Used to do 2mm floor grout gaps unless customer wanted wider but did a floor last week with 3mm grout gaps 'cos some of you said this is the minimum recommended distance.
Keep seeing 2mm and 1mm grout gaps when I look in shops etc
What's the latest? 2mm not wide enough?


Cheers

Personally I like to see a wider gap on floors than is generally used on walls

i.e 2mm-3mm on walls and 5mm ish on floors.

I have also in the past done a floor job with a grout gap of around 15mm at the customers request I may also add.

Ask your customer what he would like and advise accordingly, at the end of the day it is what will look best for each job you do.

thanks for that! - the gist of the 3mm + rule was that floor tiles shouldn't be any closer in case of any movement of the floor in the future.
But you're right customers have their own ideas on what looks the best and so do we!
cheers

I use 3mm on ceramic, porcelain etc, but stone tiles it can vary, say a nice travertine chisel edged I'd use 5mm, but on trav which is factory cut edges I go with 2mm..........marble 2mm etc..........

if you're confident there's no movement in floor I suppose it's ok to size down, but personally I don't go below 3mm unless absolutely neccessary, ie four size pattern etc.

thought 4mm was standard

I use 4mm, for floors, unless customer asks for different.

Originally Posted by d noulton

thought 4mm was standard

my preferred choice

unless customer asks i usually tend to use 4mm on floors although i do think polished,trav and marble look better with 2mm(unless it's b&q's famous 600mm2 polished lol)

I favour 2mm for walls and 3mm for floors unless customer requests otherwise. If the floor is somewhat out of level then I will opt for 4 or 5mm.

3mm or 4mm unless rectified then i use 2mm

2 for walls, 3 for standard floors, 5 if uneven and 2 for rectified

different grout sizes on walls and floors can cause a problem if the customer has tiles that are the same dimensions, sometimes they want the lines on walls and floor to marry up. Then you need to get the customer to agree what with is ok,
if u hav different on walls and floor, your lines wont meet

I mostly have 4-5mm on floors,your right tina about the marrying up.I even had before and the wall tiles were half a mil out so i had to adjust the floor wider to suit,looks great when its done.

Originally Posted by Tina

different grout sizes on walls and floors can cause a problem if the customer has tiles that are the same dimensions, sometimes they want the lines on walls and floor to marry up. Then you need to get the customer to agree what with is ok,
if u hav different on walls and floor, your lines wont meet

I aint done a job yet with same size tiles on floors and walls. Your quite right in what you say though, if that is what the customer wants. I can see it being a pain to set out properly though!

some people are quite fussy and will go mad if they don't get matching lines unless u can convince them to have their joints offset

Originally Posted by davy_G

I aint done a job yet with same size tiles on floors and walls. Your quite right in what you say though, if that is what the customer wants. I can see it being a pain to set out properly though!

Hello Davy,i have done at least 6 with the joints all lining up,looks really nice bit a pain to line for sure,the best way in my eyes and practice is to tile the floor first,(obviously taking into account your walls i.e centering on window etc).Then using my 6' level i mark the wall fron the floor,works a treat for me.

remember doing a floor a couple of years ago I suggested 4mm as per normal for me she said I want at least 8mm done as she said I thought it looked awful she loved it so give em what they want their paying the money personal choice at the end of the day we can only give our advice

It all depends on the substrate.. If it's ultrasolid, and there's little or no risk of shrinkage, then you can go thinner. Otherwise, go thicker. It is rare that I go thinner than 3mm on floors. Normally, I go around 5mm.

Yep, 5mm on floors for me

Customer is King true enough....but he/she can also be a pain dans le butt!

My personal preference is 3-4mm on ceramics, marble and porcelain i generally go for 2mm as most of the tiles have rectified edges.
Natural stone like trav or slate I tend to use about 5mm gaps. Ultimately the choice is the clients, and they have the final word.
I remember one job client brought 20x20 rectifeid porcelain tiles for floors and walls and he wanted no gap as thats how they had them in the showroom. He was addamant that he wanted no gap. I explained that this was not possible and he had to have a gap of 2mm min, after a lot of explaining and a bit of comprimise we agreed on a 1mm gap on the walls and a 2mm gap on the floors

Customer is always right of course but let us not forget the reason we have grout joints....it is not just so it "looks nice". They have a function and if the joint is insufficient for the circumstances then the joint will not be doing it's job properly and can give rise to more potential for failure.