I ordered the tile for my kitchen backsplash today - 3x6" milk chocolate matte subway tiles - and am now wondering if I can get away with not using grout when I put them up. The sample board (see below) had them butted right up against each other, and I really like how it looks, but I'm not sure what role the grout plays in the whole tiling scheme of things. Is it to keep the tiles from shifting? Does it work as an adhesive? Is it purely decorative? I've searched pages of google results, and really didn't get a definitive answer. If I have to grout, I will, but one less step sounds good to me!
Also, am I crazy for trying to do the tiling myself? I'm a little nervous about having to use a wet saw to notch the tiles around the receptacles - if I can even find one to rent!
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Well, they're "acclimatizing" to my home environment ;) ...or in other words, I haven't started yet! But, I got to go to Home Depot this weekend, so managed to get the right colour of grout and a big tub of adhesive. My tile saw came in last week, and I'm putting the final coat of paint on my counters tonight. I should be able to start tiling by next weekend - yay! I'll post some pics as soon as it's done.
puddlejumper....how is the tiling going?
thanks for the tips. I am just waiting now for tile to come in. Still trying to find one trim piece that I know they make and can be ordered, but I can't seem to find anyone at HD who has a clue. Just a bit frustrating. I guess it's lucky I am not totally used to frustrating when it comes to house stuff in Calgary.
shower myself; went to a Home Depot seminar, read a few books. I had never ever tiled before bit it wasn't difficult, just time-consuming.
DBD, the worst and most time-consuming part was figuring out the layout; once you have that done, you arge good to go ! You want either a full tile or a grout line in the centre of the long or "feature" wall; I was looking at something the other day that was all chopped up, it looked awful; this way, the cuts at each side are about even... depends on the area that you are doing.
We have a bench in the shower, it is tiled too, so I started with my full tile in the middle of the wall above the bench, and carried it up above the ledge and down below the bench, too. I also tried to put my cut tiles at the bottom of the shower and at the top of the ceiling,
will try and dig out pics and post ...
Thank you, just need to find a colour now for the kitchen area that will go with the cabinets and moulding. We are open to any suggestions
Love the new tiles. They look fantastic and really finish your kitchen off.
For the backsplash, we used handy tile cutter with the long arm, and a tile clipper. We bought it from home depot, under $150. This is a not a wet cutter
Nice job. What did you use to cut your tiles? Any tips or hints for those of us considering the same sort of tile?
Yes there is a hint of yellow in the countertop, it's the butter rum countertop. It's been a crazy weekend, but we have got a lot done. I'll checkout the colour you mentioned
Wow - you guys are fast! Tile and crown moulding in one weekend is very impressive for a DIY project! From the pics it looks like you've got a bit of a yellow/gold tone in your countertop - what about something like BM Vellum? It's a nice mellow goldy colour that I think would look nice with your cabinets, backsplash, and counter.
Thank you very much.We didn't find it that hard to do in that pattern actually, and when it came to the recepticle area, we had to move them out from inside of the wall, so that the face place could fit back on.
We also did some crown moulding after that this morning, and here are some pics below
[IMG]http://s29.photobucket.com/albums/c279/ikennedy/?action=view¤t=IMG_0371.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://s29.photobucket.com/albums/c279/ikennedy/?action=view¤t=IMG_0370.jpg[/IMG]
Anyone got any colour suggestions for this kitchen area?
Chatterbox - that looks fantastic! :clapping:
Did you find that they were finicky to put up in the brick pattern? How were they to cut around the receptacles?
Very nice job it looks fabulous. :applaud:
Puddlejumper.....here is the finished work
[IMG]http://s29.photobucket.com/albums/c279/ikennedy/?action=view¤t=IMG_0369.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://s29.photobucket.com/albums/c279/ikennedy/?action=view¤t=IMG_0368.jpg[/IMG]
Also, I've got to try do dig up the right colour of grout...Rona carries a whole whopping 5 colours, none of which go with my tile. I'm heading south for the Easter weekend, so hopefully can hit Home Depot or an actual flooring/tile store to find a better selection.
We are just applying the grout now, the one we got is the Plyblend brand called "butter cream" and it looks absolutely gorgeous with the cream subway tiles as we apply it.
Puddlejumper do take a tile with you and forget HD and head straight to a tile or flooring store for grout. What you may want to check first though is whether the stores carry the grouts in stock or order them in. A lot of stores here need a day or two to get specific items in.
What you might find in your local stores is the brochure with the grout sample colours. Here is the site from the company who makes the grout I have so I know it's available in Canada. Maybe it will help you get what you want more easily.
[url]http://custombuildingproducts.com/ProductCatalog/Grout/PolyblendSandedTile.aspx?user=diy&lang=en[/url]
Puddlejumper taking your tiles out and gazing at them doesn't make you strange it makes you "offically one of us" :biglol: Can't wait to see you room all done.
Oooh!!!!! Please post your pics! I can't wait to see it!!! My kitchen painting is taking waaaay longer than I expected, so I likely won't be getting to the tile itself for a couple of weeks. Though, I do take one tile out of the box every so often and gaze at it lovingly......does that make me strange? :p
Also, I've got to try do dig up the right colour of grout...Rona carries a whole whopping 5 colours, none of which go with my tile. I'm heading south for the Easter weekend, so hopefully can hit Home Depot or an actual flooring/tile store to find a better selection.
puddlejumper.....we ended up getting the same cream subway tile you mentioned, from home depot and went with the 1/8" spacers for the grout line. We are actually laying it as we speak.
Will post pictures once it's done
From the research I've done, it seems the grout isn't purely decorative. It serves to seal the porous edges of the tile and keep dirt out from between the tiles. Even if the tiles are butted up together it may be possible for junk to get between them. That being said, I talked to 2 different salespeople at Rona, ang got 2 different answers. I'm going to go on the safe side and do a 1/8" gap, with a grout the same colour as the tiles (or as close as I can get), and hope that it just blends in.
BTW - I picked up my tiles yesterday and they are gorgeous!!!! :D
I've seen that backsplash at one of the kitchen displays at Home Depot and we were looking at how they grouted it and it didn't really look that good because you could see a very thin white grout line and I heard my DH say that he would do an invisible one instead to sort of go with the look of the tiles, a glassy look.
Funny you should post this, we are thinking of doing our backsplash this weekend as well, we did the ceramic floors on the kitchen last weekend. A home depot rep told us today that we don't need to grout the backsplash, just use the pre-mixed compund that they sell in a bucket?
Thanks for the replies! I have a feeling that the reason I didn't find any information about going groutless is because it's just not done! I will head over to that link DBD, and see what the pros have to say...but will start picking out my grout colour just in case.
I have to agree with dustbunnydiva about the link she provided, but I dont think there is anyway to avoid grout. I have never heard of anyone not grouting, its an important part of the tiling process. You dont want water getting in behind the tiles and grout prevents this, even tho you have to seal it. As far as epoxy grout, I had thought it would be the way to go, but I found out its extremely hard to work with,is very expensive, and smells pretty bad. My local tile guy said not to use it unless I had a professional doing it, and the cost was too much as well. Also, where there is going to be a lot of water, I would suggest putting ditra on the walls. Prep is an important part of any job, and as much as we would all like to cut corners, it makes for a much better job when done right the first time. Like Mike Holmes says, if you cant afford (or want) to do it right the first time, can you afford to have it done over again a second time?
Here I go again....get thee to [url]http://johnbridge.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=11[/url] and pose the question on the advice forum. You are sure to get some good answers there as both pro tilers and DIYers are there.
I think part of what grout does is seal the joints so water won't seep through. Some tiles (and you'd have to check the ones you got) have little knubs on the sides to use as spacers so you can't get them right up next to each other anyway. Also tiles aren't necessarily perfect just because of how they are made so you can imagine how water could work behind.
Meanwhile the contractor I had working here was telling me about epoxy grout. Totally waterproof although more caustic than other products to put on (you need a mask or something). It might be you could find something like that to use that would seal those joints without looking too grout like. I'm not sure, ask at John Bridge.
As for doing it yourself, I am debating the same thing. YOu can rent tile cutters as well as purchasing the type that score and break the tile (I think they start at $25 to buy compared to renting at $70/day). When it comes to the tricky cuts, I'm thinking of using my Dremel. They make a bit that looks like a drill bit for cutting right into ceramic. I think something like that would be more precise and easier to control than the cutters.
The real question for me seems to be how to handle walls that aren't square and how to space out the tiles when things are straight. If your backsplash is reasonably straight and level it should be easy enough to do yourself. Just make sure you get all the info you need to do it and the right tools.