Tile installation for large square tiles

Please also consider that the actual size of the tile may differ from the ideal size. The size classes 60x30, 60x60, 120x60, 100x100, etc. are always referred to, but in reality, the tiles are rarely exactly that size. Usually a few millimeters smaller. This often throws off format calculations concerning expansion joints. At least in our house, that was the case.

We have over 80sqm of continuous tile pattern and started laying it in the living room at the expansion joint, so there is no disturbing joint in the living room or at the transition to the hallway because of the tiles. Our expansion joints are sealed with silicone in the same color as the tile grout and are visually indistinguishable. We discussed this in detail with the tilers beforehand, had various grout colors to choose from on site, and also selected the silicone for the tile joints ourselves. If you let the tilers do all of this by themselves, you don't get it the way you would like.

Best regards
Sabine

My alarm is going off right now.
Do you want to tile yourself, or why are you asking?

Basically, you take a whole tile and set it in a conspicuous place. This is done with both large and smaller tiles.

We have 120 by 120 tiles and faced the same decision in the hallway. Either one tile in the middle and 20 cm cut-offs on the left and right. We then started with a whole tile on the wall from which the view goes from the front door through to the living room.

Good that you bring this up^^ We are also tiling with this tile in other rooms. And also in the hallway (1.30-1.60m) we face the same problem. Tile in the middle and cut-off on the outside or not... currently, we tend to have cut-off on the outside, tile in the middle, and then as a kind of "path" from the hallway to the front door.

My alarm just went off. Do you want to tile yourself, or why are you asking? Basically, you take a whole tile and place it in a conspicuous spot. That applies to both large and smaller tiles.

I am having tiles installed. As already mentioned, we have 100x100 cm tiles and the prefabricated house provider either wants a laying plan or leaves it up to the tiler on site. However, we only find out a few weeks beforehand when the tiler will be on site to discuss it with him. That's why we wanted to think about it in advance, how it could best turn out in our opinion. For square rooms, this is quite simple. Usually also for rectangular ones. It gets difficult for other rooms and especially when the same tile continues in other rooms, etc. With 60x60 or even smaller, this is easier because you can shift the grout line more easily. The bigger the tile, the fewer options there are for where the grout lines ultimately lie. For example, if they are still optimal in room 1, problems can quickly arise when transitioning to room 2 and room 3 because the cut-off then lies suboptimally or the grout line is right in the middle of the passage, etc.

So we thought we'd gather experiences from people who have already been through this or who know more about tiling than we do.

PS: The good news is that there will be no expansion joints in our case. And our house builder can establish contact with the tiler on short notice (a few days before installation) if needed. With that and the many answers here on the forum, we are a bit more reassured . The only downside is that we don't know how it will affect the room. On a 2D floor plan, it might still fit, but how it looks in reality we still don't know. On the one hand, we tell ourselves that with furniture etc. it will hardly play a role later, on the other hand, you want everything to be perfect in the planning and tweak every point until the very end.

Really no expansion joints?

I would first take the floor plan and use a corresponding graphic tool to move a 1x1m grid area back and forth over the floor plan. That way, you can already see where critical points arise. Then you can check how to avoid those points. Because even room transitions are ideally supposed to be more or less continuous.

And, I would start thinking about it now and want to have it in writing regarding the expansion joint.

Have you already clarified whether there are baseboards for this tile in this size as well?
For many, not all formats are available as baseboards.
100 format with 60 baseboard looks very poor.