Q:Such as the brand, from which aspects to identify the quality of tiles and so on.

You can I love my family access to relevant article information, hope to help you.

Q:Looking to install ceramic tile over concrete basement slab, 12x12 or 13x13 tiles. Main question is how perfectly level/flat does the concrete need to be. If I put a tile down and there is some minor rocking is that no good or will the thinset adhesive take care of that.

Any rocking means the tile is hitting either a high spot or there is a low spot. Low spots can be dealt with the thin set. As long as its less than a 1/4. High spots usually needs to be ground down flat. So to answer your question , for ease of installation and the prevention of cracked tiles at a later date, floors need to be as flat as possible. If you have minor rocking with no thin set down, in some cases a larger sized trowel will do the trick. Each case is different and has to be dealt with differently. Any questions you can e mail me through my avatar and check my qualifications there. GL

Q:My house has been posted on the external walls of the tile, and now dissatisfied, there is no way not to pull out, doing other good decoration If the ceramic tile and then brush the external wall paint, will not be a long time or the tide, the paint fell

Tiles on the Tu is estimated that it is not too reliable, personal opinion can go to Taobao to see those tile film or wall stickers and the like, in fact, sometimes only need a few stickers, the appearance may feel very different, Save money is also easy to replace, quite good.

Q:I want to know how to make tile based map in java. Retro games used tiled maps (to ease programming and memory management) but those games were created in assembly language. I know basic java. Now I want to make a 2d game in java, starting with a pretty basic 2d platformer type or top-down type. To do this, i need to know the technique required to make a map, a tile map.I have already searched in google and youtube and stack overflow, but none helped much. What I learnt is that I have to make some tile object and make a 2 dimensional matrix to store position of particular tiles. But this does not helped much. Thank you.P.S. there are many programs available on the internet for making tile maps, and also there are game making softwares and also libraries. i do not want to use any of those since i want to make my game with whatever java provides. Thank you. Also forgive my poor english.

first of all, you need to build different densities of 2D tile arrays according to how much of the map will be in the viewport at any given time. For example, a map at neighborhood level will need a gazillion more tiles than a map at the county level. Then, you need a way of converting the geographic reference at the center of the viewport to the tile that is covered at that zoom level, and for finding the adjacent tiles as well. Then, you'll need to calculate what parts of which tiles you are using will need to be clipped and by how much. Build a canvas using this information. As the map moves, you'll need to add on more adjacent tiles, and discard others, update the clipping, etc.

Q:I am thinking about tiling 2 bathrooms in a rental property and planning to use 12x12 tiles costing $1 each. I want to use the same tiles for bathtub surrounds as well as floor. I am looking for some advice about the size of tiles that may be appropriate.Thanks

As answer 1 states and you already have priced, 12x12 is fine. Even in a small room the larger tile creates an illusion of larger space. The issue for the floor will be cutting, also as answer 1 states, but divisible is not as much the issue as how you square the room and where you set the center, allowing the most number of full pieces visible as possible. That's not only for aesthetics, but determining cuts and where the cut pieces will be least visible. If you have cove base molding you can assume 1/4 inch from the molding as the final grout line and throughout 1/4 inch is usual. What that does however, in your measuring is to add/subtract 1 inch for every 4 pieces of 12 x 12 tile. IE: If you think to tile in a 4 ft. wide area you will have to cut the tile at least on one side of that, allowing for the grout lines. Addressing wall tile size. I tiled my shower walls in a 16x 16 terra cotta but I don't advise it. The usual would be 4x4 or 6x6, in that size range. It's not impossible to use large tile but is more a challenge.You should use a rapid set mortar/mastic, still use spacers, even at 1/8 inch and set the lower course first, allow to dry/set 24 hours, then build your way up the wall. In my case with the size and weight I had to brace each tile to hold it in place. Given that these are rentals, I'd make the job as easy as possible, probably with smaller wall tiles, even mesh backed. In any case a poly blend mortar/quick set and the same in a sanded grout DOC

Q:In my home, we have polished tiles. My kid has fall-down most of the time. Can anyone help me to remove polish from ceramic tiles?

You do not want to do this for two reasons. One is that it will take away all the protection from the tile that allows the tile itself to be water proof and stain proof. Take away the glaze and the tile will stain. The second reason is that the glaze provides most of the tile body strength. A couple of things to help prevent tiles from being slick.. Remove all wet shoes and keep the floor dry. Hard with kids I know. Anti slip area rugs helps. And lastly there are products that you can use in the mop water that helps the tiles from being slick. B -Safe is one OTC product that is commercially rated that you can use day to day. Any questions you can e mail me through my avatar and check my qualifications there. GL

Q:but now we have decided to probably go with laminate tile in each. Mainly time is the big thing, I know I can put that in but not sure about tile. Anyways is this a good decision. Does anyone have experience with laminate tile and if so can you recommend where or what brand to look at. Also can you give me an idea of pricing..Thanks...

bad idea laminate in a bath room it will not last because of moisture and steam use tile if you can i had laminate in my bath and it started to look bad in 3 months and i got the good kind the seams started to lift up we just could not stand it it looks good when you first put it in laminate and water do not mix trust me ask around go to a flooring dealer not home depot or Lowe's a flooring store and see what they say about laminate in bath's use tile

Q:What brand of ceramic tile is good

The same size of the tile paste in different places, the requirements of the ceramic tile is not the same. The same paste in the same place the size of the tile is different from the tile glue is also different. Normally, the adhesion of the tile on the wall will be much higher. The place to be laid, decided to tile the performance. We must be clear that the price of ceramic tile is not the only choice of ceramic tile conditions. Now the functional varieties of ceramic tile are more, for example, respectively, with water resistance, alkali resistance, anti-slip properties, and so on the tile glue. Especially to be used in the pool of ceramic tile, it is more casual.

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?

Sorry, read here yesterday that the vinyl tile adhesive will not adhere to ceramic tiles well but I'm not sure that's true and you cannot put any vinyl tiles over the ceramic tiles anyway because of the grout joints. There needs to be a very good smooth surface everywhere for any type of vinyl tiles or sheet vinyl flooring. The vinyl will sink into every grout line/joint and break as well as look terrible too. You will need to install some plywood underlayment over the existing ceramic tile first to give you a smooth sub-floor (most likely the 1/2 inch thick plywood). Or you could remove the existing ceramic tile and all the grout patch any rough /or uneven places on the existing plywood sub-floor and then install the new tile. Now you can put vinyl tiles over the wood sub-floor. There may be some uneven places or rough places where you'd need to use some floor patch /or floor leveler first. They make different size styles of floor transitions where the two floors meet so to give you a nice transition and look (if the kitchen floor is left the same or you installed underlayment and new tile).

Q:We are building a house and were thinking about installing a tiled shower, but I heard from a friend that they get dirty quickly and are very time consuming.

With all the tile selections today, I would certainly opt for a tile shower, regardless of how long it would take to install. As far as cleaning, you will have to clean any shower surface just as frequently as the next. Just select a tile that does not show water spots. Use the right grout or seal it properly and you should be good to go.