Tiling Tools

Goldtrowel Tiling Guide Name: Tools Available direct on course, telephone or online at building-tools.com Tel: 01708 344700 (November 2014) Copyright Goldtrowel 2013 1 Goldtrowel Tiling Guide Goldtrowel Tiling Guide Tiling Tools Tile Cutters: Platform tile cutter Tile cutters are used to score a clearly defined scratch across the glaze of a tile they vary in size shape and style. A cutter could resemble a small pencil with a cutting tip or it could have a hardened tungsten carbide wheel. Some cutters have two jaws to hold the tile when you break it after scoring along the glazed surface. Electric tile cutter Have water cooled diamond disc blades, the water also keeps the amount of dust down to a minimum. although a face mask and eye protective equipment should be worn. Use for delicate ceramic tile cutting. Comfortable plastic handle. Tungsten carbide tip Tile saw: Use for cutting slots, angles & curves in ceramic, floor & wall tiles. Large deep metal frame. Tungsten carbide blade. a good tool for cutting curves in tiles to fit around obstructions such as pipes Tile File: a flat strip of metal with an abrasive surface coated with tungsten carbide used to smooth the rough edges of cut tiles. when the surface has become clogged you can clean with a wire brush TCT Circle tile cutter: This hole cutter cuts holes in ceramic tiles. The cutter features a tungsten carbide blade safety cage and variable cutting from 20 to 94mm 2 Goldtrowel Tiling Guide Goldtrowel Tiling Guide Grout Rake: Tungsten carbide grit coated blade. Removes grout from between tiles before re-grouting Tile Nippers: Tile cutting pliers with TCT tipped jaws and sprung handles. Black lacquered finish and blue dipped handles. Slight curve on jaws enables effective cutting and trimming of tile or mosaic Profile Gauge: Use to find profiles or edges and accurately transfer on to material to be cut. can be bought in various sizes Adhesive comb: DIY Adhesive comb features the most popular 6mm teeth used for serating the tile adhesive Wood squeegee: DIY grout spreading squeegee for use on floor and wall tiles Tile Spacers: Tiles spacers designed to give regular gaps between tiles. 3 Goldtrowel Tiling Guide Goldtrowel Tiling Guide Tiler’s Wash Bucket and sponges • wash bucket roller kit • for rinsing off tile grouts from sponge floats • leaves clean film tile surface The tilers wash bucket and hydro sponges are designed to speed up the laborious job of cleaning off tile grout The tile grout is applied and worked into the joint with the green rubber faced float and allowed to start going off The yellow hydro sponge floats are then used to clean off the grout residues The sponge float is cleaned in the wash bucket and excess water squeezed out on the rollers Trowels: notched trowels with detachable and replacable serated blades one side of the blade is used for spreading the adhesive upon the surface the other side (serated) is used for serating the adhesive changing the serated blade of a tiling trowel some cheaper trowels have fixed edges that cannot be changed serated blades for the trowels come in a choice of Vee or square notches Notched Spatulas: notched spatulas used as a scraper type applicator and spreader for adhesive, the one pictured takes a detachable 11 inch serated blade 4 Goldtrowel Tiling Guide Goldtrowel Tiling Guide Level: spirit level used for vertical and horizontal levels Laser Level: Laser level used to find levels over distances and set up datums Aluminium Ruler: Aluminium Ruler with Spirit Levels in both horizontal and vertical planes length is 900mm metric and imperial scales useful for marking out Mastic gun Steel skeleton frame. Capacity variable from 300ml. Handle with plunger & release clip. Gun for application of sealants & adhesives Tape Measure: steel tape measure with both metric and imperial markings Pencils: for marking where tiles are to be cut never use a felt tipped pen SILICONE SEALENT FINISHER For shaping silicon sealant. 5mm, 8mm and 45¾mitre profiles to suit different applications. 5 Goldtrowel Tiling Guide Goldtrowel Tiling Guide Service Conditions Introduction It is very important to consider the service condition of a tiling installation when completing a wall tiling project, listed below are the different service conditions involved in wall tiling installations with a brief description of each condition and where they are found Dry A dry service condition is where the tiling installation comes into no contact with water, typically in a domestic kitchen or bathroom, where only the shower area is considered a wet area. Splash Contact These are areas such as above sinks or baths where water may be splashed onto the tiling installation but will not affect it and should be treated as a dry area. Condensation Condensation can occur in many areas but poorly ventilated areas can be particularly susceptible and if this is a concern great care should be taken with the choice of grout, ideally anti-bacterial grout should be used. Occasional Wetting The term `occasional wetting` is usually applied to a domestic bathroom with a standard water pressure fed shower and not a power shower, which is dealt with later. Frequent Wetting The term `frequent wetting` is usually applied to commercial tiling installations such as communal showers at a leisure center where the showers may be left on all day, and therefore a lot more is required of the products used. Power Showers Power showers are a special case because the amount of water they use and the strength of the water jets it produces, when a power shower is going to be used consideration should be given to the adhesive and grout chosen, in particular the grout must be very strong and ideally an epoxy or high polymer modified grout should be used. 6 Goldtrowel Tiling Guide Goldtrowel Tiling Guide Preparation and Substrates Preparing the surface for wall tiles Glazed tiles will highlight any undulations in a wall, therefore the surface to be tiled has to be Flat (+/- 3mm). If you are to tile more than one wall in the same room where tiles will meet at an internal or external angle then the walls will need to be Flat and Level or you will notice the difference in the cuts that run up the angles. Gypsum finishing Plaster Gypsum Finishing Plaster is the most common background for wall tiling, and in good condition is a perfect surface for tiling, the maximum weight to be put onto plaster is 20kg per m², check the surface with a long level both vertically and horizontally looking out for dips or bulges, if the surface is too uneven or is off level too much then you should consider either floating the wall(s) with sand / cement or using the direct bond method of dot and dabbing plasterboards to the surface. If the walls require levelling then this should only be done with sand/cement render. Plaster should be completely dry prior to tiling usually 3-4 weeks, and then primed with APD primer. It is important to note plaster is water sensitive! Plasterboard Plasterboard is a better background than a skimmed finish wall due to weight restrictions on skimmed finishes, You can tile over plasterboard upto 32kg per m² in weight, so long as they are securely anchored to the walls and they are flat level and with no bulges or dips, the board does not need to be primed. If the plasterboard is in a potential wet or damp area such as a shower or bathroom then you should use a water resistant plasterboard. Painted walls Walls that have been painted with either gloss or emulsion paint are not suitable for tiling as the tiles will only be fixed to the paint. Therefore you should roughen the surface with coarse grit sandpaper so that the adhesive will grip to the wall and not the paint. Always strip off any loose or flaking paint. Papered walls Never fix tiles to existing papered walls as the adhesive holding the paper will not be strong enough to hold tiles. Always strip off wallpaper from the surface Old existing ceramic tiles Provided the old tiles are firmly fixed to the wall (tapping with a coin and removing any hollow sounding tiles) and there is no sign of bulges uneven or off level surface then new tiles can be fixed over existing tiles with standard tile adhesive. the tiles should be clean and dry, the new tiles should be staggered over the existing tiles so that the joins from the existing tiles do not line up with the new tiles, allow 72 hours before grouting. Timber boards With any timber based boards it is important they are adequately braced, with screws never nails, Plywood (Marine or WBP 15mm min thickness) is best suited, this should be sealed with a acrylic based primer if bagged adhesive is being used, you should 7 Goldtrowel Tiling Guide Goldtrowel Tiling Guide always seal on the reverse side and edges, the tiled surface does not sealing when using dispersion adhesives. Brickwork You can fix tiles to brickwork using thick bed adhesive, but as this is time consuming and difficult you would be better off to float the wall with backing plaster or dot and dab the surface. Ceramic Tiles Standard field tiles Standard field tiles have square edges therefore you will need to use spacers when fixing. they usually have one two or all edges glazed. many sizes and shapes are available but they usually come in common sizes of 108mm and 150mm square. Universal tiles Universal tiles have chamfered edges thus eliminating the need for spacers.

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