# Speedy tile laying



## cleveman (Dec 28, 2007)

I was walking down the sidewalk this evening, minding my own business, when I came upon a few pallets from Crossville. One sort of tile was a 12x12, fairly dark, then a bunch of mid-gray 8x8's with the cross-tread pattern.

I have some cross-tread burgundy 8x8's which I've been wondering what to do with, so I went inside for a looky-see.

I came upon these two guys going at it on the floor. One was spreading the thinset fairly loose on the slab, and the other was tossing 8x8 cross-treads on the floor like some card dealer in Vegas.

I was taken somewhat aback because he was tossing the tile into a grid, but not working from the existing tile out, rather from three courses out, then back in.

It all became clear when he bent over and picked up a plastic grid frame and moved it to the front of the floor. Then he started tossing tiles again. 

I looked at what they had laid, and it sure looked all over the place. The guy wasn't touching the tile at all. He just dropped them into the gridwork and moved on.

I complemented the old man by telling him that he sure put some tile on the floor and I learned that they were working for Pizza Hut and needed to really knock out the floor.

I was so flabbergasted by how rolly-polly the floor looked and the speed that they were moving that I forgot to ask them about grouting.

It occurred to me that the "speed grid" could be a nice tool, but only if one went back and pressed the tiles in a bit and attempted to level them off against each other somewhat.


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## Tech Dawg (Dec 13, 2010)

Tile racks are common for commercial work. You can go to my FB page and see some recent vids of us using them. They should have been beating them in with the backside of a margin trowel though...


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## Evan1968 (Dec 5, 2010)

We grid all of our quarry. :thumbsup:


cleveman said:


> tossing the tile into a grid, but not working from the existing tile out, rather from three courses out, then back in.


Does not matter witch way you put tile into the grid. We snap lines on the floor,set the grid up on the line and drop the tile in. 

You need the right rack for the right size tile. The bars on the grid determine the grout joints sizes.You can specify the grout joint size when you have them made. As of right now i have 5 sets of racks for the different quarry i use the most of. 

Like Tech Dawg said,you need to give the tile a tap to set them into the mud real good. Some use a rubber mallet,we use the back of the margin trowel.

The rack is just another tool. If you know how to work it,the quarry will come out great.


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## Evan1968 (Dec 5, 2010)

This is what a properly racked quarry floor looks like. Minus the dust and drywall poop of course!:thumbsup:
That's the floor Tech Dawg and Jimmy Pic set. :thumbsup:


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## Inner10 (Mar 12, 2009)

Evan1968 said:


> This is what a properly racked quarry floor looks like. Minus the dust and drywall poop of course!:thumbsup:
> That's the floor Tech Dawg and Jimmy Pic set. :thumbsup:


That is really neat, never seen a rack being used before. I take it you install miles of quarry tiles?


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## Evan1968 (Dec 5, 2010)

Inner10 said:


> I take it you install miles of quarry tiles?


Miles to me.Kilometers to you.
About 20k feet last year. That was a little below avg year. Works out to be around 2k ft of quarry per restaurant.


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## Inner10 (Mar 12, 2009)

Evan1968 said:


> Miles to me.Kilometers to you.
> About 20k feet last year. That was a little below avg year. Works out to be around 2k ft of quarry per restaurant.


Nice, I'm working in a restaurant as we speak and they are laying 12x24 italian porcelin...seems a little excessive.


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## Evan1968 (Dec 5, 2010)

Inner10 said:


> 12x24 italian porcelin...seems a little excessive.


That's what we put in at the Panera Bread Cafe's. 12x24's on walls and floor's from Transceramica.


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## Inner10 (Mar 12, 2009)

Are the quarry tiles used because they are more slip resistant or simply because they are more cost effective?


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## Evan1968 (Dec 5, 2010)

Inner10 said:


> Are the quarry tiles used because they are more slip resistant or simply because they are more cost effective?


Both really. There are 2 types that they normally spec out for my jobs. One is the smooth face and the second is the abrasive. The abrasive has small metal shavings on the top of the tile that are baked in when they fire them. We call them salt and pepper cause that's what it looks like.

I have used the quarry that has the diamond tread a few times. Awful to grout.


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## Ceramictec (Feb 14, 2008)

Evan1968 said:


> The abrasive has small metal shavings on the top of the tile that are baked in when they fire them.
> 
> I have used the quarry that has the diamond tread a few times. Awful to grout.


Dal & AO had the abrasive in it and it was called corundum and was a black synthetic corundum.

I have been using racks since I started in the trade in 1988 for a commercial company.
when I went on my own and also did restaurants I had racks made for everything. Chili's and the 4x8 saltillo, TGIF for their herringbone brick pavers. racks for AO, Dal, Metro & Summitville quarry. basket weave racks for 4x8 sunshine pavers and even Dal 8x8 racks for taco bells and Regal Cinemas we did.


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