Grout is Mortar and Mortar is Grout.

They are both composed of the same basic ingredient that is Portland Cement. The only difference is the ratio of Portland cement to sand and lime in each mix and their respective uses.

Let’s start with Mortar. Mortar is the glue which holds all masonry products together whether it’s fixing Marble, Ceramic Tile, Bricks and Blocks to a surface, or in the case of bricks and blocks, to themselves.

Years ago, marble slab, marble tile and ceramic tile was fixed in place or to a surface with a semi-damp mix of mortar, sand and lime. This was called a “mortar bed,” or “thick mortar bed” and is required to be at least 3/4″ thick.

The tiles where then soaked in water. This was to absorb water into the body of the tile and set in place on the “mortar bed” with a dusting of “pure” Portland cement over the surface of the bed.

In approximately 48 hours the surface was able to safely take on traffic. This is called “The Wet Set Method” and has been the standard for over two thousand years.

This method is still used today and is usually referred to as a “Mud Job.”

The modern method taught in my video “How to Install a Marble Bathroom Floor” DVD is called “The Dry Set Method.”

This method was developed in the late 20th century with the discovery of mortar accelerators that where added to a bag of “This Set Morter”…this is also known as “The Thin Set Method”.

Unlike the “Mortar Bed” method that is required to be at least 3/4 of an inch thick and sometimes more…the “thin set” method requires a minimum of 3/16 thick to 1/4 inch thick.

Thin Set is applied with a notched trowel. The notch in the trowel determines the thickness of a tile.

A 12×12″ marble tile or ceramic tile requires a 1/4×1/4″ notch to a 1/4×3/8″ notch in the trowel depending on the flatness of the surface..A 4×4 or 6×6 ceramic wall tile will require a 3/16″ notch . A latex adhesive can be used on drywall (sheetrock) or plywood and only in a dry area.

Modern “Thin Set Mortar” has advanced latex additives that are added to a dry mix to facilitate a stronger bond and increase it’s adhesive ability. This is known as “Modified Latex Thin Set Mortar.”

HOW ARE TILES SET USING A MIX AND A TROWEL?

The notch of the trowel creates an air pocket when applying the mix with the trowel tool. .The tile is then pressed or “set” into the mix and the air is forced out. This causes a vacuum and the tiles adhere to the surface causing the tile to remain fixed until the thin set mortar drys…usualy about 24 hours.

The next steps are to apply the grout.

Now let’s discuss GROUT. Grout is also a Portland cement mix or we can even say “recipe” but with some different additives.

Grouts do not normally have the adhesive characteristics of Thin Set Mortar but do have “Pigments” added to them. This imparts a color into the grout.

Not having the adhesive quality of a Thin Set - grout may be weaker in strength, both compressive and tensile, Compressive Strength means how much of a “Load” it will take when a force is applied to the surface over a surface. Tensile Strength means how much of a “Load” it will take when a force is applied to a surface over a span or when the surface is suspended between two points like columns or a framework.

However, not having the characteristics of thin set and being more condusive for being spread around with a “grout float” or “grout trowel”; grout is perfect to fill in the gaps in what we call “Joints”. Joints are what remain between the tiles after the tiles have been set. Marble Tiles are normally set with joints from 1/16″ to 1/8″ wide and up to 1/4″ to 1/2″ wide with Ceramic Tiles and Bricks. Joints are necessary to insure proper spacing between tiles and to “lock In” the entire floor or wall.

Grout has also been “down the development road” in the later part of the 20th century.

There are additions of stronger and more acid resistant types for food service areas, factories and institutions.

Grouts today come in a mortar base and a resin and epoxy base, thereby allowing a grout to become virtually impervious to any environmental hazards such as acid spills, bacteria and chemical attacks.

These type grouts are not common in residential applications, although the epoxy has on occasion been used in some style residential applications. This is for the reason that it’s resistance to staining and bacteria growth is of a higher standard.

Epoxy grout is very expensive and extremely hard to apply. It can be improved by the application of a “sealer” when using a Portland cement grout instead of epoxy.

Sealers should be applied no sooner than one week after application. The grout requires a minimum of one week to acquire a full cure; (full cure meaning; the absence of all water or moisture). This enables the “sealer” to properly adhere to the grout surface and protect the grout from stains and bacteria growth.

Thanks So Much For Visiting!

Sincerely,

Ben Michalski

First; A brief history of Ceramic Tile

It all started with an old Sanskrit word that basically means “burnt stuff” and then came to it’s known word as Ceramic from the Greek word “KERAMOS” which means pottery.Ceramic Tile date as far back as 4000 BC. It has been found in the pyramids, the ruins of Babylon and Mesopotamia. Ceramic Tile was also produced in China during the Shang-Yin Dynasty dating between 1523 to 1028 BC but it was the Islamic period of Persia where ceramic tile was perfected.Ceramic tile was first hand made. Each tile was a work of art in it’s own right. In it’s simplest form ceramic tile is made from clay and the clay was wet. The wet clay was rolled out on a hard surface usually a flat stone and decorations where carved or pressed by wooden relief into the individual piece and then hand painted. The tile was sun dried and later fired in an earthen oven to make hard and be ready to place on a floor, wall ,roof, ceilings, fireplaces and over the centuries… murals depicting historical events, social events, artistic landscapes and still life’s.The techniques of making ceramic tile was revolutionized in the 1840’s by what was called “the dust-pressing method” this consisted of compressing almost dry clay between two metal dies. This replaced the hand made process and fostered the mechanization of the tile industry. There are 9 types of tiles. Listed below are all the types along with there design and composition.

UNGLAZED:
these tiles are limited to the natural
colors of the clay, ranging from a light sand to a red brick.

PLAIN GLAZES:
White lead, flint, china stone and china clay were ground to
form a glaze. a clear glaze brought out the natural body
colorand might be applied over any colored decoration, ground metal oxides could be added to create
different colors.

ENCAUSTIC OR INLAID:
In this type of tile the tile is filled with white pipeclay before it was glazed and fired the two sections fusing during firing.

MOSAIC:
These tiles where cut and carved into small pieces according to a previously prepared pattern these pieces were placed close together and liquid plaster poured over to fill in all the opening and gaps after the plaster dried and hardened, a large single piece tile panel had been created, which was then plastered onto the required wall of the building.

HANDPAINTING:
An artist painted freely onto a plain surface tile.
The glaze was one centimeter thick, with hand-painted decorations of flowers, plants,
geometric designs, birds and human beings.

CARVED AND MODELED TILES:
Each piece is individually carved in clay and the pattern could be engraved in outline on the surface of the tile
or the design carved in relief or counter-relief on a wood-block
which was then pressed into the tile. Sometimes these tiles where painted to emphasize the relief.

SGRAFFITO:
This was an early form of decoration, the tile body is covered with
coats of slip. The slip is then scratched off to create the design.

TUBE LINING:
Slip is lined onto the surface of the tile to make raised
lines separating the areas where different colour is wanted.
colored glazes are then applied. This is how most Art Nouveau Tiles are made.

TRANSFER PRINTING:
A copper plate is engraved with a design,
and would be covered in a color the excess removed leaving
the color only in the engraved parts. Tissue paper was pressed onto the plate,
and placed color side down onto the tile. It is then removed, and the color transferred to the tile.
This method is quicker, therefore cheaper than hand painting.

Modern Ceramic Tile can include just about everyone of the above types along with the emergence of small companies doing the hand made tiles once again. Todays hand made tiles can be very costly but can create a motif that is remnicient of antiquity.The types of tile you may see at places like Home Depot and Lowes are mostly single fired clay bodies which may have a wide range of prices from the cheap to the moderately expensive. Most of todays tiles have a hardness rating from 1 to 4 with 1 being a residential tile but very fragile and 4 being a very hard tile used for mostly commercial applications. The average residential tile will have a 2 or sometimes a 3 rating. Porcelain tiles are very hard and usually expensive but unlike clay body tiles porcelain tile is solid all the way through where clay bodies have a glaze on the top surface and are either red or white depending on the color of the clay.

Now you may be asking… How does knowing the history of ceramic tile benefit me?Well…it probably may not benefit you directly but it may benefit you indirectly and it will definitely lay a foundation for what is called in any industry “product knowledge”.Let’s say you go into a ceramic tile showroom and sales center. The first thing you may experience is some salesperson approaching you and greeting you with a welcome and ask you what you are interested in?If you say something to the effect of…” well I was thinking about one of those fancy tile floors for my kitchen but i don’t know a dang thing about it” the salesperson…depending on that persons integrity (which in more cases than not is little to be desired) may say to themselves..”O Boy…I just landed me a laydown!!!”

Now what is a “laydown” you may ask? Well a “laydown” is a any person who gives the impression that they really want a thing but has no knowledge whatsoever about what they want and will but just about buy anything that a salesperson says….” O..you should really buy this dar’lin…It’s on special today only and I can knock off another 10%” when in fact you could have bought the same thing for about half the price you just paid had you just done some homework and possessed a modicum of “PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE!”

When it comes to selling ceramic tile most sales folk themselves possess little to no background knowledge of the product they happen to be selling. If you give the impression that you not only know what exactly you are looking for but even know the origin of the product you will have what is called “The Upper Hand”. You will then be looked upon as a “savvy consumer” and any intimidation tactics that may or may not have been deployed will automatically go out the window…in your favor. As a matter of fact you will become the “intimadator” and the salesperson will become the “intimadatee” and two thing will take place…the salesperson will hand you over to a true specialist in the field where you may then get a genuine deal OR they will become unresponsive and comatose…in which you can most likely say something to the effect of…”are you really in the ceramic tile business or did you just start yesterday?”

Either way you have insured that any rip off’s that would have possibly come down the proverbial pike will have gone with the wind and you will be on your way to getting a tile job that will be the envy of all the neighbors.

WHAT AM I LOOKING FOR IN A CERAMIC TILE?

Modern ceramic tile comes in several sizes, in several popular styles and in many colors. The first thing you need to do is to decide what size tile you want to install or have installed and where ( floor, wall, backsplash, tub surround, shower, fireplace, foyer) do you want it to be?

IF YOU CHOOSE THE FLOOR. IS IT A BATHROOM FLOOR ,KITCHEN FLOOR, MUDROOM FLOOR, FOYER OR LIVING SPACE ( FAMILY ROOM)IF YOU CHOOSE WALL. IS IT A SHOWER WALL, TUB/SHOWER COMBO WALL, BACK SPLASH WALL OR LIVING SPACE WALL ( DEN, FAMILY ROOM, BAR)

IF YOU CHOOSE FIREPLACE IS IT AN EXISTING WOOD FIREPLACE WITH A MASONRY INSERT AROUND THE FIRE PIT OR IS IT A FULL MASONRY WALL WITH A FIREPLACE BUILT IN

HERE IS THE CERAMIC TILE DESIGN RULE OF THUMB: THE BIGGER THE TILE…THE GREATER ILLUSION OF SPACE WILL BE. (SMALL AREA WILL LOOK LARGER)
THE SMALLER THE TILE…THE SMALLER ILLUSION OF SPACE IT WILL BE.( LARGE AREA WILL SEEM SMALLER)

So lets say you have a medium size kitchen and you want it to look like it is more spacious. You have seen 8×8 floor tiles going for cheap or you are considering a mosaic tile ( a bunch of little tiles all sticked together on a sheet) using these tiles will NOT make your Kitchen look more spacious. Using a 12×12 or a 13×13 or a16×16 even better…will make your kitchen look much more spacious. Using a 24×24 tile will make it look huge.

Want a kitchen to appear larger than it actually is..then you must install a 12×12 or bigger floor tile…these tiles are known in the industry as ‘DIMENSIONAL” tiles.

*****CAUTION***** INSTALLING 16X16 AND LARGER TILES ESPECIALLY 24X42 REQUIRES SPECIAL SKILLS…DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DO THESE LARGE DIMENSIONAL TILES UNLESS YOU HAVE DONE AT LEAST 3 FLOOR TILE JOBS YOURSELF SUCCESSFULLY OR YOU HAVE AN IQ OVER 175.

Now say you have a huge bathroom and want it to look smaller. You have some old tiles installed and they are the tiles the builder used when the house was built and they will probably be plain white 4×4 wall and floor tile combination tiles AND IT JUST LOOKS PLANE UGLY!!!! and you want to make it look more modern and up to date…BUT…you want to create a more cozy smaller illusion of space. Then you would use a mosaic tile like a 2×2 or even a 1×1 and incorporate the tiles over the floor and up the fixtures ( tub and shower) and up the walls making everything look like one solid inlay. This would look very cool…and give the illusion of a smaller bath.

SO WHAT SIZE OF TILE SHOULD I CHOOSE?

Based on the above info…choose a large dimensional tile to make things look bigger OR a small mosaic tile to make things look smaller. OR whatever strikes your fancy.

WHAT SIZES DO TILES COME IN AND WHAT ARE THE MOST POPULAR TODAY?

Ceramic Tile comes in the following sizes:

A: The Mosaics; 1×1 2×2 3×3 4×4 and variations of sizes.

B: Standard Builders Grade Wall and Floor Bathroom Tile: 4×4 and 6×6 in gloss, matte, pastel colors, dark pigment colors ( dark colors are way more expensive)

C: Standard Commercial Tile and some out of style residential tile: comes only in an 8×8…stay away from 8×8’s…they look dated and are plain ugly.

D: Standard Grade Dimensional Tiles: come in 12×12, 13×13, 16×16 ( most of these available from Home Depot and Lowes)

E: Custom Dimensional Tiles: 18×18 and 24×24 in varying styles of surfaces like stone faces, primitives, marble look alike’s, honed travertine’s ( another marble look alike
but highly in demand)

F: The Porcelains: 8×8, 12×12 and usually up to a 13×13. These tiles are the hardest and strongest by far but will need special setting additives to insure a correct
bond to the sub floor or cementatious substrate. You can tell a Porcelain because it looks the same throughout the entire body of the tile and has
a harder feel and will also have a truer more flatter face and may even be highly polished.

Stay tuned for how to talk to a tile rep at the show room and not sound like a chump.