JohnfrWhipple
BATHROOM DESIGN & BUILD
Yesterday after work I checked my email and found a letter from one of Terry Love's viewers. This viewer emailed me directly and ask about how to address the detail of tile where it ends on wall, when no bullnose is available. This is a common theme in today's tile selection. Most do not have them at all and dealing with the edge is often tricky.
For most tile setter and Do It Your Selfers the answer is a Schluter Profile. Tons of sizes and colours - personally I can not stand all the metal accents in our shower builds and find that most times the Schluter Profiles are butchered by the installer upon installation.
Putting my grip about these profiles aside - lets answer the question. First lets read the original email....
"I see the quality work you do (on Terry's forum), and I have a question about what I should do for outside edge treatments on tile walls.
My wife selected 12" x 24" tile - about 3/8" thick. There is no bullnose. I'm exploring two options:
Roll the edge - just a bit - like a 1/16" radius. I was considering sanding the edges with an angle grinder, with progressively finer grits. Then slightly polish the edge. Would this work? My fear is that I can't give each tile the same radius freehand.
The other was Schluter Rondec. I read the Schluter instructions .... their reccomendation is to tile the opposing wall first. This makes sense, cause then you can position the Rondec aligned with the tiled corner - you don't have to worry about the thickness of the tile. Then use thinset and apply the Rondec to the other wall. Do you really bed the entire strip Rondec in thinset? - cause I sure can't do the entire wall in a day
I was thinking more like taping the Rondec to the wall, and applying thinset as I laid the courses of tile.
The other question is the height of the Rondec - if my tile is 3/8" thick, and I'm using 1/2" notched trowel - how do you figure out the height of the Rondec?
Thanks for your help. ...."
Rolling the edge - This is a possibility and doable. Most Porclean tile has a solid colour and if this was to be attempted I would first pre-cut all the outside tiles to size. I would make a jig to clamp the tile in place and use my angle grinder and polishing pads to get the bullnose close. I would start with a 100 grit and then 200 and then 400. This is incredible dusty work. Most of these pads require water but that makes a massive mess. We use them dry and outfit a room with one of my Air Cleaners and My Hepa fans.
I'll do a video for this fellow today and post it on You Tube.
You will want to seal the edge with something like Enrich-N-Seal. This brings out the colour of the inner tile. I would to be safe buy one tile and try this approach start to finish before tackling the whole lot.
The other was Schluter Rondec. - this makes for a nice soft edge but getting it just right can be hard. Many times 3/8" tile once set is between 1/2" and 5/8" total off the wall. Many of these Schluter profiles are only 3/8" or 1/2" max. So what do you do? I would shim the roundec off the wall with 1/16" or 1/8" shims and spot set it (after wall is primed and only if this is outside the wet zone) with my glue gun. I would use my straight edge and level to set the Rondec perfectly level and then use it as a tile guide. If the wall was out of level by more than 1/16" I would set the tile out of level instead of shimming out the Rondec to much. Once the tile was set I would use a few layers of FibaFuse or mesh drywall tape to build out the shim distance to meet the Rondec. Then I would feather rout this build out and re prime and paint.
I have some pictures of this process. I'll try and dig them up.
When working with profiles from Schluter remember that you can not let thin-set dry on them or the thin-set will corrode the finish. later when you clean it the finish is pulled off. Keep things clean and tidy.
When cutting Schluter Profiles use a small chop saw with a non ferrous blade. We use hardwood as backer stock to hold the profiles in place and to get nice tight joints. If cut well and set perfect the profiles look great. If you kind of do a good job it looks like crap.
Another third option is to forgo any detail at all and go with a flush, seamless tile to wall transition. This requires more skill and I have been showcasing this work on my Houzz Profile. Have a look.
Take a look - I'll do a back link from this discussion back to this page so it's an easy read.
For most tile setter and Do It Your Selfers the answer is a Schluter Profile. Tons of sizes and colours - personally I can not stand all the metal accents in our shower builds and find that most times the Schluter Profiles are butchered by the installer upon installation.
Putting my grip about these profiles aside - lets answer the question. First lets read the original email....
"I see the quality work you do (on Terry's forum), and I have a question about what I should do for outside edge treatments on tile walls.
My wife selected 12" x 24" tile - about 3/8" thick. There is no bullnose. I'm exploring two options:
Roll the edge - just a bit - like a 1/16" radius. I was considering sanding the edges with an angle grinder, with progressively finer grits. Then slightly polish the edge. Would this work? My fear is that I can't give each tile the same radius freehand.
The other was Schluter Rondec. I read the Schluter instructions .... their reccomendation is to tile the opposing wall first. This makes sense, cause then you can position the Rondec aligned with the tiled corner - you don't have to worry about the thickness of the tile. Then use thinset and apply the Rondec to the other wall. Do you really bed the entire strip Rondec in thinset? - cause I sure can't do the entire wall in a day
I was thinking more like taping the Rondec to the wall, and applying thinset as I laid the courses of tile.
The other question is the height of the Rondec - if my tile is 3/8" thick, and I'm using 1/2" notched trowel - how do you figure out the height of the Rondec?
Thanks for your help. ...."
Rolling the edge - This is a possibility and doable. Most Porclean tile has a solid colour and if this was to be attempted I would first pre-cut all the outside tiles to size. I would make a jig to clamp the tile in place and use my angle grinder and polishing pads to get the bullnose close. I would start with a 100 grit and then 200 and then 400. This is incredible dusty work. Most of these pads require water but that makes a massive mess. We use them dry and outfit a room with one of my Air Cleaners and My Hepa fans.
I'll do a video for this fellow today and post it on You Tube.
You will want to seal the edge with something like Enrich-N-Seal. This brings out the colour of the inner tile. I would to be safe buy one tile and try this approach start to finish before tackling the whole lot.
The other was Schluter Rondec. - this makes for a nice soft edge but getting it just right can be hard. Many times 3/8" tile once set is between 1/2" and 5/8" total off the wall. Many of these Schluter profiles are only 3/8" or 1/2" max. So what do you do? I would shim the roundec off the wall with 1/16" or 1/8" shims and spot set it (after wall is primed and only if this is outside the wet zone) with my glue gun. I would use my straight edge and level to set the Rondec perfectly level and then use it as a tile guide. If the wall was out of level by more than 1/16" I would set the tile out of level instead of shimming out the Rondec to much. Once the tile was set I would use a few layers of FibaFuse or mesh drywall tape to build out the shim distance to meet the Rondec. Then I would feather rout this build out and re prime and paint.
I have some pictures of this process. I'll try and dig them up.
When working with profiles from Schluter remember that you can not let thin-set dry on them or the thin-set will corrode the finish. later when you clean it the finish is pulled off. Keep things clean and tidy.
When cutting Schluter Profiles use a small chop saw with a non ferrous blade. We use hardwood as backer stock to hold the profiles in place and to get nice tight joints. If cut well and set perfect the profiles look great. If you kind of do a good job it looks like crap.
Another third option is to forgo any detail at all and go with a flush, seamless tile to wall transition. This requires more skill and I have been showcasing this work on my Houzz Profile. Have a look.
Take a look - I'll do a back link from this discussion back to this page so it's an easy read.
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