question for Bill about tile

17 years ago

Anyone else can give their opinion too. We are having about 1000 sq ft of Cerdomus Denver Stone tile put in our house. Imagine a late 70's house, standard ceiling height. The tile will be in the foyer which leads to the left into the L shaped formal living room, dining room. From the foyer if you go straight you will enter the family room with kitchen to the left. Kitchen and family room also lead into the breakfast area which leads into a large laundry room (there is a door into the laundry room). It is large enough that it has 5 windows it in so its not like a normal laundry room.

The tile color is Grey-Beige and it is a Medium shade variation but I have also been told that it is "Random". What I need to know is that since it is being put in so much of the house, should we have it laid on a diagonal or straight lines so that when you enter the house in the foyer, you can see a straight row of tile through the family room and if you look to the left, a straight row through the formal living room?

Or should we stagger the tile so that the grout lines don't meet but not in a diagonal pattern. Hubby is asking me what I want and my tendency is straight all the way through. This is not an open floor plan where you can see the the formal rooms from the family room. The kichen is like the U part blocking that view.

I don't want the rooms to look any smaller than they are as we don't have alot of windows or direct sunlight into the house. Plus after 38 years of marriage, hubby is saying we DON'T have to have all white walls! With color on the walls, I need to consider how that affects the lighting.

If it helps, here are the app. sizes of the rooms.

FLR - 16x12

FDR - 12x9.5

Fam Room - 16x13.5

kitchen - 9x13

breakfast -9x14

laundry - 8x13

foyer - 7.5x13

Any ideas will be appreciated. This is what I will be living with for many years and I don't want to make a major error in how it is laid.

Another question, Bill - you answered before that the Cerdomus tile is very hard and that you had to use a special blade. I am sure you would use a wet saw but what kind of special blade are you talking about?

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Comment (1)

bill_vincent
17 years ago
Any one of the three patterns would work. Laying out all those areas diagonally, though would definitely be alot more difficult, in making sure everything meshes together as it comes back together in the different areas. (read that as cost more) That's not to say it wouldn't be worth it. Diagonal always looks nicer. The broken joint wouldn't look bad either, though. I know I'm not being much help, but it all comes down to your own taste. As for the tile blade, I just took pictures of a normal tile blade next to the one I keep strictly for Cerdomus tile. Can you tell which is which? :-) (don't mind the full waste basket!)

Obviously the one on the right is the more agressive blade. It's actually made for cutting concrete block, and because it's segmented, it WILL cause some chipping on the edge of the cut. What you're looking at, though, isn't what makes the difference in cutting the heavier porcelain. This is:

If you notice, the segmented blade is about twice the thickness of the tile blade, meaning it won't flex under pressure as much, meaning it'll give you a much straighter cut, when trying to cut the harder materials.
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