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Glass backsplash tile - no space between tile and granite counter

12 years ago

The tile guy has installed all my glass backsplash tile with the bottom row sitting on the granite counter. I'm pretty sure he was supposed to leave a gap there. Opinions? I'm having a panic attack right now!

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jmcn608
Original Author

12 years ago

The wall is shared with the inside wall of the Garage. We did use the thinset recommended by the manufacturer (nice to know I did ONE thing right). I used 1/16" joints because we are also using strips of mosaic tile and I wanted all the joints to match. The manufacturer also recommended sanded grout, but now with my joints so small would it do any good to switch to unsanded? It is 5am and I am actually considering ripping all the tile off. Would that work? Would I be able to reuse the tile? Ugh, what a mess.

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Comments (6)

dseng
12 years ago
The usual method is to leave a single grout line space at the bottom. That joint should be finished with caulk, not grout. It shouldn't cause any functional issues though, and if he does a nice job of finishing the vertical grout lines that touch the counter top, it might just look awesome.
jmcn608
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks for that dseng, but I'm concerned about the movement of the tile itself (expanding/contracting) and worried that the tile will end up popping off the wall? He has also installed with 1/16" grout joints (at my request) which now I read might be too small and cause the same 'popping' issue down the road. What do you think? Grrrr!! Biting my nails now :-(
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felixnot
12 years ago
The movement of the glass will have a lot to do with the temp variation of the wall it's mounted to. Especially because you have 16th inch grout, (did someone recommend that, it's very unusual, and not typically recommended). So If you live in cold climate and the kitchen is on an exterior wall, depending on the insulation, you may have a problem.

You may want to consider having the bottom row of tile removed, cut and reinstalled

By the way, tile should be installed from the center out, always.
dseng
12 years ago
If this is inside the house, you really shouldn't be getting enough expansion and contraction to cause things to move. If you are, you'll have cracks in your grout and tiles breaking free from the thinset (he did use thinset and not mastic, right?). There's always felixnot's suggestion of having him pull and cut the bottom row - the cut edges would be covered by a nice, neat, professionally done caulk job.
panosn
5 years ago
jmcn608, I just had a horrible tile installer do the same thing after we spent a fortune remodeling our kitchen. I'm curious, did you leave it or have it redone. And has the grout or tile cracked since. We haven't grouted yet and I'm debating if I should take out the bottome row.

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