What Makes a Tile High or Low Quality?
High Quality tile is something that (from experience) most homeowners and designers don’t tend to think about when purchasing for projects. In most cases price and aesthetics play the largest roles in decision making. But, for the installer the difference between high and low quality tile is a large jump. Low quality tile can make installers jobs extremely difficult due to sizing issues, warping, brittleness, and bad batch production. These same things are what could make a tile high quality. I want to preface the rest of this blog with one caveat, some tile such as zellige and handmade tile has inconsistencies in width, thickness, shading, chipped tiles from the factory, and general inconsistencies. All this to say that some tile is going to have these issues no matter what because that’s part of their appeal.
Sizing:
When deciding to use tile one of the first questions is what pattern or layout would you like? Normally any answer is not an issue, but if the tile size is inconsistent in size (length or width) it could make some patterns close to impossible to install. Where sizing issues can be seen the easiest is when doing a stacked horizontal or vertical layout. The edges of the tile can encroach on the tile next to it offsetting the grout joint and causing the pattern to be thrown off. There are ways to deal with this issue though, the most common approach among setters is to make the grout joints 3x the size of the largest difference in size. So, if the tile had a 1/16” difference in size you would make the grout joints 3/16” to help “hide” the sizing issue. Another option is to go through all the tile and find the ones that are the same size and lay them row by row. With this option it would be best to have a ⅓ offset and understand that the grout joints won’t line up perfectly across the wall or floor. The last option, but also the absolute most time consuming one is to cut each tile to the same size. I don’t recommend this because most installers will have to charge extra if or the time involved with cutting and polishing all the edges. Tile thickness is another sizing issue that some installers run into. When coming across this, the first step to determine if it is a feature of the tile. If so, install it as normal and understand that there will be lippage. If lippage is something that is decided is not an option, using thinset you need to build up behind the thinner tile to bring the faces of the tile flush. This is done by potentially skimming the back of the tile with a notch trowel, this is very dependent on the difference in the thickness.
Warping:
This is something that I have dealt with on a recent project. I was using 12x24” tile for a private car showroom and each tile had over a 1/16” drop from the center of the long side to the edge. The original plan was to lay the tile in a 50/50 brick set pattern but when I laid a small area out the lippage at each joint was unacceptable. By bringing this to the attention of the project manager we had to consult with the designers and owners. The owners then decided on a straight stacked layout which allowed all the warped tile to line up and the lippage issue was solved. But there’s another problem with setting these warped tile. You cannot just back butter as normal and set because it will leave a “hollow” spot in the middle of the tile. To visualize this imagine taking the letter U, turning it upside down and then pressing it onto the floor while still having thinset covering all areas underneath the U. Its a very dramatic example and no tile will ever be that bowed (I hope) but it does demonstrate the problem. To work around bowed tile setters need to take a straight edge from one edge of the tile to the other side and fill in the bow with thinset. It’s basically back buttering, but with the extra step of having to use a straightedge to make a flat surface that gets embed into the notches of thinset on the floor.
Brittleness:
Tile that are brittle are sometimes the most frustrating to work with as a setter. When cutting them they break ¾ of the way through at a weird angle. This can make any sane person lose their mind after the fourth tile in a row breaks in the same way and ruins the cut. Thankfully most of the time the tile that are this brittle are few and far between. If this does happen and you’re running low on tile and you can’t waste any more there are some options. The first is to skim out the back of the tile with thinset and let it dry overnight and try it again. Another option that has the same premise is to put a fabric membrane (like Kerdi fabric) on the back of the tile and let it dry overnight. The next day try the cut again and the fabric should help to add rigidity to the tile. The third option is to install the tile and then cut the tile after the thinset has dried. I’ve seen this done with large format tile around niches, and tile that has shower valves behind it. The setters come back and drill the holes needed once the thinset has dried so there is less of a chance of the tile cracking while drilling because the thinset provides more structure.
Bad batch production:
This can apply to many things with some batches. These could range from chips in tile coming straight from the factory covered by nail polish (ask me how I know), to differences in tile color and shading that shouldn’t be there, to tile being broken before arrival. I admit, the tile breaking before arrival may not be the fault of the company that made the tile, but because they (sometimes) provide delivery, fault does land on them at times. Chipped tile is definitely the fault of the company that made the tile. The quality control department of that company is at fault (unless it was proved that it happened during shipping or something else) and they should’ve caught the chipped tile before sending it out. It’s even more apparent when the chips are covered in a paint that is easily scratched off with a fingernail. Differences in color or shading when there are not supposed to be any differences can ruin a project if not caught before installation. When purchasing tile make sure the cartons have the same dye lots, if they do not there could be color variation that is not wanted. I’ve seen marble floors get installed and then the next day there are pieces that are just a few shades lighter or darker than the rest. Natural stone does have color variation, so with the marble it’s understandable why this could happen.
