Natural Stone....how to finish tile edge.

[wetdec]

Working With Stone

As stone has become more popular and specialist stone fixers are few and far between tilers take on a proportion of their work.

Most stone work such as sealing and maintenance can be researched but on the odd occasion tilers come up against practices they are not trained for. One of these practices is the finishing of external corners and edges.

In general corners and edges that tilers come across in the work place can be finished with a metal or plastic profile, on stone this isn’t always the best finish. Natural stone does not combine well with manmade materials and profiles are not made to accommodate stone tile thickness are just a couple of reasons why edges and corners may need some extra skills.

Traditionally where stone tiles meet at an external corner the edges are polished and fixed to produce a quirk , butt-up or masons mitre. Shaping after fixing to a half bull nose, or eased mitre are more recent options. In today’s workplace a half bull nose or eased mitre would be applied to travertine as this stone is soft and easy to shape, with marble or granite a quirk mitre, eased mitre or butt-up would be used. During the cutting of stone chipping of the edges often occurs, combine this with the dangers of
sharp edges and you see why full mitres are to be avoided.


Tile edge polishing

The word "marble" is colloquially used to refer to many stones that are capable of taking a high polish. When you polish something you are replacing scratches with finer scratches to the point where they are no longer visible.A polished or honed stone tile will often have a dull non descript edge which needs to be worked before a quirk mitre can be used.

To polish an edge the following tools would be required:

ØElectric hand grinder up to 2700 rpm
ØAbrasive disc backing pad
ØAbrasive discs at 50, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, 3000 grits
ØBuffing compound
ØFelt wheel

Using a work mate (a piece of inner tube one either side)clamp the tile so you are looking down on the edge to be polished and have a practice with your grits. Only you will see the results of each grit and be able to judge which ones you will or won’t need. Each stone is different so go easy until you have a process giving the finish you require then final polish using the buffing compound and felt disk. Polishing stone is like riding a bike a course can show you but you must educate yourself………..you have to feel it
and work with it………………….then you never forget.


The Quirk Mitre


The cutter is set to mitre the tile at 90 degrees. Lay the tile face down on your wet cutter using a pad to prevent scratching.

Draw the cutter towards you until it touches the tile and will cut to the corner. You are not cutting a full mitre so ease the tile away from the blade until it is cutting to 3 or 4mm from the corner, lock the guide.

The tiles are fitted together using a grout or resin filler to match the tiles.

The Masons Mitre



The masons mitre is created by notching one tile as per the diagram this joint is slightly more difficult as it requires cutting in 2 directions.
The result of the masons mitre will be visually the same as the quirk mitre but is a stronger joint


Butt Up Joint



The butt up joint is a simple joint leaving one polished edge visible. The visible edge should be made away from line of sight or internal as it is framed with grout. Resin or grout filler matching the stone can make this a nice clean joint.

The one failing of the butt-up joint is its sharp and sometimes dangerous edge. To avoid this edge the joint can be eased as below.


Eased Corner Joints


By easing a joint you are taking the edge back up to 2.5mm creating a blunt flat edge.

The ease is easiest to work on travertine because of its structure it can’t be polished without filling. Take off the sharp edge with a medium grit before grouting the new edge. When dry sand with a fine grit until smooth. A little colour intensifier will finish the ease nicely.


Half Bullnose



Seen here the half bullnose (isn’t quite) is the rounding off of the external edge letting the stone flow nicely.

This finish works an absolute treat on tumbled marble as you are not working with a polished surface. Rounding corners at window reveals in kitchens is straightforward and adds a touch of class and reflects well on the tiler.


All in all joints and edges in stone are not difficult but do take time to learn. Once you have your grits right then it becomes easy and you add a new skill to your trade. Don’t be put off by silly prices being charged for polishers it’s not about the tool there are low priced hand grinder s to be had and given the little use they get a heavy spend is not required.

[sandman]

hi and thanks for this excellent post ,very helpfull.
what is an eased mitre?any pics.
many thanks

[wetdec]

Done..............

[woodbutcher32]

Hi All, excellent post however I'm having trouble finding a grinder which revolves at such a slow speed!? (2700 rpm) can anybody help?

Cheers

[diamondtiling]

Hi All, excellent post however I'm having trouble finding a grinder which revolves at such a slow speed!? (2700 rpm) can anybody help?

Cheers

Have you tried Tradetiler?

Tradetiler.com Home

[woodbutcher32]

Cheers for the reply Diamond but they only seem to stock a Makita one which tend to run around 10,000 rpm.

[Dave]

Hi All, excellent post however I'm having trouble finding a grinder which revolves at such a slow speed!? (2700 rpm) can anybody help?

Cheers

You need a variable speed grinder or polisher to go that low....

Dewalt do a variable speed grinder and i have also seen one in halfords.. but i prefer to use a variable speed polisher..

[ozboz]

hi. makita sell a water fed grinder polsher, Ive got one, its a top machine, but not cheap, how much edging have you got to do ?

[Sir Ramic]

Do a search for Flex polishers

[woodbutcher32]

You need a variable speed grinder or polisher to go that low....

Dewalt do a variable speed grinder and i have also seen one in halfords.. but i prefer to use a variable speed polisher..

Cheers Dave, don't usually touch Dewalt gear I'm a Makita man, I'm a joiner by trade so my bathroom is very much a one-off so I only have about 10m of travertine to bull-nose up.

Oh and any tips on where to buy self leveller & primer around the Durham area where I won't get my eyes taken out would be good...

Cheers again

[diamondtiling]

I have a Bosch variable speed polisher, got it from screwfix many moons ago, its 110 volt and a great bit of kit.

[woodbutcher32]

Do a search for Flex polishers

They look the biz Sir but waaay out of my price range for a one-off job, I'll keep trying the variable angle grinder route then at least I may get a few more uses out of it.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply lads.

[Dave]

Cheers Dave, don't usually touch Dewalt gear I'm a Makita man, I'm a joiner by trade so my bathroom is very much a one-off so I only have about 10m of travertine to bull-nose up.

Oh and any tips on where to buy self leveller & primer around the Durham area where I won't get my eyes taken out would be good...

Cheers again

The one in Halfords is about 30 quid.. so worth it for 10m of stone..

where abouts are you and how much leveller do you need.. i might have enough..

[enduro]

Kestrel SIM180 Variable Speed Rotary Polisher £84.95 The new Kestrel SIM180 Professional Variable Speed Rotary Polisher offer a professional spec tool at an affordable price. Its sturdy construction, coupled with features found on machines at three times the price means it's affordable for all.
Features include:

• Soft Start, Lock on switch
• Variable Speed between 800 and 3000rpm
• Adjustable 6 speed setting dial
• Powerful 1300W Heavy Duty Motor
• M14 Spindle Thread with Spindle Lock
• 2-Position slide handle with D type Handle for greater control
• High Impact Housing with die cast aluminium head

The box contains:

• 1300w SIM180 Polisher
• 180mm Backing Plate (Hook & Loop)
• Spare Motor Brushes x 2
• D Type Handle and Side Handle
• Allen Key
• Bolts for handle x 2
• Instruction manual

We recommend ordering our professional 123mm M14 backing plate for use all 5, 6 and 6.5" pads. We also offer a 75mm M14 backing plate for use with our 3.5 and 4" spot pads.
This machine also comes with a 12 month return to base warranty - UK ONLY.
We offer a free take back service in compliance with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulation 2006, more information can be found HERE

[woodbutcher32]

The one in Halfords is about 30 quid.. so worth it for 10m of stone..

where abouts are you and how much leveller do you need.. i might have enough..

I've managed to get a borrow of one from a body shop mate so all good!

I'm down in langley Park mate, its to go over UFH on top of 12mm ply (over the top of 22mm Egger protect) I don't mind buying it from someplace or of course I could sort you a drink if you have some sitting around.

I've only ever done small ceramic jobs in the past so 2' x 1' travertine has me a little daunted (as well as a marmox tray and the ufh)

I should really have started a new thread instead of side-tracking wetdecs excellent post.

[cja]

has anyone tried the Kestrel SIM180 for tiling? what extras would you buy for polishing the edges with it?

might pop into halfords to get that 40 quid one to play with - are the pads that come with it any good for a small job?

[Al@Lifetiles]

I seem to be getting more and more stone work these days, which i really enjoy. I would like to know how much to charge for these extra skills such as bull-nosing stairs and polishing edges. I have a polisher and bull-nose attachment which i got from trimline and just try to re-coup some of the costs of these machines through materials on each job. Probably a question for the tilers arms (as prices cant/shouldnt be discussed on an open forum!) but just thought i would ask. Great post by the way Wetdec.

[Dave]

Help Me Where's the door to the Tilers Forums Arms? - TilersForums.co.uk | Tile Forums | Tiling Forum

[SPQR Tiling]

great post i have some pieces of emperador from my benchtop to play with.

What is the resin your talking about?

I would love to work with more stone, its such a pleasurable material to work with.

[ozboz]

Ther is another option mate as you only have 10 m to do, get some wet and dry and a rubbing block or any kind of sander, if the edges have small holes fill them with matching grout and go for it, with all this machinery around I think we forget all our first hand skills !! Cheers Steve akaozboz