what to set first - floor stone or wall tile??

Hi all....
I am at the point to set stone on the floors in my master bath but starting to think if I should tile the walls first. (Basically I forgot to order Reno TK floor profile and with the holidays and delayed shipping I need to move forward with something)

In addition to the floors I am setting subway on 3 walls about 5 ft up. So the idea would be to leave the bottom row of tile out, set the stone on the floor then fill in the bottom row.
concerns are:
1. running the subway directly to the floor with no base board, I am not using floor cove subway tile either.
2. the subaway is 1/4" thick Daltile this dosent leave me much room for wall tolerance for the stone and I know its not good to but the stone directly up to the wall without a gap.

Am I putting myself into a jam by not having a base board wether its stone or wood to cover this tolerance gap? Maybe this gap should be small enough to hide with the subway tile?

thanks
Chris

You can do this anyway that you like. If you do the wall first you'll need start above the first row (ie Ledger Board) so that you can lay the floor in and then cover it with the wall tile. You'll need at least a 1/16" gap between the wall tile and the floor tile. Before you grout you're going to fill the gap with 100% Silicon Caulk. You'll need to tape off you seams to accomplish this. Also you'll want to make sure that your first row on the wall is a cut. Due to lack of levelness your full tile maybe unable to cover the gap, the floor may be off relative to the floor.

If I were doing the job I would likely do the floor then I would lay the first row and using a laser level I would level out the first row and let is set over night. The next day I would take it up to the 5' mark. This would save me having to set up a ledger board and cut the first row. I would just throw a tarp down to protect the floor from the thinset or grout.

Does all that make sense?

Tom

Thanks Tom,
My idea of the ledger was to factor in approx. 5" of cut for the bottom row of subway tile in case the floor and tile line is off. The tile is running about 14' along a back wall so this .5" cut of the bottom should eliminate any problems if its not parallel.
I understand the 1/16"+ gap between wall and floor tile. But what do you suggest for the tolerance gap between stone and wall, 1/4"??

thanks
Chris

You could use a color-matched caulk (either sanded or unsanded, to match the grout) in the floor-to-wall gap. I'd make that gap the same width as all the other grout lines.

I think you have found some good help here. If you would like further input from guys who live and breathe tile, and love to talk about it, check out the tile forum: www.johnbridge.com

Thanks Jimbo,
I have this posted over, actually I have about 10 pages covering my master bath project http://johnbridge.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=45712&page=6
But my thread dosent get much traffic anymore and I was hoping to get new fresh ideas.

Mike, I plan to use latisil silver fox which matches prety closely to the Spectralock that I used in the shower. 1/8" is the joint/grout line

Thanks,
Chris

That would be my approach as well.

Good luck.

Tom

My preference is to do the walls first. I find the lowest spot in the floor along thew all and snap a level line around the room 1 tile height above that point. I leave out the bottom row, set the 2nd row all the way around and let it setup completely before continuing up the wall.

I put the floor in next and the lowest row of wall tile in last.

fiasco said:

My preference is to do the walls first. I find the lowest spot in the floor along thew all and snap a level line around the room 1 tile height above that point. I leave out the bottom row, set the 2nd row all the way around and let it setup completely before continuing up the wall.

I put the floor in next and the lowest row of wall tile in last.

Click to expand...

Do you use a ledger board fiasco. If so how do you attach it in a non-Kerdi shower or was your comment just about Kerdi showers?

If you don't use a ledger board how do you keep the tiles from slipping?

davefoc said:

Do you use a ledger board fiasco. If so how do you attach it in a non-Kerdi shower or was your comment just about Kerdi showers?

If you don't use a ledger board how do you keep the tiles from slipping?

Click to expand...

Where there isn't Kerdi I use a board. Inside the shower I stack tile in each corner to the appropriatte height, set a ledger board on top of that and shim it to the correct height.

I set a single row of tile around the room. I use painters tape to help secure the bottom row of tile taping it to the wall above. I then let it setup and don't lay more tile above until the next day. If you get a perfect home row it just makes the rest of the tile job so much easier.

I think fitting wall tiles will be much better since many times what happens is tiles doesn’t fitted as you would have liked so it gives you a chance for renovate it again. But suppose floor stone has been fitted first then tiles can cause damages to the floor stone. So if would if in the same dilemma ten I definitely prefer wall tiles first then floor stone.

chris fox said:

Hi all....
I am at the point to set stone on the floors in my master bath but starting to think if I should tile the walls first. (Basically I forgot to order Reno TK floor profile and with the holidays and delayed shipping I need to move forward with something)

In addition to the floors I am setting subway on 3 walls about 5 ft up. So the idea would be to leave the bottom row of tile out, set the stone on the floor then fill in the bottom row.
concerns are:
1. running the subway directly to the floor with no base board, I am not using floor cove subway tile either.
2. the subaway is 1/4" thick Daltile this dosent leave me much room for wall tolerance for the stone and I know its not good to but the stone directly up to the wall without a gap.

Am I putting myself into a jam by not having a base board wether its stone or wood to cover this tolerance gap? Maybe this gap should be small enough to hide with the subway tile?

thanks
Chris

Click to expand...

Of course you should set the wall tile first. I used to what you are doing. And I tile the wall first, avoiding any damage to the floor.
And I have got the tile for years, they still look as new as when I bought them.
stone mosaics tile--http://www.stone-mosaics.com/
bathroom stone sinks--http://www.chinasink.com/
stone bathtub-http://www.stone-bathtubs.com/