I’ve recently done some ceramic and marble tile installation in a home and found that larger tiles were easier and faster to install, and more attractive in my opinion.
After this experience I find myself noticing other tile work…most frequently in bathrooms…and wondering about the choices that were made.
Specifically, I frequently see very small tiles - perhaps one-half inch square - covering large sections of public bathrooms. These would seem to require a great deal more work in installation. If they are installed individually it would seem that it would take a very long time. Even if they come in sheets, the extra grouting required would seem to be onerous. Moreover, all of that extra grout make for more cleaning and maintenance in the long run. I suppose that if one small piece becomes cracked or winds up missing it would be easier to replace…but if that is happening the tile probably wasn’t put in very well in the first place. Perhaps they are easier to install due to less cutting in corners?
So - anybody know - what are the advantages of tiny little ceramic tiles?
P.S. I’m talking about a single color tile, there are no designs that require small tiles in order to capture detail.
Plus large ones are easier to crack and harder to lay, really, because you have to make more cuts. If you have ever tried tried to tile around a sharp corner, when you’ve lined up the tiles to another corner, and you have to make two or three cuts (sometimes breaking the tile entirely, sometimes just messing up and cutting more off than needed) then you know the true pain of large tiles.
My parents tiled their bathroom in really huge ceramic tiles and had to replace one a couple of years later because something got dropped on it and cracked it. My bathroom which I tiled in medium tile turned out wonderfully – nothing cracked – but some of the tiles needed tons of time with the saw to look right. Tiny tiles would have been more versatile and sturdy. But of course I don’t like the look of them
They do come in sheets, and they are more forgiving of round walls, and round walls (for instance around a shower or bath) currently are the new bathroom luxury thing. Other then that, it’s mostly a fashion thing.
O.K.
Better for curving floors (such as those sloping to drains);
Better for curving walls (wouldn’t have thought of that);
Less apt to crack;
Less cutting during installation;
Perhaps less slippery;
Traded off with:
More grout to clean/maintain;
Overall fugliness;
They have been used in home bathrooms also because their size is more proportional to the room. If you are tiling a tiny half-bath, it will look strange if you put big honkin’ 18" square tiles.
As far as the difficulty of grouting, I can’t see why it would be more difficult at all. To grout tile, you drag a grout float across the tile surface at an angle, pressing grout into all the grooves and smoothing it off flush with the surface in one motion. It doesn’t matter how numerous the cracks are.
As far as the quantity of grout material, larger tiles are typically thicker and you use fatter grooves, so it’s six of one, half dozen of the other.
Remember that for commercial applications, cleaning normally happens in the form of a dude with a machine. Not in the form of a dude on all fours with a toothbrush and a butter knife (which I guess is what you are picturing). The machine doesn’t care for how much grout is there to clean, only for the total area.
Smaller tiles are significantly easier to lay out. One thing I learned having large tiles installed in my bathrooms-it is very difficult to keep the grout lines straight. Especially around corners and fixtures. And of course they require more cuts. So the small tiles are universally liked by installers because they are easier and quicker to install and more forgiving of alignment errors. I am impressed with the tile in my bathrooms-but even more impressed now that I know how hard it is to do correctly.
This is much more important in a public restroom, because of all the stalls, dividers, etc. that they have to tile around. Much more cutting & fitting than in a normal home bathroom. (In some cases, they avoid this by tiling the whole floor beforehand, than install the stalls & dividers on top by drilling thru the tile.)
Another factor is that the additional grout lines help to make dirt on the floor less conspicuous. Big square tiles would show dirt more. Given the difficulty in keeping a public restroom clean, this is worthwhile.
