Photo 1

I am not writing this to tell you why your tile is cracking or why your grout is cracking – I have other posts that may tell you that. (Click on the pretty little links ) If you happen to have Schluter Ditra as your substrate, this post will tell you why either one of the above may be happening.

While Ditra is my preferred membrane for floor tile installation (as well as countertops and tub decks) it absolutely needs to be installed correctly. The two main techniques for this are fairly simple:

• Make sure the cavities (waffles) are filled correctly
• Install it over an approved substrate (and with the correct type of thinset mortar)

Photo 2

There is a lot more to ditra than those two items but if either one is incorrect I can nearly guarantee a failure. See photos 1 and 2 there? The tile was cracked and it was a direct result of a) not getting the waffles filled correctly and b) improper coverage on the tile. Now b may be due to an improperly-sized trowel, letting the thinset skim over or set too long before installing the tile or simply incorrectly mixing the thinset. All three of those things will cause any tile installation to fail – whether you use ditra or not.

Not filling the waffles correctly, though, will cause the tile to not be fully supported and/or not ‘locking’ the tile into the ditra. Because it is not correctly locked into the ditra you will lose the mechanical bonding properties of ditra and you may as well install it directly to particle board at that point (That was sarcasm – don’t do that!). For more specifics about exactly how ditra works you can check out Provaflex vs. Ditra wherein I describe exactly how the mechanical bonding process works – and rant about a particular jackass. But the mechanical thing – that’s what you want to concentrate on.

You need to use the flat side of your trowel and spread thinset in every direction over the ditra to ensure that all the little waffles are full. Since the cavities are dovetailed (that means they go down and away from the opening) you need to ‘force’ thinset into the bottom corners of the cavities. Simply running the trowel over the ditra will not do this. Simply running the trowel over the ditra did that (photos 1 and 2).

Photo 3

Installing ditra over an approved substrate is much, much easier. In fact, nearly every bare substrate you find in a modern house would be considered an approved substrate – shiny linoleum is not one of them (Photo 3). While there are thinsets that ‘say’ they will bond to linoleum (and some of them will) apparently the jackass who installed that particular floor was not aware of that.

See photo 4? I lifted that up with my pinkie – literally! It was not attached at all. He may have had correct coverage beneath the tile and all the little waffles filled – I have no idea. There was not enough stuck to get enough leverage to tear one off and find out.

Photo 4

Most any plywood (even osb ) is an approved substrate for ditra. And  if you use a thinset approved for that substrate, there are no problems at all. Photos 3 and 4 had an unapproved substrate and, apparently, incorrect thinset (and a shitty tile job, but that’s a whole other post). It was nearly guaranteed to fail.

When you buy ditra for your installation every roll comes with a handy little instruction booklet. You can go to Schluter’s Ditra Page on their website and access the instruction booklet (This link is a PDF!). They even have a flash video about the proper installation technique. You can leave a comment below and ask. You can email me. You can send up smoke signals – I’ll answer.

Given the 17 ways to acquire correct ditra installation information above there is absolutely never a reason to do it incorrectly. Ditra, in my opinion, is the best membrane for most floor tile installations. The only time I’ve seen it fail is due to incorrect installation. And that isn’t just the common BS everyone accuses failures on. Me, personally, every one I’ve seen fail is incorrectly installed.

If you use ditra, and if you have an approved substrate, and if you have the correct thinset mortar, and if you fill the waffles correctly, and if you use the proper trowel and get proper coverage it will not fail. Yes, that’s a lot of ifs – when you read it. In practice it really is not that many things to get right. It’s just common sense, mostly.

So here’s one more if: If you have any questions at all about correctly installing ditra and using it for your tile installation please, for the love of all the marble in the Sistine Chapel, ask me below in the comments. I WILL answer you. I’m just super-cool like that

Photo 1

In my previous post I beat you to death with the reasons why you absolutely need a soft joint (control joint) in certain tile installations. Sorry about that, I have a hard time expressing how important they are without being a dick. They”re important – really. So now that I’ve properly reprimanded you it’s time to show you how to do it.

Photo 2

You need to figure out where your control joints will be located before you grout. I will sometimes take pieces of blue tape and mark that line every few feet or so ’cause I get dizzy easily. The less grout you get in it the better. You will need to clean out any grout that ends up in there so try not to let it end up in there.

Photo 3

Once you have your floor grouted and before the grout is cured (do this right after you grout) you need to clean out the control joint. I use a ‘hook knife’ which is just a curved blade that I can run down the joint to loosen all the grout (that’s what that funny looking tool is in the picture).

After you do that you can take your shop-vac and suck all the grout out of that line. Be careful not to remove grout in the adjacent lines! Keep your hose an inch or so away from the tile. (Wow, that sentence is ripe for a very bad joke) In photo 1 you can see the grout in the lines crossing the control joint – you want to simply cut straight down the control joint across these lines. When you vacuum out the grout be careful not to remove grout from those lines also. (If you click on photo 2 you can see what I mean)

Photo 3 shows the control joint all scraped out. Again, you can click on it (it’s huge) and see where I’ve cut across the other grout lines. Then just vacuum it all out. Photo 4 shows the line ready for caulk. Most manufacturers have a matching grout or silicone for whatever color grout you choose. If not, Laticrete has a large number of colored silicones called Latasil and color charts to see which would best match your grout.

Photo 4

Once you have your control joint all cleaned out just fill it up to the top with matching caulk or silicone. Make sure you get the line full – you don’t want any hollow spots in the line which will eventually end up cracking or disappearing. You can run a damp sponge down the line once you get it full to smooth out the top.

You may need to do this more than once depending on the width of your grout lines. After the caulk or silicone has cured it may shrink a bit too much to look acceptable. If that is the case then go ahead and run another bead down the line to fill it back in.

That’s it. Photo 5 shows the completed control joint. I used a matching caulk on this installation which will darken as it cures. Once cured the color will match the grout exactly.

Photo 5

And there you go. Now you can go out and be a tile ninja and berate people because they have no idea what a control joint is in relation to a tile installation. You can look like a superstar because you can explain to people why their tile looks like a teepee (Read my last post) or why their floor sounded like a gunshot last night. That’ll scare the hell out of you – believe me.

If you have any questions at all about whether your installation needs a control joint or not – just ask me in the comments below! I’ll answer you when I get home from work – really – read around. I’m fairly personable.

And don’t forget to sign up for TileTips!

That title right there is absolutely ripe for me to go off on a sophomoric, mildly humorous rant about the viability of inferior illegal plant use. But I’m not gonna do that. (Okay, maybe later…)

A soft joint, or control joint,  is simply one grout line, all the way down the length of your installation, that is filled with colored silicone or caulk rather than grout. The purpose of a soft joint is to allow movement in your installation without cracking tiles or grout. When placed properly it will absorb any ‘normal’ seasonal and structural movements inherent in structures.

There are guidelines that need to be followed for a soft joint to be effective. The TCNA guidelines call for a control joint every 20′ – 25′ in each direction for interior installations and every 8′ – 12′ in each direction for exterior installations. Interior installations which are exposed to direct sunlight also need control joints every 8′ – 12′.

This simply means that if you install tile in your living room and it is larger than 25′ or 30′ you need a control joint – period. It is non-negotiable. If you do not have it chances are likely that your tile installation will fail. The number one reason for tile installation failure (on a floor) is lack of proper control joints. You need them! *It’s either lack of proper control joints or improper coverage, there are conflicting views. Both will lead to a failure and both are installer error – both need to be correct!

You need them on wood, you need them on concrete, you need them inside, you need them outside. And no, that is not the beginning of a Theodore Geisel book. I’m simply trying to illustrate the importance of a soft joint in a large tile installation. Because it is. Very important.

Along with these control joints you also need to ensure proper perimeter spacing. This simply means that your tile around the perimeter of your room is not butted against the wall or framing. You need room for stuff to expand.

You don’t realize it but there are a lot of things in a structure which move – constantly. With temperature changes, normal construction shifts (settling), even sunlight causes enough significant heat to expand and contract structural elements several times a day. You absolutely need to allow for this movement.

If you do not allow for this movement your tile installation will not last long-term. Your grout will crack. Your tile will crack. Your dog will burst into flames. Your tile may ‘tent’ which means that there is so much pressure pushing two adjacent tiles together that the bond from the mortar will eventually fail and the two tiles will pop – literally – off the floor and tent. They will sit there right in the middle of your room looking like a little teepee.  I tapped a tile once in an installation which did not have control nor perimeter joints and they literally popped – loudly – and tented.

Control joints also need to be installed above expansion joints in concrete – whether you use a membrane or not. A membrane will allow you to ‘shift’ the control joint in the tile over up to six inches (depending on which membrane you use) but it still needs to be there. If your concrete has a control joint it needs to follow all the way up and through your tile installation.

Most grout manufacturers make a matching caulk or silicone which can be used for these joints. When cured they match the color of the grout exactly or nearly so. You can tell it’s there – if you look for it. Don’t look for it. I understand that a control joint may change the look of your installation – you may not like it. I know. I get it. I don’t like them either. But you need them.

The photo at the top of this post shows a control joint through the middle of a tile installation. This is right after I finished installing it so the caulk has not yet cured – that’s why you can see it. Once cured it matched the grout color exactly. In my next post I will show you exactly how to prepare this grout line as a soft joint and install the caulk or silicone.