Can I leave the spacers in my ceramic tile floor and grout over it?
Question:I am installing a tile floor and my local home store has told me that I can go ahead and leave the 1/4 inch spacers between the tiles and cover them over when I grout. They said this is a good way to maintain the distance throughout the installation, particularly since I'm installing it alone. I've read books that say not to leave the spacers in. Who's right?
Answers:
Save yourself a huge headache in the long run and take the spacers out. By leaving them in you will create soft and weak spots in your grout and this will lead to cracking and tile popping.
Your local hardware store was probably telling you what they thought you wanted to hear.
no
I would not leave them in they can shift and cause cracking!!
Professional installers will take them out, but if you're doing it alone (particularly if you've not done it before), this is probably a good idea. Try finishing a small section first to see if the spacers are visible in the end result though!
leave spacers in till it dries , then take them out and grout, otherwise if you grout over you risk thinning over the spaces, and they may prodrude, or even worse give an uneven finish
They are wrong, pull al lthe spacers or else the grout will pop off. If you hve one or two that are too embedded to retrieve, it will be okay.
Hopefully you placed the spacers standing up (tombstone -style), not flat.
I would not leave them in. The will create flexible weak spots that is opposite of the purpose of grout.
Used to be, they were left in. Common practice now is to remove them to minimize the potential for cracks.
It somewhat depends on your room. If you are not able to make totally straight runs because the room is not perfectly square (many are not), then placing the spacers in vertically will allow you to offset the imperfections in the room with tile runs that are not totally straight. If the spacers go in vertically, you will need to remove them before grout since they will stick up over the top of the tile. When I did my kitchen, I removed most of the spacers. I ended up leave about a dozen or so spacers in and grouted over them. You can't tell that they are there.
If you do remove them, let the mortar completely dry before walking on the tile. The spacers will easily pull out of the dried mortar. Plus, for the few minutes you will spend taking the spacers out, you will have them if you ever need to use them again...
Good Luck!
Your local home store is doing what they call "yanking your chain". No - do not leave the spacers - that will cause critical future problems.
Personal experience tell me no. We did that about a year ago and now there are places where it is cracking over them. Take the time and pull them out.
Nope. Take them out. They are only there to keep the same distance between the tiles as the tiles are being layed. Once your lay out is done and you're ready to grout, remove the spacers.
never leave the spacers in ...grout will be thin and crack and pop out of tile.
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