Metal bullnose will fit under the tiles, making a rounded over edge.



Sometimes the tile manufacturer will also have pieces that are rounded over for this purpose.

 

Thanks Jack

I was at a tile shop today and they dont have an edging heavy enough to take a cars weight. They suggested a ironmonger could fabricate something but Id rather not.

How did you do yours? A screed of mortar? Currently my drive is flush to my concrete floor so I anticipate a 15/20mm step.

 

I found a plastic lip at home depot. It has held up for several years now even when my H2 drives over it. It does have a little flex but has not cracked.

 

Yeah. They're wrong. The bullnose really doesn't bear any weight. I just tapered in some vinyl concrete compound on mine. It's been fine.

I'm puzzled by the notion that tile and thinset would be 15-20mm thick. Is it some kind of special tile? Mine is probably less than a half inch thick (less than 12mm), as set.

 

On the metal bullnose you can fill the rounded part with non shrink grout and never have to worry about it crushing.

 

Ive probably over estimated with the overall thickness Jack. The tiles looked the normal to me (around 7mm) and I didnt realise the depth required for the mortar/thinset. An uneducated guess really.

The bullnose with grout sound a good idea, thanks mattgarrett

 

Well I've made a start with some cheap ceramics...

Due to undulations in my floor I'm a little nervous it's going to crack as soon us a put a car on it. In parts the tiles soun almost hollow when tapped yet when I lift them again they seem to have made contact with the adhesive.

As a test like jack tried, I smacked one tile once with a rubber hammer... It split! I'm now thinking though it'll be because it hasn't had time to set so the adhesive with move/ flex. I hope. I'm using a 6mm trowel and buttering the back of the tiles. Buttered smooth though so only really filing gaps.

It's going to take me days to do this so if I'm wasting my time please let me know!

 

Make sure you back butter the tile also to get a good strong adhesion. I have commercial grade tile but have not had one crack yet in 4 years.

 

spread your thinset in one direction on the floor, butter the back of your tile in multiple directions then scrape back of tile in one direction, apply tile with grooves in thinset on floor and back of tile parallel to each other push tile into thin set, slide tile while applying pressure one half inch into correct position, do not move or disturb tile again. once tile is set you can check your work. should be no voids when applying tile this way. in TN commercially applied tile has to be done this way if it will be inspected or they make you tear it up and do it again. sorry to hear about your cracked tile. Try it this way, I am sure you will have better results.

 

Thanks for the replies lads.

So I should grove the back of the tile with 6mm as well? I've made the mistake of grooving floor only and smoothing tile.

Basically I've done this
'Fortunately' I've only laid 70 out of 300 so hopefully caught it early enough.

 

My floor has huge amounts of waviness to it. So long as you're not bridging large gaps, you're going to be fine. But don't test (or do much of anything) to the thinset while it's driving. It's concrete, basically, and takes days before it reaches its specified strength.

I had never set tile, and really didn't know what I was doing. My tile has been fine for five years. It's seen multiple engine drops, all sorts of abuse. I think you're going to be fine.

I grooved the thinset on both the floor and the back of the tiles.

 

Thanks Jack. I laid another 30 today using the groove technique on rear of tile. I found this more time consuming and than a smooth buttering but my biggest issue was grooving right to the edges so I've a feeling I could have bother with the edges. Saying that - it only appears to be the first row that's not perfect.

I checked the rest of the tiles the evening - they've been down 24+hours - and they seem sound. No hollow sound either when tapped even where there had been previously.

By the way, any tips on keep the face and joints cleaner? Probably just down to practise but I'm spending too much time cleaning up my 'snotters'.


I'm getting there slowly but my knees are killing and I'm used to manual labour - though heavier work and less kneeling.

 

The job so far. I'll likely do a build thread once things are complete.











The tile that's missing wasn't sitting right so I took it out, then couldn't get back to it!

 

Looks great. My tile subcontractors make it look so easy, if I do it myself it takes forever. I had about 300 sq ft in 3 different closets layed in about 30 minutes. Just amazing how fast you can get with practice! Can't wait to see the finished product. What kind of grout are you going to use? I usually get my guys to do epoxy grout now. I don't like cracking grout or stains.

 

The black and white gloss with the orange p car is insane hotness. Saved this for later. Thx!