Before you set about installing marble floor tiles you should do a little bit of homework on the techniques involved. The reason for this is that it could save you a lot of time and money. We have all heard of the old saying if you fail to prepare you are preparing to fail.
Every professional tile installer was once a novice too. He honed his trade by teaming up with an experience tile installer or by enrolling in a full or part time course to learn his skills. You may not have the opportunity to do this. Another method of obtaining this skill is to learn some of the basic techniques and avoid the most common mistakes. The job will turn out to be a major success if you do this.
There are many mistakes people make when installing marble floor tiles. I will highlight the major ones so that if you are laying marble floor tiles you have a chance to anticipate the mistakes before they happen.
The first mistake to watch out for is not preparing the surface properly. Your floor is like a blank canvas of a painting before you start to paint. You need to check the levels of your floor before you start, otherwise you could end up with a floor that is sloping away in one or two directions. This could jeopardize the entire job and is very hard to put right once the job is completed. Cleaning the surface must be done before the installation of marble floor tiles. Normally marble tiles are placed on a hard surface like concrete. This surface gathers and holds dust and dirt. Not cleaning the surface will result in loose marble tiles. This can sound like a cracking noise as you walk across the completed job. This is not the desired effect you are looking for.
The second mistake is not laying out your marble floor tiles correctly. You want the tiles to look symmetrical on the floor and the pattern or design to fit the floor. A large marble tile on one side of the floor finishing with a small marble tile on the other side is not a good look on the floor. Doing a dry run with no adhesive is always a good option, especially if you are a novice at the task.
Another mistake people make is in the cutting of marble floor tiles. This can occur very easily and should be avoided because generally marble floor tiles are expensive to purchase. I have heard of marble tiles breaking and chipping while been cut. A reason for this may be that the wrong tool was used for that application. Not cutting to correct size is another mistake that occurs. This results in a lot of wastage and a more costly job. A good rule of thumb I use is to measure twice and cut once. This piece of information has stood me well in the past.
The final thing to look out for is not cleaning the grout correctly on the marble floor. This may not be noticed on the marble tiles until the next day because of the drying process. It looks like a white film with smudges all over your beautiful marble floor. This is like falling at the last fence. You have done all the hard work and the job looks terrible because you have rushed the last step in anticipation to finish. Mistakes will always happen. We need to find a solution when they do. Or the best solution is to learn how to avoid them in the first place.