Home Improvement: Selecting the Ceramic Tile in Scottsdale

In this short article you will find a few tips which may help you to select the right type of ceramic tile in Scottsdale, Arizona. Ceramic tile is a universal material. You can install ceramic tile anywhere - in the bathroom, in the bedroom, on the floor or on the walls.

The first thing you will need to do is measure the wall or floor area which needs to be tiled and calculate in square yards or square metres. Then work out how many of the chosen tiles there are in a square yard or square metre and multiply this by the area to be tiled. In Tile Market any of our Sales Advisors will be happy to help you with this.

When buying adhesive, a rough guide is as follows:
10 litres will cover approximately 7 square metres of tiles

When buying grout, a rough guide is as follows:
3.5kg covers approximately 8 square metres of tiles

Ceramic tiles can be glazed or unglazed. Glazed tiles are available plain or decorated and can be used on walls and floors. Unglazed ceramic floor tiles are more suited to commercial and industrial settings, but can be used in laundries and utility rooms. They are available with a non-slip profile.

There are many different types of ceramic tile in stores. To help you choose a ceramic tile to suit your needs, read carefully the following:

CLASS 1 Soft soled footwear or bare feet areas, bathrooms and bedrooms without direct access from the outside

CLASS 2 Living areas of homes but with the exception of kitchens, entrances and other rooms which may have a lot of traffic

CLASS 3 All residential uses including kitchens, halls, corridors, balconies and terraces

CLASS 4 Regularly commercial used areas, entrances, commercial kitchens, shopping centers...

CLASS 5 Heavy pedestrian traffic over sustained periods: public areas entrances such as shopping centers, hotels, airports...

Again it is important to prepare the area properly before you start tiling your floor:

- Tiling on to Concrete
New concrete must be at least 6 weeks old, and totally dry. The surface should be smooth, flat and free from dirt and grease.

- Tiling on to Wooden Floors
Exisiting wooden floors must be rigid, stable and capable of supporting additional load without flexing and have sufficient ventilation beneath them. You can either overlay the existing timber with 15mm exterior grade plywood, screw it down at 300mm intervals ensuring all junctions are supported by joists and use a flexible adhesive. Or you can overlay with special plastic sheeting and use a flexible adhesive. A flexible grout is also recommended.

- Tiling on to Vinyl Tiles
These should be clean and firmly adhered to the subfloor. Prime the surface of the vinyl tiles and allow to dry before applying the adhesive.

- Tiling on to existing quarries, glazed and unglazed tiles
Again these must be clean.

If you need to use ceramic tile on your walls, you should know the following:

- Find the lowest point of the base you are working to (skirtings, bath top,
work surface etc) with a spirit level

- Place a tile against the lowest point and draw a line on the wall along
the top of the tile

- Nail a batten along the wall to this line and use the spirit level to ensure
it is level. The first line of tiles will rest on this batten

- Draw a vertical (plumb) line at one end of the wall, one tile width away
from the edge. US this to check that the tiles are in line vertically