grey grout hence trying to minimise the gap.

 

[Rossymcg]

perimeter expansion i can acheive 10mm , in places up to 25mm.
I have the time and space to grade the tile widths so I think this would be help.
2mm looking more realistic then.
My thinking was the whole tiled area as a slab would need movement, hence perimeter gaps, or metal joints.
So the theory behind the wider grout gap is that the grout gaps will compress/contract, is there a special grout that can cope with this.?
going for creamy tile/grey grout hence trying to minimise the gap.

youre asking questions that would suggest you need to get someone in who knows what they're doing, you may end up with 50m2 of a mess,

 

[dancn]

youre asking questions that would suggest you need to get someone in who knows what they're doing, you may end up with 50m2 of a mess,

how does asking questions suggest I need to get someone in?

how would you tackle it?

 

[beanz]

What are you laying onto? Is it flat? Getting a good finish with rectified 600x600 tiles isn't easy tiling.

 

[Rossymcg]

how does asking questions suggest I need to get someone in?

how would you tackle it?

Answer to Q1) if you're asking questions with basic answers (ie 1mm grout lines on a floor) to me indicates you don't know what you're doing,
answer to Q2) very much dependant on other factors but off the cuff with out seeing the job, I'd self level it, but drift it in to the raised area in a very gradual slope also self leveling on top of the raised area so you don't get a platform to have to tile on to, but it doesn't end there with that because I'd then have to pick up and drop tiles using different thickness of addy beds, polished porcelain 2ftx2ft ain't the easiest of tiles to lay and you've increased the difficulty even further,

 

[dancn]

surface is laser leveled,semi dry laid, (with retarder) sand/cement screed, power floated, with glass fibres added during the mix.
I don't know how my technique sounds but in the past with regular floor cermaics I found laying the first 4 tiles is critical. I'd imagine porc would be easy to chip

 

[charlie1]

surface is laser leveled,semi dry laid, (with retarder) sand/cement screed, power floated, with glass fibres added during the mix.
I don't know how my technique sounds but in the past with regular floor cermaics I found laying the first 4 tiles is critical. I'd imagine porc would be easy to chip

Whenever im doing polished porcelain floor I mix only enough adhesive to do 1 or 2 tiles, the first tile you lay is very important as it not only dictates your lines but also the plane of the floor. I let this first tile set fully then I carry on. Yep, these tiles do chip very easily until grouted due to there weak edge. I don't know how experienced you are but going any less than a 3 mm joint over 50m floor would be a stress but I wish you luck!

 

[WetSaw]

First of all can I just say that I'm not a tiler and I live in Spain so things are a bit different here...
I do all of the maintenance on this housewww.mijasluxuryvilla.com As you can see it has polished porcs throughout. Gaps are much less than 3mm. Seems to be common here to lay them with minimum grout gaps.
One of the many levelling systems available may also help you, although they do seem to divide opinions amongst the professionals.




http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OWtILNc5qVc#