http://www3.telus.net/shared/entry%20002.jpg
Need a few ideas on a layout for the best appearance. The picture is from
the entry door. The width is 62" and length is 138", tiles are 12x12. The
carpeted landing insets 4" as does the left side door entry. As you can see
it is just slightly too wide for 5 full tiles, gaps will need to be over
1/4" or I could use a wider transition?
With rectangular layout, you always split the difference. You want to
maximize the size of edge pieces, *not* the number of full tiles.
Four full 12" tiles with about 7" wide pieces at both sides makes 62
inches. Not 5 full tiles and a 2" piece.
Think of the repeating grid, and how you could shift it to *maximize* the
edge piece size, considering all the constraints of the room: walls and
other projections.
12" tiles installed on a 45deg angle would look good in that space; it
needs something to break it up. I did that in our kitchen that was
just a tad too small for an island and it looks great. The 45deg
layout is simple to do and looks as though you imported guys from Italy
to put it in.
Just spend the time to shift the tiles until you have good size pieces
at all of the doorways/steps. I had four transitions to deal with as
well and it took a few tries but eventually I ended up with close to a
half tile at every doorway. You don't have to worry about having
small pieces (triangles) along the walls or in corners because they
won't be noticed or walked on just worry about the doorways and
steps. Only drawback is you will have to make a lot of cuts and may
have a lot of waste depending on where the cuts land but it is worth
it.
Buy a cheap wetsaw or rent one.
Use concrete backerboard or similar.
Use a dark grout and forget the non-working sealers
Change that register or at least paint it white :-)
Maybe try this software:
http://www.tilegem.com/applications.htm
It looks like the only place it's too wide is on the left side
doorway. It looks like that's sunken a bit though. If not, you
could put a marble saddle in that doorway. It looks like the door
jamb has been cut back too. You might want to build up the floor
to that level (backer + tile) so the gap doesn't show. A white
marble saddle could then be cut to the width of the jam, making the
white accent straight around. In any case, you should start from
the middle, making the edge tiles as large as possible.
Yes, diagonal would look good too. I've never been sure about how
to start such a layout though. ;-/
You might also throw this into a CAD program to see how it lays
out. I used A9CAD (freeware) for my bathroom. I put the outline
on one level, floor joists on a level, subfloor on one, backer on
the fourth, and tile on the fifth. I wanted to make sure the seams
in the backer fell over the joists and not on the subfloor seams.
The best tile layout fell out with just a little tweaking (bad
layouts were obvious). It all worked just like the computer said
it would. ;-)
I didn't, mine are straight (can't figure out how to start a
diagonal layout). Anyway, you make one tile using line segments
then copy/paste that, with gravity and snap on. I'm pretty new
(very) to A9CAD so I didn't figure out how to trim the tiles
outside the walls. No biggie.
Site bookmarked, but I just laid the last tile floor for this
house. ;-) The thing I don' tget is the chalk lines. How does one
see them on a floor covered in thinset? BTW, I've never used the
"quarter" system. The floors I've done are small enough that it
wouldn't make sense. I simply start from the side with a tile cut
to about the right size to make the layout work. I can then use
spacers and the wall/tub/whatever to make sure the starter row is
straight. I generally only do about 13-30 sq.ft. a day and then
use the previous day's tile guide the rest (sorta like the quarter
system described). I'm not quite sure how to do this with a
diagonal though. Perhaps screwing a board down at an angle to
guide the first row?
HomeOwnersHub.com is a website for homeowners and building and maintenance pros. It is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.
