Tile Experts??
 

I am going to tile my Living room floor. I need some advice before I lay 500 sq. ft. of tile. $$ is a concern..as usual.. My concern is, I am looking at an 18"X18" ceramic tile at Home Depot... The price is right...but I'm worried about the quality..Will it hold up as far as wear/scratching etc. It is a ceramic tile. Any advice, comments appreciated.

check the grade of the tile, the higher the grade the higher the quality.

this site has some good info --> Buying Tips For Ceramic Tile

Get Porcelain Tile, it is much stronger than ceramic. As Fishsmith says, get a high grade. I think 6 is the highest. Also, the larger the tile, the more chance it will crack on a floor that moves or is uneven.

If the subfloor is solid as a rock and level, you should not have a problem. Also, I wouldn't tile over wood. Make sure it is on cement, or cement board (hardi or durock)

buy one and see how much abuse it can actually take

Don't know what they have that size but Overstock.com sometimes has some nice tile. I bought all my bathroom floor tile there.

But all things considered I'd hit a local shop before HD. Might pay a bit more but it's probably worth it.

-spence

x2

I tiled my bathrooms, shower and mud room in my house and would go to a local shop first.....

Most H.D. tile is not square or flat. They buy seconds. It all depends on how picky you are, and how easily you want the installation to go.

18x18 ceramic tile? DON'T Do it
Get Porcelain like Piscator said

this is your living room, not a seldom used room
go with porcelain, it won't chip as easy or not at all, ceramic will chip,break and fail much earlier than a good porcelain tile

get in touch with NIB. ( Tony).. he is a tile dude. a master of tile to be specific.

I'd stay away from ceramic tile as well. Porcelain is the way to go and you can get some decent enough stuff at the depot. For my kitchen I went to a local tile showroom where the selection was better. Consider using a underlayment such as Ditra; it's your house after all.

I'm laying it on concrete that is level. It's just me here so it won't get a lot of abuse. I'm going to look at the porcelain but I think the price is going to be too high. Here is the link to the tile I'm considering. Let me know what you think.
18 in. x 18 in. Caribbean Sand Ceramic Floor and Wall Tile-3109 at The Home Depot

The tile looks nice but it just isn't as durable as porcelain. I've dropped my 20oz hammer on my kitchen floor and the tile didn't even chip. Another concern is the existing concrete floor. Is it 100% moisture free? Is it going to settle? You should be able to get a porcelain tile at the depot for around $2.00 a square foot, if not less. Try to consider the membrane anyway...
Schluter-DITRA - Schluter-Systems

Good luck and let's see pictures!

Yeah it's 100% moisture free. 2nd floor Condo with concrete slab here in Florida. I like the sound of .68 a sf rather than $2.00 though..lol

sears has cheapo knee pads for 6 bucks that actually stay on
so comfortable you'll realize they're still on when ya go grocery shopping

Ceramic is definitely no good for floors.

I think that is really a wall tile even though it says floor and wall.

Grade 1 tile has no real durability.

Think of it this way, if you use it your floor will be half assed. If they don't break for you they will for the next owner.Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

FWIW I am no expert at tile. I have tiled 2 bathrooms, a laundry , and 2 kitchens, one was Canalratts. I put ceramic on the floor in a rental, it has held up well for 7 years and the last 5 with a toddler dropping crap on it. I have only had 2 issues. The first was the laundry while we were still working on the house my buddy dropped a 26 oz hammer on a tile and it cracked. I replaced it. My wife dropped a jar in front of the fridge, jar broke, and it chipped the edge of one tile where the jar hit. Ceramic doesn't look as nice as other stuff, but it is clean and new so it will be fine. IMHO if it is just you I say go for it if it needs to be done and the money is not there, you will be fine. It is tile on concrete, you can always replace it again when you have more money or you are sick of it.

"Grade: Use Grade 1 or 2 tiles for floors. Grade 3 tiles are suitable only for walls.
PEI Wear Rating: Use floor tiles with a PEI wear rating of III, IV or IV+."

The tile I'm looking at is Grade 1 with a PEI rating of IV which seems like it will be fine for floor use. BTW I have about 30+ tile jobs under my belt and have never had an issue using ceramic on floors. I'm just always concerned with buying HD sh!t...but the price is so damn right..I figured I'd ask...

I got that info from the HD site...I just hope it's true......
http://www.homedepot.com/hdus/en_US/...label_info.pdf

Ahhh, I was reading the sheet wrong. My bad...

FWIW I'd still try and go a little better. I don't trust HD on stuff like that, while they do sell some quality products I've always found much of their building materials to be of lower quality. You're in Florida, I'd think tile shops would be as common as pawn shops :hihi:

Have you looked at a local tile shop? I'd think they could get you into something in between.

-spence

Yeah Spence there are a million tile shops within a mile of me..:) and just as many pawn shops but the $$$ is 3-5 times Depot $$$. I'm not building a Palace here and it's only me and an occasional straggler..if ya know what I mean..so not much chance of heavy traffic. I just hate carpet and want to rip it the h$ll up.....

i'd wager bamboo flooring
would be cheaper
and it's tougher than oak.

Prefinished bamboo is an excellent choice.When I used to have a job many of the houses we did over the past few years the homeowners used it and loved it.

If you do porcelain make sure you have a good blade on the wetsaw. Cutting it w/ a beat up blade is rough. And bamboo is great
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Nah...No wood...too many fish tanks....:fury:

Not sure where you're getting your info from, but that is incorrect.(please don't say the internet)

When Home Depot buys tile, they buy tile for over 2,000 stores, they buy in bulk, unfortunatley no mom and pop store can compete, there fore their prices will be higher. If you want to use them by all means do, and if you happen to find it less expensive there and it's apples for apples, HD will meet and beat that price by 10%.
Home Depot dictates price, not the Vendors. Home Depot carries ceramic tile from .68 cents a sq. ft. to over 4.00 in stock, more product available thru special order. Quality of the product(ingredients in lamens term) dictate price, it has absolutely nothing to do with not being square or flat or cut incorrectly. Have people run into issues with tile? Perhaps, but most of the time, it's mixing calibers not unsquare tile. People spend 60k on Rang Rovers and some have issues with them, most don't. You can make a case about issues with almost everything on this planet.
If you buy 10 cases of ceramic tile you'll only need to be sure of 2 things dye lot and caliber need to be the same with EVERY box. People run into tile issues, when they mix lots, and the calibers are different. You can find that info stamped on the side of the box.

Single guy living alone in a home, those 18 x 18 tiles are more than good enough. Don't bother using hardi backer, cementboard, durock, you're already tiling on a cement slab. Keep in mind the bigger the tile, the more difficult it is to install, (you'll notice any depresseions or high spots in the slab) although it does speed up the process being bigger. Use the bigger notch trowel, 1/2" x 1/2" square notch or at the very least 1/4" x 3/8" square notch trowel on the floor butter the back of the tile, it's your house, do it right.
If your floor isn't perfectly flat, you'll tend to notice it more with a bigger tile, so buttering the back will help with that.

Custom blend(thin set mortar) from Home Depot is ok, i prefer Laticrete from Lowes, just my preference, ease of application. Again just my opinion, haven't used Custom in quite some time, maybe it's gotten better. If it was a small room i'd use speed-set, stuff is great, but sets up quick. You can grout after 2+ hours. Stuff came in handy, when doing bathrooms, didn't have to come back the next day and grout, could do it all in one day. Do not use pre mix anything, that stuff is crap, use dry product, both mortar and grout. Mix it to a peanut butter consistency, should be easy to spread but also thick enough to stay on the trowel. (Grout i mix just a tad bit smoother, easier to get into the grout space) Use sanded grout if you're going with a decent size grout line. Don't use non-sanded, stuff is easier to spread, but doesn't hold up well in big grout lines, Rule of thumb, sanded for the floor, non sanded for the walls, unless you're doing granite,marble,etc.

Don't leave the spacers in, don't push them down and grout over them, remove them. Grout and thin set don't adhere to them for a reason, so you can remove them prior to grout.
I'm far from a pro, and some people might disagree with what i'm saying, just going off what has worked for me. I've done more than enough side jobs (over 15 yrs) with a retired floor guy(he's the real pro) floors, bathrooms, tub surrounds, jacuzzis, outdoor patios etc, to know a little bit about tiling. Good luck.

As far as that tile, it's well worth the price, and definitley acceptable for that application.

Thanks Good2hook, just the info I was looking for. I appreciate it. You got me thinking now, I may go with a smaller tile for the reasons you mentioned. Thank you again for the good info.

fishaholic,

from my experiences with HD's tiles they do varies in sizes so when you set them you might have to play around with them to make the grout line look straight. i tend to be a stigler with that. but if you don't mind the differences in sizes and grout joints then go for it. I'm sure you know this, but if you use large tiles make sure you use 1/2" trowel for adhession and especially over concrete floor cause they tends to never be flat. good luck, -mike.

Sorry George, I tend to agree with Night Shift, I have had to deal with it myself, all the marble tiles the customer bought there were 1/16" out of square. A nightmare to install when not using spacers. I'm not saying it's like that with all their tile but it was for that batch I ended up with. Ya get what ya pay for. Lowes ain't any better.

If you're looking for good tile that you know will be square I suggest Boston Tile on Jefferson Blvd in Warwick.If you have a buddy with a contractors license have him go with you and get the discount.