Cergamics Custom Art Tiles
Custom Designed Decorative Ceramic Bas Relief Artisan Tiles , Tile Panels and Tile Murals
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Cergamics Custom Art Tiles
Custom Designed Decorative Ceramic Bas Relief Artisan Tiles , Tile Panels and Tile Murals |
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Hand-Made
Ceramic Tile Installation Tips
We would like to share some tips and tricks on the installation of hand-made tiles. Hand-made tiles are somewhat more challenging to the installer then conventionally manufactured machine made tiles. Issues of flatness and uniformity of shape preclude the use of spacers and require more adaptable adhesive leveling techniques. ·
Almost all hand-made tiles have warping or
distortion characteristics due to high content of water in clays used for hand
pressed tiles. The most common
warping in tiles almost always occurs unidirectional.
This means the warps in one direction.
The importance of this to the installer is to sight each tile to
ascertain the direction of the warp and keep the direction of the warp
consistent, either left to right or up to down.
As this technique will aid the installer in maintaining a more uniform
edge alignment of tiles. ·
To help the installer to maintain level surfaces,
relying on the leveling properties of adhesives also helps the installer to
maintain a level surface. After
dressing the wall with an initial coat of adhesive, buttering each corner and
the middle of the tile with an additional dab of adhesive will allow the
installer to level the tile to it’s optimum position to it’s neighbor.
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Because some tiles will be slightly out of square,
spacers are not useful. This
necessitates slight variations in the grout line. Hand-made tiles usually have healthy grout lines but the
width of the grout line is dependent upon the customer’s aesthetic preference.
We suggest functionally, you don’t go below and ⅛” or above a
¼” and always use a sanded grout. ·
For adhesives that have less initial grip, the use
of wedge spacers (not cross spacers) or an assortment of different sized
finish nails helps to hold the tile in place until the adhesive begins to cure.
The inconsistencies in size and sometimes color of hand-made tile, is ultimately what gives it its warmth, style and sophistication. These qualities also make the installation more difficult and more time consuming. The installer’s appreciation of these qualities will go a long way to alleviating some of the frustration and challenges of installing this type of material. |
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