Cutting and Fitting

The cutting and fitting of a tile or stone job can turn a good installation into a bad one.

There are techniques and methods that should be used to assure that the final product looks good and is acceptable to the owner/client. The standards have guidelines that state cuts should be uniform and have clean non-jagged edges. It is not only standards that should be considered, but also a standard of care for professional tile installers. It is generally expected that an installer possesses the skills required to install a project so that is looks good and performs well.

So, what are the options when a there are cuts that do not look good?  Most installations that are sound can be repaired as full replacement is normally not justified or necessary.  Repairs can be made by removing the affected pieces and reinstalling the cuts properly with the same material.  This is an important reason to make sure the tile contractor always provides an adequate amount of extra material that is known as owners stock or attic stock. Having extra material that matches the original installation can be an invaluable resource if repairs are required long after the installation takes place, as most manufactured tiles have short life spans and can vary from manufacturing batch to batch.

Circular cuts are often problematic and can be a little tricky to get right.  A good option to keep circular templates on hand in various diameters so the circle can be drawn right onto the surface of the tile.  This will help guide the cutting process to make a perfect circle or partial circle when complete.
 
We offer different quality control services that can be tailored to any budget where we deploy our expert seasoned installers to the site to oversee and assure a project is performed correctly and  that will perform for the intended lifetime. Qualified installers are in high demand and are often very difficult to find and expensive to hire. Using one of our installers to oversee your contractor may be the difference between project success or failure.