The Key To A Successful Tile Installation...

Tile Vanity Top with Hammered Brass Sink, Hope Ranch CA

The key element to a successful tile installation and also the most neglected is?? Layout!... arguably the most under appreciated install-element. This despite the fact that proper layout is crucial if one is to produce a visually pleasing tile job. So then, why is this initial phase often given so little attention or even neglected? One reason is that proper layout takes time and thought. It is somewhat like solving a puzzle (how best and where to begin?) which can be frustrating to the over-eager tile setter who wants to start setting tiles and complete the installation. The irony here is that a well considered layout IS where the installation begins.

So the tile setter must begin well to finish well. Put another way - setting a proper course is necessary in order to reach the desired destination. Without proper planning the outcome of a tile job is often less than satisfactory. Yet when the layout part of the installation has been well executed, the result is a completed tile job that simply looks right. When that end is reached there will be no regrets on the part of the tile setter and certainly the customer for the time spent on this initial stage of installation.

The above photo is of a small vanity top that I did years ago in Hope Ranch, CA. The tile is the 4-1/4" Cobalt gloss tile manufactured by Dal-Tile. Notice that the tiled top has a symmetrical appearance, i.e. there are mirrored cuts around both sides of the sink trim tile. To accomplish this the tile setter needs to plan out a pattern and decide where he must begin setting the tiles. This takes time. How to proceed? In order to have the same cuts around the hammered brass sink, it was necessary to put a "dutchman" (a tile cut to a particular size in the middle of the field to create visual balance) in the center of the front edge trim tiles. Determining the need for a dutchman and its size was the key to the layout and a successful installation. Once the right size dutchman cut was set along with the rest of the front trim, the equally-sized cuts on the vanity top around the sink trim tile fell automatically into place. The saying in real estate is "location, location, location." In tile setting it is "layout, layout, layout!"