Wall tiles without spacers: fact or fiction?

[AdamW]

The builder my parents use for their house did a new shower room for them recently. When he came to do the wall tiles he didn't use spacers, telling my parents that a tiler friend of his had recommended to just lay the tiles as close to each other as possible.

The reason is, if you have 1 or 2 mm spacers then it means you will have more grout to end up looking manky in a few years. If you butt the tiles as close together as possible then there is very little grout.

Apparently it looks great, my mum was concerned that it would look odd but it doesn't.

Now, can any tilers confirm if this is a good or bad idea, only I am about to do some tiling myself and am not sure whether or not to use the spacers I bought now.

 

[masona]

if you have 1 or 2 mm spacers then it means you will have more grout to end up looking manky in a few years. If you butt the tiles as close together as possible then there is very little grout.

Have to slightly disagree, unless the tiles have already got a built-in spacer then that's fine.If there're very little grout then I'm afraid they will fall out over a period off time as the grouts got nothing to grip to.You should have a reasonable tile gap such as spacer to allow the grouts to goes behind the tiles and lock it in as they do in plaster & lath.The best way I find to use the spacer to put it in sideway, a lot cleaner and neater plus it's very fiddly to put it on each edge of the tiles, when tiles has dried you can removed the spacer and use them again.I think the builder is telling a little porky here as using tiles spacer is very time assuming.I agreed the shower tiles will looks manky over the years but not if you regularly clean it.Instead of tiles in shower, it's really best to use shower walls panel.

 

[AdamW]

I bought a pack of 1000 spacers, surely they should be left in with the tiles and grouted over?

 

[breezer]

thats what i thought, but when we had our kitchen tiled the tiler put them in sideways, when dry pulled them all out, tiles still there

 

[AdamW]

Just been ripping some old tiles out of my bathroom this afternoon... The tiler who did that left the spacers in, but they slide out very easily sideways from under the grout. This suggests that like Masona and Breezer said, pull them out when dry for best results.

I suppose the best thing I can do is tile, then see if the spacers will come out when the tile adhesive is dried. If they are firmly glued in there by the tile adhesive, the grout should cover them.

 

[masona]

I bought a pack of 1000 spacers, surely they should be left in with the tiles and grouted over?

You're right, but as I said "The best way I find to use the spacer is to put it in sideway",then removed them, so you can get grouts in the corner as the same thickness along the gap as well.You can leave the spacer in there but the grout tend to break away as it's a lot thinner on all corners.Like I say, I find them fiddly to put on each edge of the tile without getting tile adhesive onto your finger as well and sometime the spacer fall or slide behind the tiles, this is why from experience it's easier to put the spacer in sideway.

 

[masona]

If they are firmly glued in there by the tile adhesive, the grout should cover them.

I just re-read your post again, no need to put the spacer in the corner, example:say a 6" tile, put the spacer inward (looking at the wall, point the spacer inward, not flat) on edge approx 1" on both side, when dried you can pull them out with your fingers.So you should see the spacer sticking outward as well!

 

[AdamW]

I think I see what you mean, rather than put the spacer flat against the wall as a cross between four tiles, put it so it is perpendicular to the wall and I can easily pull it out (as opposed to using a screwdriver to lever it out)

Message received and understood. I will do it that way, don't like doing jobs twice if I can help it so if I can make the grout last longer that is good.

Thanks

 

[masona]

Yes, that's correct and believe it or not, it's a lot quicker this way !

Don't use a screwdriver, should be easy to pull it out with your fingers if not use a plier instead.

 

[Nightsky]

I prefer to use small squares of cardboard (Cornflake packet) which can be used either as single or multiple pieces to allow variation in level of wall.

 

[Deadly Ferret]

I bought a pack of 1000 spacers, surely they should be left in with the tiles and grouted over?

Yes for floors, no for walls.

 

[David P]

I always use matchsticks a couple of boxes is cheaper than plastic ones and doesnt use up petrochemicals. not got enough? snap them.

and yes stick them in towards the wall not parallel.

by the way grout is not there to hold the tiles in - it simply stops water getting behind the tiles and causing all sorts of probs.

also the thicknes of the gap is an expansion issue - where the wall wont see much temperature change the grout can be thin (not much expansion/contraction with heat). most bathrooms are fairly constant temp.
swimming pools have hardly any dimensional change all the while they are filled with water - but usually spring leaks when they are left dry.
an exterior tile job needs wider grout.

baal and ardex rate grout by the maximum width of grout.