Large rectified tiles

[akist]

Hi guys,

I am thinking of installing large, porcelain, marble imitation, gloss floor tiles. I have three samples, 600x600, 1000x1000 and a large tile at 1200x1200. The large tiles are very heavy. I am also looking into other materials.

I want all the downstairs to be the same tile, with no breaks or threshold bars across rooms. That means that there will be straight lines of about 15m the longest.

How can a tiler achieve grout gaps of 1-2mm in straight lines of 10m or 16m, and manage to level everything so there is no sharp edges sticking up over a large area?

I just cannot imagine what equipment is needed to do this. And the large tiles are so heavy I imagine it will not be easy to adjust.

Many thanks

 

[cdbe]

They will prep the floor so it is within the required tolerance of "levelness", they will use the correct adhesive bed thickness - determined by the flatness of the floor and the tile and will probably use a "tile levelling system".

This is my tiny bathroom and first time using tile levellers and it's gone pretty well - basically they hook under the tiles and using a screw or wedge system, pull the edges of the tiles flush with the adjacent ones, I think the adhesive acts like chewing gum and stretches a bit to accommodate the movement.

 

[akist]

I have a few bedrooms to tile with plywood sheets on the floor (instead of floorboards). What is your subfloor? What materials did you use?

 

[cdbe]

I used 6mm cement boards, on original t&g floor boards, screwed and set in flexible tile adhesive. Plywood might be different. I would say, with no disrespect to any of the members here, that the tiling forum isn't that busy and there is a "tilers forum" elsewhere on the web that seems a bit busier and might be more helpful.

 

[mrrusty]

I think you'll need to pay top notch prices for a top notch installer. There's nowhere to hide with large format gloss tiles over a large area. Be very specific of the quality you expect, and be prepared to pay for a fair bit of preparation to get a sound level surface.

 

[akist]

You are right. I was in a kitchen showroom earlier today, they had very large gloss tiles on the floor, I could see many reflections, and I could see the tiles distorting the reflections, and there were breaks in the reflections from tile to tile. I thought you would need to have successive tiles on the same plane, within literally sub-mm accuracy, else you will see distortions and breaks etc on the reflections.