Tiles size issue

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29 Mar 2009
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Berkshire
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So doing my first wet room, it's been a labor of love, weeks prep lifting floor, adding joists, filling in gaps with 22mm WPB, then laying an aqua-dec followed by tilesafe then Aqua panel and bal WP1 on the walls just to be safe. Tiled the floor making sure there was the correct fall to the drain, was really pleased then I came to the walls... As you can see from the image I built and tanked recessed storage within the walls, I worked out the height of these and the shower mixer based on the size specified by the tile manufacturer unfortunately as the tiles are from Italy only a small off cut was available as a sample so I had to work out the position of everything based on the their supplied Tech sheet. I double checked the height of everything after tiling the floor just to make sure nothing had changed and was chuffed all my allowances had worked out so i cracked on with the walls... Unfortunately when I got to the shower mixer and first hole I realised my measurements must have been off as a 'nasty' space was left above the tile at the bottom of the first recess, really hacked off with myself I checked everything again only to find the size of the tiles 15x90cm were actually 14.6x90cm and over the seven rows this meant I was just over 28mm out :( I spoke to the tile association who said those tiles are specified within a +/-1mm tolerance so 4mm is unacceptable so the tiles shouldn't be marketed with an 'EN/ISO' number. Regardless of what the tile association say i'm stuck... Gutted doesn't explain it, not sure what my options are but see them as follows:

1) Take the tiles off the wall and ask the supplier to supply tiles of the specified size. Problem with this is it will ruin the tanking, there is a 4 week lead time, my time and materials wont be covered

2) Crack on and cut the tiles round the recess and mixer, not ideal and wont give the required finish...

3) try and take up the space with some sort of mosaic infill, problem is there are other mosaics and mirrors in other areas so this could upset the balance

The tile company said they can come out in mid-feb and take a look, obviously I can't wait 4 weeks to have some sale rep turn up. The tile distributor said the tiles should have been measure first, which I normally do on slate etc to grade them. Guess this is a real expensive lesson for me as I must check porcelain before installing them :(

 
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IMO take tiles off...

Don't ever work out areas without the tiles in the room...

You have 2barriers of waterproof so shouldn't be to much damage...

As for tile size....14.6mm is the working size...so you would be looking at using a 4mm spacer peg to get your size...

The TA are correct to a point ..IMO...but lots off tiles will say a specific size...but aren't that said size....

Lets just take a 6"X6"..(150x150).....

It will say 150mm on the box but when you actually measure it...it could be 147/148mm so this will be your working size,so you will either use a 3/2mm peg to get your 150mm...

Usually the bigger the tile you will get a variation...well depends who the mfr is...and also the type off tile...
 
Still in two minds...

The two levels of tanking are for separate purposes, one for the floor and one for the walls. They overlap to for a watertight seal. As the tiles are nearly 1m long I need a pretty flat tiling surface unless I use a thick bed of addy but that will cost more, add to wall loads and have knock on effects in other areas. Removing the tiles will in all probabibility damage the wall tanking rendering it useless, forcing me to remove all addy ressadue then reapply the wall tanking and that's if the tilesafe membrane turning up the wall from the floor doesn't get damaged in the process... Feeling very unsure about having a second floor wetroom that perhaps has the tanking compromised, especially as I've spent ages ensuring it's done correctly

My tiles were meant to be 150mm and I allowed for a 3mm peg (153mm total) however they're only 145-146mm so way off...

Been onto the tile association and trading standards who say the tiles should be within +/-1mm and as the box clearly states the size, has bs stamp and European en no. they're not as described so can peruse for damages (labour & materials and any knock on effects) to rectify the issue.

Guess I'll need to give the tile manufacturer (Casalgrande Padana) time to respond but at nearly £40m2 I'm not very impressed with their tiles
 

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