Border thicker than tile. Does it matter

[chrish]

Hello eveyone, thanks for all the help I had last night with my question re tiling around my bath. My next question is my border is a little thicker than my tile. I have put a few on they look ok but they stand proud of the tile. Does this matter, do you think it generally looks ok when it is finished this way. The only alternatives are to change my borders, to dig into the plaster a little or to apply more adhesive to the main tiles. What are your views before I go any further, once again thanks in advance.

[whitebeam]

I'd try and get the border tiles changed

[Sir Ramic]

What thickness difference are we talking about ?
You could use a deeper notch trowel for the main tile as long as you used a cement based addy.

[doug boardley]

If your field tiles are on, don't take them off to bed them out. Personally it depends how much you like your borders, if you really like them and can't get thinner ones the same, I'd stick with them even if it means a slight overhang

[chrish]

Hi thanks for the replies so far, I suppose a couple of mms thicker. seems to look ok but not sure if this is a no no with real tilers!

[Sir Ramic]

So if you used an 8mm trowel for main tile and 6mm for border it would be sorted ?

[Colour Republic]

Hi thanks for the replies so far, I suppose a couple of mms thicker. seems to look ok but not sure if this is a no no with real tilers!

wouldn't do it to a paying customer if that's what you mean, but it's your house so if you don't mind then that's all that matters

[Phil Hobson]

I would agree with Sir Ramic and Doug on this one. If I use a travertine mosaic with a ceramic, I do'nt mind the border being slightly proud. But as Sir Ramic says using a smaller notched trowel for the border will help reduce the difference.

[CJ CERAMICS]

if you are happy with the result then i guess the answer to your question is no it doesnt matter......if you are married i'd ask the wife first though!!!

[Dave]

You could use a chrome insert trim either side of the border... this will deal with the thickness and give a nice finish and greater depth..

[Colour Republic]

The man with a plan!

[fergy7197]

My mosaic border on my bathroom did have a slight overhang - but it was only a few mm's. depending on the style - as you can see in mine I think it suits it.

but each to there own!

you can see the pics here!

My 1st stab at tiling!

[aph257]

i'd defo ask the missus.

[Varley]

I think this is just personal preferance, sometimes I think having the border sitting proud adds effect, sometimes it just doesn't look right, my advice would be if your happy with it go ahead, if not try some of the above

[doug boardley]

if your borders have a profiled face, there's nowt you can do, but have a proud surface somewhere

[david campbell]

this happens more often with people buying 8mm ceramics or porcelain tiles and 12 mm travertine/stone mosaic sheets and wanting them cut up as borders,if you haven't already started then i would use 2 depths of trowel to compensate but i've been asked to have them proud before and they still look fine

[Sir Ramic]

If you do leave them proud just be aware that should you fit a shower screen etc in the future you could come across problems as the fittings wont sit flat against the wall. There are ways to get around this but some can seem a 2nd class job.

[tfs]

based on 25x33 tiles (and the wall is flat)

I would normaly use the following,

6mm trowel for the 25x33 tiles to fix to wall

&

3mm or 4mm trowel to fix the mosaic border tile.

This works for me majority of the time.

As Dave already mentioned chrome pencil bars/listelos are a great way to make any discrepancies with flatness more subtle as these have a curve on them that protutrudes beyong the tile anyway.

[BoltonTiler]

everyone who see's a nice tiling job stands back admires then does the touchy thingy thing, on wall's anyway (or is that just me).......place the tile to be fixed and the border on a flat surface then determine the the discrepancy. if it feels nice fix it, or make pre adjustments to make good.

[BoltonTiler]

think i have a fetish with how tiles feel, dont tell the wife though, shes been banging on about large formats for yonks

[Wingn]

In the situation, I'd sometimes ramp out the tile above and below the border the few extra mm. If things were extreme, you could offset with a 12mm trowel down to a 6mm. Other option would be feather out gradually and back butter the tiles round the border.