@AM ALONE!

You claim to be alone but you are not really alone, at least OLUWA IS CHAMPION.
Frankly speaking, you are one of the guys i admire greatly in this site, abeg make u
no fall my hand at this point in time.

The whole truth is this is ur game, the player maybe changed but the game remains the same.
Ur recent post suggests to me that u r trying hard to prove to certain people that ur tiler did not
do a pretty bad job. Why? This house belongs to u, if u like the work ur tiler did for u who says
otherwise. In the begining u were accussed of wasting money by buying high quality materials but
today everyone in this site loves that house. Bet me the same will happen again.


The confusion we are having here is about spacing. But what most of us here fails to understand is
that in tiling spacing is optional. Infact the new trend in tiling now is what ur tiler did for u that's laying
standard tiles like rectified tiles. Look at those pics u posted recently and see how tiny the grout lines are.

About grout color, white cement is ok because white goes with any tile color. Even some people use white
grout on white tiles. It'a all about choices.

Look by the time ur tiler fills up those tiny grout lines, the true beauty will appear and i know vividly that
words will change. Good Luck.

oluwa champion!!!!

@ mahabone My Tile na Tile slang has nothing to do with the price. What I mean is that they do not give a detailed difference between Porcellain and Ceramic tile. Porcellain is much harder and durable than ceramic and some ceramic are much more expensive than Porcellain. You also want to make sure you get a very good ones and original.
I am presently managing a commercial property in lagos and the tiles were installed this April and they are now fading because they installed this cheap ceramic tiles.

@ Am Alone, those picture you post, most of the grout you are seeing are not white. Some are off white/beige/cream . The one with black tile is white. You can use white on black tile for contrast purpose.
If you use white on your present bathroom tile, it will still come out good. When you are done with your house,
I will do post-construction cleaning for you. Don't let anyone pour acid on your floors. Send me your email.

mahabone:

@CASEYMONEY! You falied to pinpoint what's exactly wrong with the tiling
to substantiate your claim. And @ EGIN! standard ceramic tiles(NON-RECTIFIED)
don't need spacers.

Read my post again.

caseymoney:

^^^ Am Alone, @Sprumbaba has said it all. Like I said previously, you got good looking tiles but your tiler did a shoddy job. You need grout for the finishing (I guess, that's what your referring to white cement). Grout is meant to fill the spaces between the tiles but unfortunately, I couldn't see any space between the installed tiles. The tiles are not well aligned  (For your personal digest, the grout space are not uniform. The tiler should have used spacer as many suggested). . Click the following link and show your tiler how wall tiles are installed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYais38h5Qk

NB: I'm not here to criticize but to call your attention to what I noticed in your project. My bungalow is at the same level with yours and I'm here to learn and contribute all I can.

Oluwa Champion!!!

Sprumbaba:

@Am Alone
I will like to correct you that Casey was right.You should not claim you know it all. You also have not done your research very well.  There are 2 types of Cut inTiles:

1. Rectified
2. Un-rectified Tiles

Both type of cuts need spacers but rectified could use the thinnest grout and thinnest spacer.

Furthermore, in Naija, we dont know the difference between Porcelain tiles and Ceramic tiles, Tile Na Tile. The line you are calling is what they call Grout lines . The norm is to march your grout line with the color of your Tiles not just white cement on brown tiles.
If you need a book on Tiling I can send one to you to guide you in doing your tiling project.
I supervise custom flooring projects and Import them as well.
I purposely placed this 3 tiles together for you to see. The 2 with closed edge is Rectified, while the other one with space (That has a gap) is un-rectified.

@ Sprumbaba
Can I have your e mail or your phone #? I have project getting to tiling stage. I have 2 options either buying the tiles in the States and shipping them home or buying them in Nigeria. The problem as usual is the setting of the tiles. It is easy but a lot of the tilers will do a shoody job. You can send pictures of what you have done and what you have in stock to folajimi@verizon.net

egin:

@ Sprumbaba
Can I have your e mail or your phone #? I have project getting to tiling stage. I have 2 options either buying the tiles in the States and shipping them home or buying them in Nigeria. The problem as usual is the setting of the tiles. It is easy but a lot of the tilers will do a shoody job. You can send pictures of what you have done and what you have in stock to folajimi@verizon.net

@ Egin,
Are u online now?

egin:

@ Sprumbaba
Can I have your e mail or your phone #? I have project getting to tiling stage. I have 2 options either buying the tiles in the States and shipping them home or buying them in Nigeria. The problem as usual is the setting of the tiles. It is easy but a lot of the tilers will do a shoody job. You can send pictures of what you have done and what you have in stock to folajimi@verizon.net

Select:

@ Egin,
Are u online now?

@ Select
You can send me an e mail

@STRUMBABA
I am happy that people are talking more about tiling and finishings on this thread.I have not been able to proceed on my twin duplex because I have not been able to get a satisfactory tiling job sample. Strumbaba, do you mind sending some pictures of the work you've done to my e-mail as well as the types of tiles you have.I am looking for

Glazed porcelain tiles
Minimum PEI 4, preferably 5
COF  of 0.1 - 0.4,
Porosity < 0.05%. (vitrified)

Please send your reply to my e-mail address or better still post it on this thread for the benefit of everybody.
shawlar_0@yahoo.com    (shawlar underscore zero @ yahoo.com)

@ Am Alone
Having read all the comments and seeing the pictures, I must say that the tiler did not do a bad job.I will love to see the finished work after the "white cement"aka grout has been put on the tiles to fill the spaces.It is going to make the tiles come out a lot better.Let us give it to this guy.He may not be perfect and needs some more detailing training, but he don try.
I am still waiting on you to give me the phone # of your #1 tiler out of them all. I hail you Oluwa Champion.Go on soun my broda.
The villa is coming out really beautiful. I hope the beautiful than the house madam is ready to move in with you so that you are not alone in this HOME.   O seeeeeeee. I'm all for you bro. Mo gba ti e mehn.

@SPRUMBABA!

We are on the same page, the only difference is that you are managing a commercial property
while i am in business-tile importation is my major imports. By virtue of my business, i have visited
many tile manufacturers in Malaysia, Taiwan and China. What u wrote here is more or less what u
got from ur tiling handy book. But i watched them do the stuff right b4 my korokoro eyes.

Porcelain tiles are far more better than ceramic tiles. Though price is not determinat of quality, but in
Naija tile market it is. Go to Abule Ado or Agric Orile and ask the prices of 40 x 40cm vitrifeid unglazed
and polished floor tiles respectively. No need to ask them about the material used 'cos they may not know,
to them gbogbo ero is ceramic tiles. You will see the huge difference in their prices, the truth here is that the
two tiles are both porcelain but their method of processing and surface finish differs. They may not know this, but
the manufacturers knows and offers them prices accordingly and as they bought so they sell.

@EGIN
Sorry i reponded to ur first comment. I want to tell u once again that spacers are not all dat needed in tiling
traditional ceramic tiles. Using spacers is like making the job more cumberson. The idea of creating grout lines is to
hide away the fault created by uneven edges of the tile. See the rectified tile samples posted by SPRUMBABA.

It's this problem that gave birth to rectifing tiles, but the problem here is that the rectification process is damn expensive.
In Lagos right now original rectified tiles is not less than(at least) 5000 naira per square meter. Grout line tiling systern
could have been a thing of the past if not 4 dis high cost.

About AM ALONE  tiler, do not forget that camera angles played some tricks there.

kikeige:

@STRUMBABA
I am happy that people are talking more about tiling and finishings on this thread.I have not been able to proceed on my twin duplex because I have not been able to get a satisfactory tiling job sample. Strumbaba, do you mind sending some pictures of the work you've done to my e-mail as well as the types of tiles you have.I am looking for

Glazed porcelain tiles
Minimum PEI 4, preferably 5
COF  of 0.1 - 0.4,
Porosity < 0.05%. (vitrified)

Please send your reply to my e-mail address or better still post it on this thread for the benefit of everybody.
shawlar_0@yahoo.com    (shawlar underscore zero @ yahoo.com)

@ Am Alone
Having read all the comments and seeing the pictures, I must say that the tiler did not do a bad job.I will love to see the finished work after the "white cement"aka grout has been put on the tiles to fill the spaces.It is going to make the tiles come out a lot better.Let us give it to this guy.He may not be perfect and needs some more detailing training, but he don try.
I am still waiting on you to give me the phone # of your #1 tiler out of them all. I hail you Oluwa Champion.Go on soun my broda.
The villa is coming out really beautiful. I hope the beautiful than the house madam is ready to move in with you so that you are not alone in this HOME.   O seeeeeeee. I'm all for you bro. Mo gba ti e mehn.

Man, please be a little more patient. Today a new tilers have being employed to continue with the tilling of my house. He did a very perfect job for one of my friend's house
and I'm sure he can do for me a very good job. So once he can prove himself again, I will send you his number. . .


It is not about what people have said here so far, for me the guy is not that good because I remember how many tiles he set badly that I have to ask him to remove.

So that is it. Anyways, I thank you guy.

@Mahabone, thank you very much. You are really very encouraging. . .
I am not saying my job is perfect, what I'm saying is that it is not that bad or atleast look good!!!!

@ Mahabone
I did not get all these from my Tile Handbook. The handbooks are actually for Naija tilers that wants to work with me. I have some concepts I always show them in those books for mosaic designs, custom bathroom, tile countertop and wall niche. I have been trained already as a FM to identify floors and maintain them. I will definitely patronize anywhere in Nigeria they sell original porcelain floors that will not fade. Other than that, I will resort to importation per project.

@ Kikeige
What is the total size of the area you want to cover?
Do you want to try 3 different colors (of the same family) in a home or you want to use one set/color through out the whole house?

@ Egin
I have sent you an email. Send a phone number I can call you on.

The job looks good, and as the owner likes it, we will like it with him. Continue with the good works bro, we are watching and loving it.

I must also comment that I have learnt some lessons in tiling from this thread, thank you Sprumbaba, egin and co. We all continue to learn.

This is for backsplashes.The 12 by 12 sheet is a combination of Stone and glass tile.

This is for a bathroom.

This tile is a porcelain and is good for patio. It's never slippery. Thick, rugged and durable.

20 by 20 Porcelain

This is one of my favorites .This is a porcelain tile 18 by 18.

Engineered wood floors with hand scrape effect on it.

More

@SPRUMBABA!

I am loving this thread. E bi like say i don drag u out of ur shell.

Well this are high quality polished porcelain soluble salt tiles. They are pretty expensive.
What we do is that we bring in those tiles that are affordable to middle class naijas.

This tiles are meant for govt projects or big commercial projects like the one u r managing.
They are the same material-porcelain like the ones at Abule Ado or Agric, what makes the whole
difference is that this ones under rigorous processing technique and super surface finish.

Then about the engineered wood floors, i get some little runs presently at hand. I am trying to bring in
PVC LAMINATED FLOOR which is the latest version of wood floors. I't's made of pvc instead of wood and it
has the engineered series, dry back and self adhsive-laminated and deep embossed(HAND SCRAPE).

Am already talking with two companies at Abuja and i've forwarded the samples to them. So it's an open biz
since u r in the same line.

@ Mahabone
I stumbled on the PVC floor you are talking about. They are cost effective and you cannot tell they are not real hardwood. They are also durable. You can even get the tile version. Let me see the sample you are talking.

As for the above listed pictures, they are a little bit pricey but not expensive. I will post some expensive ones that is twice the price of the already posted pictures. I just shipped out some lovely tiles.

WOW!!!! You Guys are killing it softly . . . . 
SPRUMBABA! AND Mahabone
I can't agree more with you guys. . . .

Below are some few pics of my Kitchen tiles.

For some reason the grout are not perfectly on same line.

Reason 1: the Decor I used is a bit bigger than the tile.
Reason 2: The tiler like I complained earlier is not that good. So I couldn't risk asking him to cut
the decor to the size of the tile as the difference is very small and he would for sure cut it roughly.

So I manage it. So guys, please bear with me. This is my first project and I'm just doing everything to make it look 

more views

Awaits more criticism from the professionals.
Please give it to me as an advice.

In the future, if I'm laying wall tiles or so, I'm certain it will look better than this.

Thanks

The tilling is not 100% completed as you can see in the pictures

Again the grout line have not being filled!!!!

Pictures of my granite to be use for the kitchen slab.

more

Floor tiles after laying
before cleaning.

Also note the skirting is not yet done(last job)

OLUWA CHAMPION!!!!

^^ Good work, I saw some bad jobs today in my inspection of properties. I will send the bad tiling pictures here for us to see, hope am permitted Am Alone?

@Am alone. Those tiles up there are beautiful. Is that the master Bathroom?

@ Oga Spyder dey ask if he can share picture of the bad tilling - lol
NO BE YOU GET PROPERTY SECTION Please share with us abeg
I'm sure we can learn one or two things from it!!!

Sprumbaba:

@Am alone. Those tiles up there are beautiful. Is that the master Bathroom?

Thanks man. the floor is the master bedroom floor
and the wall is the Kitchen tiles!!!

the bad job I was talking about earlier, I saw it on a site I went to inspect.

Yh spyder the job isn't really so bad if you ask me.
Check out my next picture of real bad tilling