This is basic information regarding the Australian Standard for tile grout joint widths for ceramic and porcelain floor tiles and wall tiles.
Grout Joint Size
The size of the grout joint can change the way your overall tile installation looks. It is important to use the right size grout joint for technical reasons and also for aesthetic reasons. Most end users desire very small grout joints; indeed, many would prefer no joint at all. Questions often asked are: • What is the standard for determining the size of a grout joint? • Can it be bigger or smaller? • Does it need to be a specific size? The current Australian Standard ‘Guide to the Installation of Ceramic Tile’ gives little guidance to tile joints. It states that “Joint widths should be consistent throughout the installation unless otherwise specified.” “The recommended joint widths for dust-pressed floor tiles should be 3 mm and dust-pressed wall tiles 1.5 mm.” “Wider joints may be required to accommodate larger tiles, dimensional irregularities in the tiles or to maintain modular discipline.” “The width of the joint should be wide enough to accommodate the variances in size of the tiles as permitted by the manufacturing standards” – AS3958.1&2. So in general there is not a specific standard for the size of a grout joint especially when you consider what a large tile is and there being no reference to rectified tile. The relevant parameters that should be considered when determining the grout joint size are: Variations in the size of the tile All types of ceramic tile shrink in size as they are fired. The larger the tile the greater the possibility of size variation. Even a rectified tile that is made by either sawing or grinding the tile that has already been fired to a specific size, still has some minimal variation between pieces. Tight grout joints will highlight any variation from tile to tile. Even small variations can throw off the pattern of the tile if adjustments are not made in the grout joint. For pressed edge floor tiles anything less than a 3 mm joint may not accommodate the size variation in the tile. However, for example, a 1.5 mm variation in a grout joint between 3 mm and 5 mm would not be noticeable.
Comments