Hi Tom,

I am getting ready to put travertine on my bathroom floor and shower wall. I have 16? square tiles. I am thinking of cutting some of them to 16 x 8 and 8 x 8 inch pieces for a more interesting look. I would rather put them tight together. Do I need to have a grout line between them, or will this create a sealing problem?

Thanks,

Mike

Hello Mike,

I think your idea sounds like a very nice idea but you need to know that you are embarking on a larger task then you think. First of all, yes, you need to leave a grout joint of 1/8″ because you need to install grout. If you do not install grout, water will seep through and create mold at joints. Also, creating a joint with a multi size pattern actually looks pretty good and give an ‘old-world’ feeling. Tight joints also make it very difficult to avoid noticeable lips between tiles because there is not grout transition.

Secondly, do the math. You want the cut tiles to line up so you must create a joint that is the same width as the blade you use to cut the tiles. For example, Cut a 16″x16″ tile in half. Now you have two tiles that are 16″x 7 15/16″. This means that you need a 1/8″ joint to align them with the 16″x16″ tile. Same goes for cutting them again to smaller sizes. This assumes that your blade is 1/8″ wide, which is typical.

Best Wishes,
Tom Cordova

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 at 8:47 pm and is filed under Answers to Travertine Questions..., Installation Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.