We've written a lot in our past newsletters about all the parts and pieces of ceramic wall tile and how to put them together. Instead of pointing you to different newsletters, we decided to compile all those articles right here on the blog in honor of our new solid tile line of ceramic wall tiles.
Let's start by jumping in and talking about field tile.
Field tile is the primary component of all wall-tile jobs. Field tiles are made to fill the field - thus the name. (See, I knew why this tile had its name!)
Field tile comes in many sizes, but the three most common are 3" x 6" (also known as subway tile), 4 1/4" x 4 1/4" (the most common mid-century tile), and 6" x 6". Field tiles are unfinished on all four edges and are made to butt up against one another.
Field tiles can be used in a mud-set or thin-set project. Sometimes the tiles come with built-in lugs - little bumps on the edges of the tile that create the stand-off needed between tiles for the grout line. (We still like to use tile spaces, just in case.)
All tiles can be cut to size, but most often you'll be trimming field tile to fit a row into a corner. You can even cut field tiles into interesting shapes. (You can do it yourself, but a cleaner option would be to find a waterjet company near you.)
To put a cap on it (bullnose pun intended), field tile is the basis for your entire tile project.
Field tile may be the majority of your project, but it needs trim pieces to really bring it to life. First, let's start at the bottom with cove base and work our way up.
Cove base is made so that your tile floor can butt right up to the edge of the cove. It gives your tile project a polished look and superior cleanability. If you ever wondered how to best connect a floor tile and a wall tile, meet your new friend, cove base.
There are two types of coved bases. The flat top cove base is meant to be the starter course for wall tile. There would be a grout line between the top of the flat top cove base tile and the first row of field tiles, and another grout line between the cove foot and your floor tile.
The sanitary cove base on the other hand, is used where you don't have wall tile. Perhaps you have tile on two walls of your project, and not on the other two. You can use the flat-top cove base on the two walls with tile and the sanitary cove base on the walls without tile, while still providing a cove base for your floor tile to butt up to. The top edge of the sanitary cove base is the same as the surface bullnose edge, where the tile face curves back to the wall. (More on bullnoses later).
Even better - cove bases come with left and right pieces, so you can turn an outside corner! Cove base really is the icing on the cake - like the decorative trim icing you find at the bottom edge of your cake; you know what I mean!
Next, let's talk about one of the more confusing parts of the tile family - how to finish the top edge with a bullnose. The confusing part is that there are two types of bullnoses - a surface bullnose, or a radius bullnose (often referred to as a mudcap).
Up until the 1950s, mudset tile (with mudcap trim) was de rigueur. Older tiles tended to vary in thickness, squareness, and waviness. That can be attributed to most tiles being handmade or produced with older machinery that wasn't as precise. Once machine-made tile became the norm, the mudset process also started to disappear in the building trades. Nowadays, it's almost impossible to find someone with any hands-on experience with a mud-set finish on walls.
Mudset tile was traditionally set in a deep, thick "mud" made of Portland cement, often 2"-3" thick, causing the tiles to protrude from the wall. To close that gap, you needed a radius bullnose (or mudcap bullnose). Machine-made tiles, produced by pressing the tile body into molds, are finished with bullnose (or surface bullnose) tiles. A surface bullnose is, as the name implies, a tile with a single surface; the side is filleted to create the finished edge.
To finish your tile, you can get corner pieces in both radius and surface bullnose styles to help with corner transitions where the wall tile ends.
Another fun piece (with a fun name) is the Jolly.
Some people call this little stripe-y piece a liner or pencil tile, but the other name, and the name we use, is the Jolly. Why? That's a great question, and I have no answer. The Jolly can be used as a stripe in your wall pattern or as a contrast trim for a field tile in lieu of a surface bullnose. I've also seen it used to frame an area in a tile field. The only limit is your imagination!
One last set of pieces is the quarter-round and quarter-round corner, also known as a beak. While it's another way to close the top of a mud-set section of tile, it can also be used as a way to trim the outside corner of a wall - especially if you're looking for a contrasting color.
There are almost an infinite number of ways to put all these parts and pieces together to add some pizazz to your project. (That's a lot of Ps!) Here are some sample images showing how you might use these parts together, but there are a bunch more ideas we haven't shown. (Perhaps that's the next blog post?)
As always, if you run into any problems or you'd like some help with putting together your project, don't hesitate to reach out. We're here to help!
