ᐅ Need help with tile installation

Created on: 23 Sep 2012 00:47
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BjarneST-1
23 Sep 2012 00:47
Hello everyone :-)

My husband and I are currently working on the interior finishing and are now ready to start laying tiles. We have laid tiles several times before but never tiles as large as these (30x60cm (12x24 inches)). However, my father-in-law and others are interfering and warning us about problems with such large tiles, saying air bubbles can form and that everything might easily fall off the wall, and so on...
We are starting to get a bit nervous. What is the difference between installing small and large tiles? What should we watch out for?
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MODERATOR
24 Sep 2012 11:54
For large formats, it is important to ensure cavity-free installation. Ideally, a combined adhesive method is used. This involves applying tile adhesive to the back of the large-format tiles as well.

The adhesive bed on the substrate is combed through using a medium-bed notch trowel. This helps to compensate for unevenness or dimensional inaccuracies of the tiles or the substrate.

To achieve precise and neat grout lines, spacer crosses or wedges must be used for large-format wall tiles due to their heavy weight.
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Nicole1981-1
12 Jan 2015 15:03
Hi,
We faced the same problem, but my husband stayed focused. He handled it really well and used these tile spacers. The grout joints look good. We also have these large grout joints on the shower floor. Here, he sealed everything beforehand with a sealing film.

For the corners, he cut the large tiles using a glass cutter. That worked out well too. So, I think it’s great.

Best regards
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Mattia-1
24 Jan 2015 09:01
You definitely need some experience and knowledge for this. I use a combined tile adhesive. It is important that the tiles are fully bonded over their entire surface. That way, nothing can go wrong.
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herrmann-1
12 Jul 2015 08:38
Exactly, and that’s how I do it as well. After some tile installation work, it is going very well now. At first, there were some difficulties and I often had to make corrections. However, with every extra step, I learn more. 🙂
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Dario-1
14 Nov 2015 15:11
That’s obviously not so easy with these large tiles. Especially for beginners, I wouldn’t recommend it. I also had my difficulties and eventually hired a professional tiler. Rather than struggling myself and having the tiles come loose again, I didn’t want to deal with that stress.