Working With Stone
As stone has become more popular and specialist stone fixers are few and far between tilers take on a proportion of their work.
Most stone work such as sealing and maintenance can be researched but on the odd occasion tilers come up against practices they are not trained for. One of these practices is the finishing of external corners and edges.
In general corners and edges that tilers come across in the work place can be finished with a metal or plastic profile, on stone this isn’t always the best finish. Natural stone does not combine well with manmade materials and profiles are not made to accommodate stone tile thickness are just a couple of reasons why edges and corners may need some extra skills.
Traditionally where stone tiles meet at an external corner the edges are polished and fixed to produce a quirk , butt-up or masons mitre. Shaping after fixing to a half bull nose, or eased mitre are more recent options. In today’s workplace a half bull nose or eased mitre would be applied to travertine as this stone is soft and easy to shape, with marble or granite a quirk mitre, eased mitre or butt-up would be used. During the cutting of stone chipping of the edges often occurs, combine this with the dangers of
sharp edges and you see why full mitres are to be avoided.
Tile edge polishing
The word "marble" is colloquially used to refer to many stones that are capable of taking a high polish. When you polish something you are replacing scratches with finer scratches to the point where they are no longer visible.A polished or honed stone tile will often have a dull non descript edge which needs to be worked before a quirk mitre can be used.
To polish an edge the following tools would be required:
ØElectric hand grinder up to 2700 rpm
ØAbrasive disc backing pad
ØAbrasive discs at 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 3000 grits
ØBuffing compound
ØFelt wheel
Using a work mate (a piece of inner tube one either side)clamp the tile so you are looking down on the edge to be polished and have a practice with your grits. Only you will see the results of each grit and be able to judge which ones you will or won’t need. Each stone is different so go easy until you have a process giving the finish you require then final polish using the buffing compound and felt disk. Polishing stone is like riding a bike a course can show you but you must educate yourself………..you have to feel it
and work with it………………….then you never forget.
The Quirk Mitre
The cutter is set to mitre the tile at 90 degrees. Lay the tile face down on your wet cutter using a pad to prevent scratching.
Draw the cutter towards you until it touches the tile and will cut to the corner. You are not cutting a full mitre so ease the tile away from the blade until it is cutting to 3 or 4mm from the corner, lock the guide.
The tiles are fitted together using a grout or resin filler to match the tiles.
The Masons Mitre
The masons mitre is created by notching one tile as per the diagram this joint is slightly more difficult as it requires cutting in 2 directions.
The result of the masons mitre will be visually the same as the quirk mitre but is a stronger joint
Butt Up Joint
The butt up joint is a simple joint leaving one polished edge visible. The visible edge should be made away from line of sight or internal as it is framed with grout. Resin or grout filler matching the stone can make this a nice clean joint.
The one failing of the butt-up joint is its sharp and sometimes dangerous edge. To avoid this edge the joint can be eased as below.
Eased Corner Joints
By easing a joint you are taking the edge back up to 2.5mm creating a blunt flat edge.
The ease is easiest to work on travertine because of its structure it can’t be polished without filling. Take off the sharp edge with a medium grit before grouting the new edge. When dry sand with a fine grit until smooth. A little colour intensifier will finish the ease nicely.
Half Bullnose
Seen here the half bullnose (isn’t quite) is the rounding off of the external edge letting the stone flow nicely.
This finish works an absolute treat on tumbled marble as you are not working with a polished surface. Rounding corners at window reveals in kitchens is straightforward and adds a touch of class and reflects well on the tiler.
All in all joints and edges in stone are not difficult but do take time to learn. Once you have your grits right then it becomes easy and you add a new skill to your trade. Don’t be put off by silly prices being charged for polishers it’s not about the tool there are low priced hand grinder s to be had and given the little use they get a heavy spend is not required.
