Wow beautiful bathrooms. I was very glad to see both these bathrooms with the carrara tile (although marble is not in our budget). They are both beautiful and exactly the look we are considering although rather than marble, we are considering an AO look alike in ceramic. My biggest concern was continuing to use the existing plain white shower and tub surround with the new faux marble floor tile and now I am thinking it will look fine. Bill, if you are still reading this thread: The dark inset in the bath floor looks like marble also, is that correct? If we were to use the AO porcelain tile in the main part of the floor, would it be strange to use real marble for a similar trim or decorative accent? Is the grout in the main floor a dark grey? or is it still ungrouted in the picture? Do you happen to know what material was used for the countertop? Thank you for your advise.

Its standard here for marble flooring, we go to the warehouse to pickup a slab usually around 8'x5' or more then discuss the final tile cut size to minimise wastage before the installer drylay the marble in the factory to arrange the veining (also to place less desirable tile under furnitures etc). I'm in the process of laying 27"x51" size marble tile for my flooring, still deciding whether to have the veins move vertically into my room or horizontally across it.

1. Should I use 1/16 or 1/8 grout size? Is it personal preference for looks or will one size help prevent chipping, lippage during installation, etc? For the most part, it's personal preference. If you use 1/16" joints, use unsanded grout. Anything larger, sanded. The one thing that would be technical preference is that the larger joint would hide lippage alot more. 2. Based on the recommendation for #1, should I use sanded or unsanded grout on this polished marble tile? Answered already. I don't care what anyone says about scratching the face. I've heard of it being done, but I've been doing this for many years, and yet to ever scratch the face of marble with sanded grout, even when it was a commercial installation, and we were using a buffing machine to grout. The ONLY thing that determines the type of grout is joint size. Of course, if you use Laticrete's Permacolor grout, you eliminate the need to make a choice because they use a finer sand in this series of grout, so it works in all size grout joints. 3. Seems like Polyblend Platinum would be a good color choice, agree? Yes, I do. But if you choose to go the Permacolor route, check into Silver Shadow. it's just as good. 4. Do I need to seal the grout and tile? Before I grout? If so, sealer recommendation? I'm not a big one for grout sealing just for the sake of grout sealing, but the stone really SHOULD be grouted, nd it wouldn't hurt the grout if it got sealed along WITH the stone. Any good solvent based impregnating sealer will work well.

"...The kitchen/bath designer just spec'd it in and we had no idea of the possible consequences...." Most desingers have no clue how to set tile. How to prep for tile. What is required. I stopped listening to designers years ago. Now I work with builders and clients designers but I do not set any tile I do not want. If the designer says. I want a flush transition from the hall to the tile I act cheeky and ask how should I install that? I ask them questions like "So you don't want a crack isolation membrane and you are happy with tiling over the old plywood?" If they say yes then I ask them to bring in their tile guy and ask why am I here? People think that tile men have the clients best interest at heart when the truth is most times they are looking to only please the builder or the designer since this is the source of their income. You need to be careful here. Some of the worst mistakes I have seen have come from the designer making stupid calls and the trades just following them.