Custom 3D Wall Tile Solutions in Washington DC – Part II
This past week, we looked at several different images from a bathroom built with a three-dimensional tile. This tile has more than just a bit of a texture at the surface, It has relatively distinct shapes away from the wall plane. It looks pretty interesting. It’s not the type of thing you put everywhere though because it doesn’t fit with all different styles of aesthetics.
We mentioned this past week, this type of tile looks very modern. We wouldn’t even really call it contemporary. It looks a little bit more advanced or futuristic.
As we mentioned, these particular type of tiles are very large. They’re not like the historic type of texture tiles that are just 4×4 or 6×6 size. They’re also very different than mosaics. Mosaics are small little pieces that may have a lot of visual contrast and interest, but these instead are single large pieces with small areas of detail in the surface.
The installation of these types of large tiles requires a different type of substrate preparation. Generally, installation on a wall can be a bit easier than installation on the floor. This is for a few different reasons. One of the important ones here though is that a wallboard surface, if well prepared, can be more true than a typical floor system. This particular statement isn’t necessarily perfectly true across the board, but when dealing with a concrete floor substrate, there’s generally a high degree of variability in the trueness and flatness of the surface. By comparison, wall board can be flatter.
Having a very flat surface is important if a tile is very large. Inconsistencies in the levelness or trueness of the setting of the tile can be hidden, to a large extent, in a very large grout line.
Essentially, the larger the grout line, the easier it is to hide inconsistencies in the trueness of a tile setting. The amount that a tile is set out of parallel is essentially most extreme at the edges. It’s essentially amplified or cumulative at those points. The amount of difficulty in the level of required skill is a function of the overall size of the tile and the comparative size of the grout line. You could basically express this level of difficulty in the form of a ratio.
In the picture below you can see the kind of lippage that is common with large tiles combined with small thin grout lines. The tile color here happens to be the same as the grout color. This grout line is meant to be minimalist. However, with the lighting coming down from the ceiling, it exaggerates the shadow caused by lippage. Fixing lippage, shown here below, at this point, is very difficult. It’s not as easy as just taking the tile out and putting in a new tile. That can be done, but it’s going to be also very hard to adjust the new tile at level once the current tile is removed.
It’s generally an ordeal trying to deal with fixing the substrate. Often in bathrooms we recommend the installation of a cement tile backer board. These type of boards are much more durable and much more water resistant than pretty much any type of gypsum board. They are more expensive though and they come in smaller sizes so they require more details in installation.
Theoretically, if this tile is to be removed, it will be a very tedious operation. And even though this doesn’t look perfect, we’ve picked out some of the worst spots and we’re not sure that it’s clearly out of acceptable tolerances. From a quality control perspective, it’s a pretty good idea to keep an eye on these kinds of tile joint variances, especially at the area around head height.
A specific eye level depends on the viewer. Some people are short, some people are tall. Obviously, there’s a range in what eye level is to different people. Generally, we recommend keeping a very close eye on these types of details from about 4 ft to about 7 ft above the finished floor height. This is not a hard and fast rule, it’s just a rule of thumb.
Dupont Kitchen & Bath Can Help
As dedicated and local DC metropolitan kitchen and bath builders and installers, we pride ourselves on turning your visions into reality. Your kitchen and bathrooms can reflect your unique style and be designed with personalized aesthetics. It can be a process from creative designs to the realization of your dream space. Specializing in kitchen and bath construction in DC, we bring expertise and skills to every project. If you’re contemplating a renovation, upgrade, or modernization in the local market, we’re happy to be your team. Consult with us, and we can start together on a path to redefine and elevate your DC living experience.
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