Which way to lay tiles?

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um
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Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 1:06 pm
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Which way to lay tiles?

Post by um »

As you may guess, it is in desperation that I turn to my forum friends here to ask which way to lay tiles.

I don't mean how to lay tiles as I can assure you that I'm certainly not going to attempt that.

We're having a shower room refit tomorrow (builder will be here at 8am) and I have 30cm by 50cm cream travertine effect (not real travertine :lol: but they look good) tiles. They'll go on the floor and the walls. I have some lovely beige/brown mosaic sheets with rectangular mosaic bits on (actually I don't, I'm just praying they'll arrive at the shop tomorrow morning) and was thinking of arranging these in a sort of narrow column down the middle of the shower and having them on the other side of the room laid horizontally above the half-height tiles near the sink and toilet.

Being rectangular, I now have to decide exactly how the main tiles will be laid. Our current white tiles are in a simple one-above-the-other formation like a child would make stacking blocks, and have sort of edged away from the wall (old house, bit of movement) leading to a steady stream of water down into the kitchen when someone showers, so I wonder if a 'brick' like formation may hold everything together stronger. Or maybe it will just make me feel dizzy....But I don't know whether to do this vertically or horizontally. I'm worried that laying them horizontally might make the room (which is small) feel smaller. And then I have to decide how to lay the tiles on the floor...

Anyway, your suggestions will be very gratefully received.
SleepyHead
Posts: 484
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:41 am

Re: Which way to lay tiles?

Post by SleepyHead »

hello Um

we recently had our bathroom done with walls and floor tiles the same colour (though hte finish is more speckled on the floor tiles). The tiler said to lay them so that the floor and wall direction was different. I think laying the tiles all horizontally on the wall and floor will give a slightly dizzying effect.

We didn't get any mosaic tiles fitted but were tempted. The mosaic tiles in a column in the shower cubicle sounds lovely - though I can't quite imagine how it would look as horizontal tiles above the sink and toilet. I would rather keep the mosaic either all horizontal or all vertical. Another idea we looked as was getting a small alcove fitted in the shower cubicle (for all our bath stuff) and getting the inside of the alcove tiled in mosaic. When the tiler told us his additional costs for doing this we binned the idea (but I think it would look quite smart)

Hope that helps
SleepyHead
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Re: Which way to lay tiles?

Post by um »

Thank you.

Just wondering if you laid your tiles all next to each other or in a more staggered/brick effect?

That's useful to know that it's ok to have the floor and wall tiles running in different directions. Our fitter seems fine (and did a lot of work on the house opposite us) but doesn't really speak much English so I can't see him giving much advice.

I've seen the alcove idea but I guess that would mean breaking through to my younger boys' bedroom! I always wondered how on earth they manage to knock out the wall :?:

Above the sink and toilet we're having a huge mirror fitted so I thought it would be good to have 3 lines of mosaic between the plain tiles and mirror...but I may be wrong :(

If only we had been taught bathroom and kitchen design at school; so much more useful than all those quadratic equations :lol:
Guest55
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Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: Which way to lay tiles?

Post by Guest55 »

so much more useful than all those quadratic equations
Naughty um! :shock:

Tesselation is mathematics as is tiling...

I'm a bit concerned to hear that the bathroom leaks - it shouldn't no matter how the tiles are aligned - sounds as if the wall and floor don't meet properly.
Samlet
Posts: 306
Joined: Thu Jul 14, 2011 10:18 am

Re: Which way to lay tiles?

Post by Samlet »

We just redid our bathroom with the large rectangular tiles and we had them in a horizontal brick pattern. It definitely didn't make the room look smaller, which I had worried about. It also had two positives, less grout = less places to leak our tiler said, plus the size of the tiles has strengthened what was definitely a wobbly internal wall.

So I'd go for it. Only problem is that I can't see how you have a vertical line of mosaic when you have brick pattern running horizontally.
Snowdrops
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Re: Which way to lay tiles?

Post by Snowdrops »

We have our walls half tiled all the way round the bathroom and full height in the shower. They are all the same colour. Where the half height walls meet the full height shower, the tiles were cut in half and then staggered within the shower area only, for two half tiles (making one full tile in all) and then it falls back to the pattern established previously.

Have I made sense, or confused you? Sorry!

Suffice to say, even if the tiles are the same colours, by staggering (for even a band of 2/3 tiles) it can be very effective.

Re the leaking. If the grout has failed this will cause seepage though the walls and to the room below. Our old shower grouting had failed (but it wasn't very obvious) and it seeped through. Our plumber reconstructed the wall with whatever it is they use these days - no probs :)
Image
um
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Re: Which way to lay tiles?

Post by um »

Thank you all :D

It is a small room, so the shower is immediately to the left of the window, which is quite large and long. The toilet and sink are on the wall opposite - to the right of the window. So no chance of 'staggering' the tiles as they'll go from being under the window to over the shower in one step, if you get what I mean. On the other side of the room, there is a door.

The issue with leakage is that the tiles were bending over due to old age (not easy to explain, but at least I got some personification in there :wink: ) and the grout had failed. So there is a small crack along the width of all the tiles, that water can get through. Once new tiles and grout are on, this should be fine.

Snowdrops, did you do the 'brick' layout or just straight layers of tiles?
SleepyHead
Posts: 484
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2012 10:41 am

Re: Which way to lay tiles?

Post by SleepyHead »

We just did tiles with grout lines lining up - not staggered. I think both would look good.

Re the mosaic - how about doing a mosaic border round the mirror?
stroudydad
Posts: 2246
Joined: Sat Oct 08, 2011 2:25 pm

Re: Which way to lay tiles?

Post by stroudydad »

My advice would be to not use A stretcher bond if you have movement, it will just crack the tiles, if you just place them with no bond it should just be the grout that cracks, and that is easily repairable.
um
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Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 1:06 pm
Location: Birmingham

Re: Which way to lay tiles?

Post by um »

I did think about putting mosaics around the whole mirror, but it is an old house and that wall is seriously wonky.
I am going to have to get the mirror cut so that the angles at the top are not exactly 90 degrees , in order to not look too lopsided against the ceiling. I thought that if I 'mosaiced' all the way round the mirror, the wonkiness could be accentuated...on the other hand it could look lovely. I'll never really know until I've done it!

Stroudy dad, the builder did ask for dunlop flexible grout and flexible tile adhesive, is that right?
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