Q:I am making a unglazed ceramic tile-mosaic table and I know I have to seal the tiles as well as grout and then seal the grout. Can I use a tile-sealer as a grout sealer? Or do I have two use two different products?

one product will do both'

Q:We‘re fixing our place and will need about 1200 sq ft of 24x24 tile. Any ideas as to how/where one can get this at wholesale/lower cost? Thanks!

The tiling alone will cost more than $520.20 but you don't say if the tiling refers to the tile alone or the installation too. (12 X 15 X #2.89 =$520.20) Also you must figure into the amount of tile you will need things like breakage, corner or edge cut tiles, if you want tile baseboards to match the floor and patterns. You should conservatively consider about 10% to 20% more tile will be required as overage. You will also have to consider the cost of renting or buying a tile cutting tool, either a wet-saw or a score-and-snap cutter.

Q:I am laying ceramic tile over subflooring using 1/4 inch wonderboard. I am trying to not to have to move or modify existing floorboard trim. If I have 1/4 inch thick tile, 1/4 inch thick wonderboard how much thickness should I assume for adhesive? I have an existing 11/16 gap between subfloor and bottom of floorboard trim. Will I be able to use adhesive to close the gap to make fill the gap or are there other options?

Although I don't think things will work out like you planned, you could use 1/2 inch wonderboard instead of 1/4 inch. That should help. The thin set that is used to adhere the tile won't fill any gaps. It is a thin layer.

Q:I am in the process of installing a slate floor in my mudroom. The durock has been laid, and the tiles cut and sealed, and I‘m ready to start using the medium set to secure the tiles in place, but as I‘ve never laid slate (or any tile) before, I have some questions. 1. The tiles are in place now how I want them, do I have to take up the tiles row by row before I start mortaring them in place, or can I do 1 or 2 tiles at a time?2. I laid the tiles out starting from the center and working outwards. When I lay the tiles in place do I again start at the center, or do I start from the edges, or doesn‘t it matter?3. What is the best way to prevent lippage? As this is slate there is a good amount of variation. Do I just back butter each tile so that it is as high as the highest tile in the room? How do I manage to do that properly?

Others might disagree, but here's what I suggest: 1. I take up at least a few rows of tile at a time, carefully stacking them in order. 2. Layout should always be done using a center line. There are options for the installation: - If you carefully snap or draw lines for each row on the Durorock and do not use spacers you can start wherever you want, for example against a far wall so that you don't work your way into a corner. - If you only use a center line and rely upon spacers, then you need to start at the center. Tiles tend to drift from each other slightly when you install using spacers, so if you start in the center and work in both directions the net drift toward the edge will be half as much as it would if you work from one edge all the way to the other. - I always draw lines for each row when I do a diagonal installation. I install the longest row first and the work away from it toward the opposite corners. 3. Once I mix a batch of thinset, I don't want to fuss much with tile thickness. So before I even lay the slate tiles out on the floor I sort them from thickest to thinnest. Individual tiles often vary in thickness from one corner to the other; others might have consistent thickness but be dished (not flat). These tiles are candidates to be cut for edge pieces, or they might not be worth using at all. Anyway, I layout the tiles from thickest on one side of the room to thinnest on the other and only need to butter a thin corner of that occasional irregular tile that is pretty enough to be worth the hassle. 4. See my answer to 2.

Q:on to ceramic tile and was told by ace hardware to use acryl pro ceramic tile adhesive ive layed a few tiles but i dont think its right. need some help, is this the correct procedure?????

the first thing you should do is make sure your floor is smooth, by smooth i mean filling all the grout lines in the ceramic tile. the self stick tiles will sink into any places that there is an indentation. i would NOT recommend doing what you are. the only way i MIGHT do this would be to glue, using lots of liquid nails, new laun over the tile then apply the self-stick tile

Q:I live in Tennessee near nashville, I want to recarpet and ceramic tile in my house but want an estimated cost, of how much so i dont get jipped It‘s a 2,000 sq ft house and.. its two bath one kitchen for tile and three bedroom and living room and hallway for carpet.. anyone know where i can get help i dont want to overpay at all! also empire company has anyone ever done business with them? know if they are good at all///?

go to a warehouse, low overhead type of place, not a fancy flooring store. ask the sales person if the price on the tag is his best offer. they have some wiggle room in the prices.

Q:We are building a tile shower and we have gotten it framed the way we want it. We haven‘t installed the backerboard or tiles yet, just the studs are placed. Do we need to backerboard and tile the sides where the door will be, or can we install the shower door directly to the bare wood studs?

I'll make this a simple answer, tile first.

Q:Does all kinds of tiles calculate the formula per square meter? For example, a few pieces of 300X600 is a square meter?

Really dizzy I was selling tiles 30 * 60 is now very common This is the iron wall used, no matter what kind of specifications, you just 1 by (side * wide), into the meter unit. 80 * 80 = 1.56; 30 * 30 = 11; 30 * 45 = 7.4; 60 * 60 = 2.78; 30 * 60 = 5.56. But according to square down, not enough, will almost, will be a waste.

Q:I have a large number of tiles on the walls of the laboratory nowadays, and the whole piece of fall, years ago is normal, do not know how the matter, please answer expert!

Well, upstairs positive solution: upstairs friends said the first kind of hollowing the general two kinds of situations: 1, the workers in the construction did not have a responsible inspection of the back of the tile is fully integrated with the cement or cement label is not in accordance with the standard procurement , Resulting in cement after the tile off. 2, manufacturers in the tiles factory accidentally anti-fouling wax hit the back of the tile to reduce the combination of ceramic tile and cement performance. Specific identification method, hand tapping the drums around the other tiles there is no like knocking into the empty box of the sound, if there is basically that the process of paving caused by the phenomenon of hollowing. Upstairs friends said the second case is also easier after the tile paving the situation, the cement in the contraction of the time or the temperature changes so that the heat up and down, paving the process if there is no stay or stay Too small will make the tiles from the cement, there is a situation that the house is a long time due to the foundation will moderate subsidence problems, will lead to wall tiles appear drums, fall or crack occurs. Personal advice solution: 1, if the drop of the tile is not much landlord do not want trouble, you can use glass glue or marble glue from the new paste on the wall, but the useful time will not be very long. I hope I can help you

Q:The tiles were installed about 2 1/2 weeks ago, and we decided that we just cant live with the really wide grout lines that ended up gradually becoming huge. So we‘ll have to remove about half of the tile. Is it possible to remove and reuse these tiles? If so, what about the left-over thin set? Will it be stuck on the tiles? And what about the cement board under them? Is it reusable or easier to just replace? Thanks for any answers!

This is going to be messy. Usually the tiles will break when removing them, if they were properly installed in the first place. Some tile may not break but the mastic will stick to either the tile or backer board. The mastic must be scraped off. Over all it would be simpler to just demo the old tile and start over.