Ogden's Flooring and Design
St. George flooring and design store offering carpet, tile, hardwood and vinyl, including large-format tile installation.
Ogden's Flooring and Design supplies carpet, tile, hardwood and vinyl in St. George. Tile has grown steadily larger over the past two decades - formats that were once specialty items are now ordinary - and large tile is a different installation problem from small tile, in ways that show up immediately if they are ignored.
Worth knowing
The governing issue is flatness. A small tile bridges a small distance, so a dip or hump in the substrate is absorbed across several tiles and nobody notices. A large tile is rigid and spans the whole defect, so it either rocks or sits proud of its neighbor at one edge. That misalignment between adjacent tiles is called lippage, and because it catches light and catches toes it is the most common complaint on large-format work. Industry standards tighten the substrate flatness requirement as tile size increases - a floor acceptable for small mosaic is not acceptable for a two-foot tile - which is why these jobs usually begin with self-leveling compound or a floated mortar bed rather than with tile.
Two other techniques follow from the same geometry. Mortar coverage has to be near complete under a large tile, which means back-buttering the tile as well as troweling the floor, because voids under a rigid span are where cracks start. And the traditional running bond with a fifty percent offset is discouraged for long planks and large tiles: most tile has a slight crown, and offsetting by half puts the highest point of one tile against the lowest point of its neighbor, which manufactures lippage from a perfectly good tile. A third offset or less is the usual recommendation.
Related on the site: handyman services and the St. George Parade of Homes. The directory lists all Flooring.
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Frequently asked questions
What is lippage in tile installation?
It is a height difference between the edges of adjacent tiles, so one sits proud of the next. It catches light across a floor and can be felt underfoot. Large tiles are far more prone to it because they are rigid and span any unevenness in the substrate instead of following it.
Why does a floor need leveling before large tile?
Because a large tile cannot conform to a dip or hump the way a small one can. Industry flatness tolerances tighten as tile size grows, so a substrate that is perfectly acceptable under small tile can be out of specification under a large format. Self-leveling compound or a floated mortar bed brings the floor within tolerance before tiling starts.
Why is a half-offset pattern discouraged for large tiles and planks?
Most tile has a slight crown across its face. A fifty percent offset places the highest point of one tile beside the lowest point of its neighbor, which produces lippage even when every tile is within specification. Reducing the offset to a third or less keeps adjacent edges at similar heights.
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