Tile installation for large square tiles

Hello everyone,

our tiles are 1000x1000mm in size and will have 2mm joints. We would like to have them laid in a cross-joint pattern. Normally, as I know it, you start from the center of the room and cuttings follow at the ends (option 1). For such large tiles, a friend advised us to start at one wall instead and then only have cuttings at the other wall (conveniently the wall where shelves / sofas / tables will later be placed), option 2. His reasoning was that you would notice the cuttings less that way.

I roughly sketched the two options once, i.e. not to scale, with the grey areas representing the cuttings. The room is 11m x 5.6m

What is your opinion? How would you lay such large tiles?

How would you lay such large tiles?

So that they are congruent with the screed expansion joints and are therefore adjusted to the tile dimensions beforehand...

A friend advised us to start on a wall instead with such large tiles and then only have cut-offs on the other wall

The friend only has to endure the result as a visitor I wouldn’t do it that way, it looks "crooked" in the sense that practically two classes of walls arise: those that override the tile grid and those that appear subordinated to the tile grid. I’ll boldly throw the suggestion of a 45° rotation into the room.

I wouldn’t overestimate the whole thing. The important point is the note from Otus, so that no cutting has to be done halfway through. That would really be poor planning. The rest looks like furniture no one will see anymore. The buddy’s suggestion is cost-efficient. Less waste, less work.

Aren't expansion joints always only at doors? Or do you mean on the left where the room becomes narrower, there is also an expansion joint? If so, we would probably draw a dividing line there with mosaic...

With these dimensions, an expansion joint will most likely run through somewhere. But why make it so complicated and conspicuous - simply start the tiles to the left or right of the joint, fill the joint itself with silicone (?) in a matching color, and afterwards it will hardly be noticeable.

By the way, I would calculate the whole thing instead of just placing the tiles by feel. If you don’t have a screed yet, you might be able to shift the expansion joint so that it fits well with the laying pattern.