My wife and I went to an auction at a tile place today, and they were getting rid of a couple hundred lots of overstock, discontinued and overrun carpet, tile and hardwood flooring.
We picked up a nice pallet, 400+ square feet of a 4×4, Italian tumbled stone tile. Supposedly marble, it’s pink and blue and tan, and looks really awesome. Rough stone texture. We want to put it in a master bath shower on the floor and walls, and use some on a kitchen backsplash.
I’ve never worked with anything but your traditional porcelain glazed wall and floor tile, and was wondering if there’s anything special I should know about this stuff. I don’t want to wreck it – it was expensive enough even at auction. I’ve been to the John Bridge forums but was hoping someone here might be able to contribute a tip or thought about installation and/or maintenance.
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You might need to use white thinset. The grey thinset will sometimes bleed through the marble tiles, especially green for some reason. It only costs about $2 a bag more.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
You use special thinset for green marble. Not so much about the color(that too) but it "cups" so they claim.
I did a huge bathroom floor in my last house with 12x12 Tiawan green marble and used "boxes" of that thinset.Home Depot carries it. Its a LOT more money but you can walk on it the same day so thats another plus.
You don't need it for TM though. I just used white thinset with a liquid latex mortar additive vs. water. The marble was an almondish color. Earth tones. Be careful to buy the right bag of thinset...its the cheaper stuff that you want. Says on the bag that the LLMA will enhance the holding power.The secret of Zen in two words is, "Not always so"!
When we meet, we say, Namaste'..it means..
I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides,
I honor the place in you of love, of light, of truth, of peace.
I honor the place within you where if you are in that place in you
and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us.
Just finished a large walk in shower with tumbled 4x4 marble as well as the backsplash in my kitchen....Whaddya copyin' me or sumpin...LOL.
Tumbled marble is pretty soft which makes it easy to work with.
If I need a factory edge where I make a cut like around diamond inserts I chip the edges a hair with a small spackle knife edge then use sand paper to round the sharp edges. Easy!
I use a my wet saw on all cuts. My snap cutter isn't great to cut TM because it is so soft. Chips too easy. The wet saw cuts it literally like butter.
Some TM is sealed...you can tell. Has a sort of glaze on it. If it doesn't, especially in your shower then seal it when the grout cures.
I love TM. Can't get enough of it. I did another bathroom floor here in it besides my walk in shower (with a tiled 5'x2' bench seat) and kitchen backsplash.
Its real mellow loking. Warm and comforting.
In the shower I used TM mosaic for the floor on mud.
Be well and have fun
andy
The secret of Zen in two words is, "Not always so"!
When we meet, we say, Namaste'..it means..
make many test panels before you settle on grout and sealers....The colors change a lot...I did 10 or 15 to get a back splash right...(and had a hundred bucks of sealer left over....)
Bud