As a remodeler, we have to protect our clients interests. Clients often want to renovate based on the latest projects they’ve seen in magazines or on Instagram, but we have to back up the remodeling work we do. The trend in recent years on a lot of our jobs has been away from porcelain tiles - which are practically bulletproof - to more traditional types of tile. The advantage is that you get more variation and true character. The disadvantage is that the difficulty of installing these tiles is often significantly greater. Size and thickness variations mean layout and install takes longer. Porous surfaces mean multiple rounds of sealing and future upkeep. Glaze variation mean you can’t just open the box, pull out some tile and go.

For the kitchen backsplash on a current whole house remodel in the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia, our client wants to break a golden rule of cement tile : The grout should not be darker than the lightest color in the tile. This is because the tile can absorb the pigment from the grout and stain the tile at the edges. We did our research, and Mapei Flexcolor CQ, which comes pre-mixed, can supposedly be used for these applications.

We can’t take their word for it, and we can’t expect work to pause while we test out the materials, so months in advance of the install, we did a mock-up. The grout joint was designed to be adjacent to the lightest colors in the tile. This type of thinking ahead allows our production team to move swiftly and successfully through the project.

Avoiding Tile Pitfalls