Price/Tile Advice

[markocosic]

I have a big (50 square metres...) tiling job to do, in a garage. Satin white tiles that bounce the light (1.8kW of HF daylight flourescents...) around nicely and are easy to wash down.

Walls are breeze block with grey render but no plaster and pretty flat. Got lots to tile and virtually nothing to tile around (1 lightswitch) so thinking that bigger is better within price bounds!

Have read the basic giude at the top (and set mum off looking at wetrooms after discovering tanking...) and was thinking of using the following:

http://www.wallsandfloors.co.uk/product-details.php?tid=2841&t=Tile

http://www.wallsandfloors.co.uk/acc-details.php?aid=10&acid=5

http://www.wallsandfloors.co.uk/acc-details.php?aid=37&acid=5

Local tile prices are 3x the price by comparason. Has anybody used this place before/are they any good? Anything wrong with 'Blancos' tiles? Anybody else I should look that delivers?

Tools wise, are hand tile cutters any good, or whould I tile the easy bits, then hire a spunky electric job for the weekend to do the rest? All I'll be doing (except for the lightwsitch) is straight cuts to fit up against the ceiling/into wall corners.

http://www.wallsandfloors.co.uk/acccatdetails.php?acid=7

Else - spirit level, 6mm square trowel, sponges, decent bucket, some battens/masonary nails/hammer and good supply of tea?

 

[gcol]

I wouldn't bother tanking with tiles that size and on that type of wall - you'll have no problems.
Everything else sounds ok .... especially the tea.

 

[wap]

would probably use a bigger notch trowel 8 or 10mm and you need to prime the walls with a suitable primer

 

[Jasonb]

If this is a commercial garage I would go with a porcelain tile rather than ceramic as its less likely to chip even on a wall.

Also worth thinking about an epoxy grout, any cement based one will soon get stained black with oil/dirt.

And if you are not an experianced tiler rapidset may go off too quickly.

Jason

 

[gcol]

Just re-reading your post. You should really give a bit more info as to what you will be using the finished room as. Will it still be used as a garage or will it be a bathroom? If you plan on using it as a wetroom then you do need to properly waterproof it - if a garage then I wouldn't bother. And as Jason mentioned, epoxy will keep the grout looking clean but it's much more difficult to apply (which is why it is rarely used).

 

[markocosic]

Room is used as a (domestic) garage - woodwork, repairing cars (grinding, welding, spraying), tinkering room for model cars, smoking room for the old man, hanging onions and garden flower bulbs up to dry, taking photos of stuff mum's knitted - pretty much anything.

Tiles were so that it can be cleaned-down easily - so that you don't get grinding dust and wood dust in the paint job - and for better lighting (the old walls were dark/got grubby quickly and because they didn't bounce light there were a lot of shadows). It'll get washed down occasionally, but that's as wet as it'll get. Porcelain - pricy in the quantities I'm after, and harder to work with (drilling etc) so stuck with the ordinary ones.


So in the interim, I Googled a few of the things you mentioned (esp the grout) and went ahead and got those tiles, an 8mm notch shovel, rapidset and an expoy grout. Bits I forgot - those stupid plastic edge strip things, checking if the tiles would fit in the tile cuter I borrowed (they wouldn't).

Walls and Floors were "ok" - ordered Tuesday and the pallet arrived next day (1000kg!) with everything on except one of the two buckets of grout (50 quids worth - cheeky gits), and 59 of the 400 tiles on it were broken. They're sending replacements, but it'd be nice if they just packed it properly in the first place.


Tiles went up ok - not as horrendous a job as I thought. Filthy in a way that reminds you of playing in mud as a kid, strangely theraputic going schlep-schlep-splot. Rapidset is awesome - "no holds barred" tiling... Mix 1/3rd of a bag and throw down 2 square metres of tiles in 30 minutes, boil the kettle and clean down the tools, have tea and biscuit, repeat! Walls weren't quite flat, the tiles are big, and so some aren't quite flat against the wall relative to their neighbours, but it's only a garage and satin white hides a multitude of sins. Walls and Floors were talking rubbish when they said 7 bags would do 40 metres - I reckon it'll be nearer 10.


Now - the problem child...

Epoxy grout. Easypoxy it says. Well, I followed the instructions (except I made a much smaller test batch to begin with, ratios are right though) and I think it'd be easier sh1tting through the eye of a needle whilst constipated!

What's the trick? I seemed to have as much success squishing it in with my finger (marigolds on!) as with the rubber squeegee. Even then it's horrendous. It also goes off really quick, and some bits look funny as they set. Pictures below. Any advice here?

http://www.cosic.org.uk/MarkoStuff/misc/Tiling/IMG_6087.JPG

http://www.cosic.org.uk/MarkoStuff/misc/Tiling/IMG_6078.JPG

http://www.cosic.org.uk/MarkoStuff/misc/Tiling/IMG_6079.JPG

http://www.cosic.org.uk/MarkoStuff/misc/Tiling/IMG_6080.JPG

http://www.cosic.org.uk/MarkoStuff/misc/Tiling/IMG_6081.JPG

http://www.cosic.org.uk/MarkoStuff/misc/Tiling/IMG_6082.JPG


If there is no trick... I guess I could return the unused expoy and just stick grey/black (so it doesn't get any more stained with grease/oil) ordinary grout in - sensible?

 

[joe-90]

Why didn't you just plaster it? It looks like a public loo or a morgue?

 

[markocosic]

Good question!

Overspray makes a mess of everything. You can wipe it from tiles with a dab of thinners then warm water/sponge. Do that with emulsion (or exterior paint) and you wipe the wall off. Cleaning oil/grease off is similar - piece of cake on tile, near impossible with paint. Paint eventually needs redoing, tile too but after much longer. Dust is less of an issue.

 

[gcol]

Think I'd be inclined to take the epoxy back and just grout it with grey grout.

 

[BAL TAS 2]

Hi markocosic
the following may help


1. When applying the grout to joints, use a BAL
HARD RUBBER EPOXY GROUT FLOAT; compact the grout into the joints ensuring that they are completely filled. Work in small areas and remove as much of the excess off the face of the tiles as possible, by striking the excess off diagonally to the grout lines ensuring the grout is as high as possible in the joints.


2. Within 30 minutes of application, clean off any surplus grout using a BAL EMULSIFYING PAD & GRIPPER. This should be dampened with clean water to break down (emulsify) the grout residue. Using a circular motion, keep the pad & gripper relatively flat to the tile surface to ensure a flush joint. Warm water, although not essential, will ease the emulsification process. NB do not allow water to flow/run into ungrouted joints.
3. Clean off the emulsified epoxy/water residue with a fine sponge, taking care not to drag grout from the joints, always cleaning diagonally to the grout lines.
4. Any remaining haze on the tile surface must be cleaned off by the next day using a BAL EMULSIFYING PAD & GRIPPER with an alkaline detergent. NB any haze left on the tile surface must be removed within 24 hours
5. Any residues remaining on the tile surface after 24 hours may be removed using BAL EPOXY RESIDUE REMOVER.

 

[markocosic]

Cheers BAL TAS 2 - much the same as the instructions on the bucket though.

Must admit that I have not tried a bal hard rubber grout float, but presume that it is must be something like the hard rubber grout tool, P38 Easy-Sand car body filler applicators, spatulas, cake-slices, scrapers, wooden sticks or finger-in-marigold that I tried...

Some heat helped - 20C is easier than 5C - but personally I think it is just the easypoxy that is the spit of the devil...

I gave up and have used ordinary cement grout - an absolute joy to use by comparason, whip it over the joints with a big window cleaner, buff surface of tiles with the green side of a damp scouring sponge, dust off the haze the morning after, job done. It'll get dirty, but at least I'll be sane!

Now for the other two walls...

 

[toptec]

Marko -

£16.95 ex Vat is a good price for Rapid Set, certainly beats the big tile stores, Jewsons and my local merchants - and it is not cause I live in Somerset - same price... £25 plus in London.

 

[markocosic]

And here's one for the books...

Number of walls - three

Number of tiles per wall - approx 180

Number of tiles ordered - 400 (360 with 10% spare)

As always, there are three types of people - those who can count, and those getting an earful from the lady of the house right now!