procedures for laying porcelin tiles?

[zanwan]

apart from using different adhesive, is there any other things you need to be aware of when laying porcelin tiles as opposed to laying ceramic tiles?

 

[Richard C]

Porcelain is much harder than ceramic & can be more difficult to cut, a diamond wet cutter may be essential; & they are a bugger to drill holes in! Some porcelain tiles also need sealing before laying, it depends which type you have but some come pre-sealed.

Otherwise difficult to answer properly without a lot more info; where are you laying them, wall or floor? What sort of tile base, suspended floor, render/plaster, plasterboard/tile backer board? What size/thickness/weight/colour are the tiles? Where are the tiles being laid, wet or dry area?

You say “apart from the adhesive being different”; that’s not necessarily the case, which brand/type of adhesive were you thinking of using?

 

[zanwan]

The tiles will be laid in a new build property, its lterally been built a few months back. Everything in the house is new, new concrete floors, new walls etc etc

The tiles are going to be floor tiles and they will be BNQ porcelin tiles, with a glazed finish. They look pretty big, 60x60cm.

I'll be tiling downstairs, on the newly concrete floor, laid a few months ago.

Also tiling upstairs onto new flooring. The floor appears to be thick MDF. Its not got your standard floorboards.

I've done a lot of tiling using ceremics and done some quartz tiles, all with excellent results, but i've never used porcelin before so was hoping for a few tips! I;ve heard they are hard to cut and even with a wet cutter, have a tendancy to chip a lot.

The adhesive is likly to be Unibond procelin adhesive from BnQ.

Many thanks

 

[Richard C]

The tiles will be laid in a new build property, its lterally been built a few months back.

Concrete floors must be full dry (1 day per mm thickness) before tiling but if it was built a few months ago, you should be OK.

The tiles are going to be floor tiles and they will be BNQ porcelin tiles, with a glazed finish. They look pretty big, 60x60cm.

They are big & the floor needs to be very flat, if not use an SLC first or the finished tiles will be all over the place &, at that size, it will notice. Use only cement powder adhesive for that size tile & you will need a large format trowel for the floors & a thick, solid bed trowel for the walls.

Still unsure if you’re doing the walls but if so, what thickness & weight are the tiles? What are the walls, plasterboard or render/skim? If either is plaster skimmed & the tiles are more than 8mm thick, the plaster won’t take the weight. You need either raw plasterboard (no good for wet areas unless tanked) or a suitable waterproof tile backer board if you want it to last.

I'll be tiling downstairs, on the newly concrete floor, laid a few months ago.

Do you know what type of screed is it, conventional sand/cement or Anhydrite? Anhydrite must be acrylic primed or you may get a reaction between the two.

Also tiling upstairs onto new flooring. The floor appears to be thick MDF. Its not got your standard floorboards.

It’s probably chipboard not MDF, is it green? Chip (even green moisture resistant) is probably the worst possible tile base you could get, it’s crap & if it’s MDF it’ll be even worse. You can overboard with minimum 12mm WBP ply but TBH your better off ripping it up & replacing with 18-25mm WBP to keep the door threshold reasonable; actual thickness you need depends on your joist size/pitch/span.

I've done a lot of tiling using ceremics and done some quartz tiles, all with excellent results, but i've never used porcelin before so was hoping for a few tips! I;ve heard they are hard to cut and even with a wet cutter, have a tendancy to chip a lot.

You will need a diamond wet cutter on that size tile; a decent budget one will do but I would not advise you attempt to cut them on a budget manual cutter.

The adhesive is likly to be Unibond procelin adhesive from BnQ.

I would definitely advise you pick another brand of tiling products; you need to use a quality trade adhesive/grout, own brand & DIY stuff is mostly crap & that one doesn’t have a particularly good reputation. BAL Ardex, Mapei etc but not the one sold in B&Q, it’s not trade Mapei.

Tiling isn’t rocket science but there are many things that can catch you out. With walls, you must consider tile weights, prep & materials & suspended timber floors really do need special consideration if they are to last any length of time. I would advise you read the Tiling Sticky & Forum Archive posts before doing any work or buying tiling materials, it could prevent you making disastrous & potentially expensive mistakes. As already said, it’s also important to use only quality trade tilling materials of the correct type for your tiles & tile base; cheapo own brand & DIY stuff is mostly crap.

Post back if you want more advice on anything.

 

[zanwan]

Thanks Richard for your reply, its much appreiated and a lot of good tips you've provided. Just one more question, what size of tile spacers should i use for porcelin tiles? I've noticed in the shop displays that they seem to have a thinner grout line then ceramic tiles. I'm assuming 2mm or 3mm tile spacers?

 

[Richard C]

Take no notice of shop display/sample boards they are meaningless & just for show. I would not advise anything smaller than 3mm on a suspended timber floor but 2mm will be OK on concrete; you can go even lower but I would not “close butt” & you need to consider the effect of tile manufacturing tolerance over a larger tiled area, especially with large format tiles. Personally, I think a wider joint (4/5mm) looks better on a floor & it gives you more scope to loose that “tile tolerance”; don’t be tempted to use white or light colour grout on floors, it’ll look crap pretty quick.