Q:What is the tile?

Tiles are what we often say floor tiles, is a ground decoration material, cheap, easy to clean up the cleaning. But with the wood floor than the foot feeling is not very good, hardness. At present, many home decoration will also use the tiles, usually used in the living room, kitchen put, bathroom, balcony and other occasions. 1) Whether the tile is solid and solid: We all know that the tiles should be solid and not easy to be damaged, especially when the weight is on top. 2) non-slip: the surface of the tile is relatively smooth, and some tiles are quintana bricks, glazed tiles, quintana polished tiles, tiles, seepage tiles, etc., these tiles are not anti-skid, the elderly and children with special attention , Try not to choose the tiles, but the choice of wood flooring. 3) to listen: we can pick up a brick gently beat, hear the sound of crisp is good quality tiles, the sound is muddy times defective. 4) test the water: we will pour the back of the tile on the water, after a few minutes, observe the degree of water immersion, if slow, and the watermark is not obvious, then is a good tile. 5) to find ink painted on the surface of the tile, over an hour or so, if the surface is no trace, then a good tiles, if the surface left traces, you must not buy. 6) Color: Do not choose the color difference of large tiles, should choose the color are all with the tiles.

Q:I recently bought a home with old fashioned pink and blue tile, is there an inexpensive way to make it look better? Help.....

Surprisingly, if you go to Lowes or Home Depot and look in the tile section, it really isn't that expensive to put down new tile. There is a tool to remove the grout from the old tile so that you can pry the old tile up. After that, the installation isn't difficult. I would go that route as opposed to trying to doctor old tile. Good luck!

Q:What brand of tiles good? How to choose?

If the landlord parity price, then the proposed look at the new Pearl Group's brand, Mona Lisa, Hongyu, Enuo, the king, strong and other brands, are more reliable products in the domestic products. Or my answer to other friends of those words: In fact, what brand is not important, it is important that you do not understand the tiles, teach some of the industry to identify the tile good or bad way, hope to help you: I have some years in the tile industry, We must first plan before the decoration of their own renovation costs, the cost of each piece of carefully planned, because the decoration is not only involved in the tiles, it is best to use paper and pen to each of the costs are recorded in advance, So you will not be sales staff around and beyond the decoration budget. You first have to determine what style to buy their own tiles, the current market, roughly two kinds of styles: antique tiles and polished tiles, what brick is not important to buy, it is important to choose how to teach you some of the most practical method of brick, Do not have to be fooled by the salesman, these methods are used by the industry to test the tile is good or bad way, although can not say that 100% can be a good brick, but at least 80% is not wrong, hoping to help everyone!

Q:What procedure to use to keep the tiles from falling from the ceiling before the mortar dries.

cut kickers, or braces, to hold them. i.e. 1x2 pine sticks are sufficient. cut to estimated lenght, usually 1/8 to 1/2 inch longer. counter tops, and solid step benchs help limit material used in this way. also once placed, kickers can be shared, by placing at edges of tile to hold two to four (corners) at once.

Q:I have a very outdated bathroom with pink tile covering just about every wall. I love to do DIY projects but can‘t afford to replace the tile. I can however afford to paint it. I read up on it and found the paint directions but don‘t want the end result to look tacky. Has anyone done this and liked the results?

I had probably the same tile in my bathroom. It was half way up all walls and around the tub.. When I moved in (5 years ago), I cleaned, primed with original Kilz, and painted 2 coats of Zinsser Perma White paint in a satin finish. After 5 years and at least 3-5 showers a day, I have had to touch up a couple spots. You can definately tell it has been painted with a brush and roller, I think it looks a lot less tacky than pink tiles.

Q:CAN I LAY TILE WITH NO GROUT LINES?

If its in a no moisture area . May be . But unless its Trazo or Granite square cut on . And I only do that on counter tops. If you don't seal seal with grout water can get in cracks and cause problems with tile adhesion and sub floor failure. I'd use the thin grout lines.

Q:I need two more floors tiles to match my kitchen floor. The floor was down before we moved in. how i can find out what type of tile it is?

If you have any loose pcs not yet installed the backs can give me clues as to what it is. Along with the year it was originally installed ( approx) and the exact size of the tile.. Any thing over 8/10 years old you may as well look for some thing close in the exact size. Beyond that your looking at reclaimed tile discount outlets looking for dropped tile lines. There is a few places that specialize in buying and selling of dropped lines of tiles. They change and discontinue tiles every 7/10 years to keep up with changing styles and colors patterns. Any questions you can e mail me through my avatar and check my qualifications there. GL

Q:I had a person re-grout the 4 tiles years ago. That person was a dufus and left some grout on the tiles instead of just in the grooves.. It is still there! How could I remove the small patches of grout from the front of the white tiles? As a point of information, the repair guy messed up by grouting ALL of the tiles when he first started. The grout drys so fast that it set up hard before it could be struck and finished and the excess washed off. The tile setter guy is supposed to do just a very few tiles at a time.

Hopefully, all of your tiles have grout AND sealer. You can try plain ol' scrapping it off, but be careful not to scratch the tiles. Try using white vinegar to soften the grout, but be sure not to get any on the grout that you want to save. Use a small sponge, or even Q-tips. You may have to let it soak a few minutes. Also, try using a plastic scraper instead of a metal one, like a pan scraper. If you have any spare tiles, practice scraping to see if you're scratching the tile.

Q:hello! if i have a connected dining room/kitchen and the kitchen has ceramic tile (that is old) and the dining room has carpet, can i just rip up the carpet and install vinyl tile over the ceramic then over the sub-floor without any issues?

The most important thing is the floor must be solid, no soft spots or flexing! Typically the old tile must come up first, I wouldn't recommend installing tile over tile, and I set a lot of tile as I am a general contractor and remod kitchens and baths for a living. What I would recommend is... Call a place that sells tile, they will tell you exactly what you need to do and how to do it!

Q:standard terracotta tiles

around 15 lbs per square foot