What Size Trowel For 4x12 Subway Tile

Earlier you begin setting tile, decide which tile trowel to use. What should be the right size? Should I use a U-notched or a squared-notched trowel? Those are common questions you must ask yourself before starting your installation project. Basically, there is not a standard trowel size for tile installation, since it depends on the size and type of tile y'all install. Each type of tile may require a differently sized trowel. Be concerned with the amount of coverage for the tile.

For example; you lot take 2 different 24" 10 24" tiles for two different floors. Although they are the same dimension, each tile may crave a unlike trowel size. If one of the tiles is fairly flat with minimum warping (cupping), you may meet the proper coverage requirement using a 3/viii" foursquare-notched trowel. If, still, the other tile has quite a chip of cupping yous may demand to apply a larger 1/2" square-notched tile trowel to get proper coverage.

Proper thinset mortar coverage means a minimum of 85% total coverage beneath a tile for a dry area installation (most floors, fireplace, etc.) and 95% minimum total coverage in a wet area (showers, tub surrounds, etc.). There is more than to that requirement such equally complete coverage below all four corners of the tile, just those are the nuts.

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To go proper coverage you need to choose the right sized trowel, one that volition requite you lot that amount of coverage below the tile. Check this by installing the tile equally you lot unremarkably would, then pulling the tile up and checking the dorsum. There should no longer be whatever trowel lines and you will see complete coverage of thinset on both the back of the tile and the substrate.

How trowel sizes are measured

The size and spacing of the trowel teeth are the ground to measure trowel size for tile. This tells you how much thinset the trowel volition leave on the substrate when you lot spread it out. The trowel's tooth shape and spacing determines how much thinset is sandwiched between the tile and substrate once the tile is fully installed.

RUBI articles tile trowels in ii basic types, the square-notched and the U-notched. They are measured in the aforementioned manner, the first number is the width of the notches (the distance between the teeth), the 2d number is the depth of the notch.

Square-notched trowel

Using a 1/2" 10 1/2" square-notched trowel will leave i/2" ridges of thinset on the substrate with i/ii" spaces between each ridge. A tile trowel with but one measurement (i.east. as i/ii" trowel) means that both measurements are the aforementioned.

When you utilize a i/4" x iii/8" square-notched trowel you will go out 1/4" wide by 3/8" high ridges of thinset on the substrate, with ¼" spaces between each ridge.

U-notched trowel

U-notched trowels normally only take one number. This is both the width and depth of the teeth. I am using a 3/viii" U-notched trowel, which has a half-moon shaped notch.

When you spread thinset with a U-notched trowel, it will get out half-round ridges on the substrate. The meridian of the ridges and the space between each ridge volition be the size of the trowel (in this instance iii/viii"). The width of each ridge will DOUBLE the trowel size – iii/4".

How much thinset will a trowel leave under the tile

The trowel size for tile determines how much thinset to put on the substrate, also as how thick the bed of thinset should be under the tile.

When yous use a square-notched trowel with the same size notch and teeth (i.e. a ane/two" x ane/2"), the bed of thinset will be half of that measurement, or 1/four", beneath a apartment tile over a flat substrate.

When yous fully embed the tile into the bed of thinset, it spreads out the thinset ridges evenly into the spaces between the trowel lines. Since the spaces between the ridges have the aforementioned size as the ridges themselves, this will carve up the peak of the ridges in half. So a 1/ii" 10 1/two" trowel will leave a 1/iv" high bed of thinset beneath the tile. A 3/viii" x three/8"' trowel will exit a 3/16" bed of thinset beneath the tile.

Using a U-notched trowel and embedding the tile into the thinset leaves you with a bed of thinset below the tile a footling over 1/iii the size of the trowel teeth. So a 3/8" U-notched trowel leaves a ane/eight" bed of thinset beneath the installed tile.

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U-notched or foursquare-notched trowel? Which shape of tile trowel to use

Since a three/8" U-notched trowel and a i/4" square-notched trowel will both leave a i/8" layer of thinset mortar below an installed tile, why choose one over the other?

The difference in trowel-notch shapes determines how hands the tile becomes fully embedded in the bed of thinset. In basic terms, it is easier to wiggle a tile into a bed of thinset put downward with a u-notched than with a square-notched. You plummet rounded ridges rather than square ridges.

The square ridges, put down with a square-notched trowel, tend to plummet over on each side when y'all embed the tile into the bed. Pushing the tile down into the bed of square ridges causes the ridges to fold over from the superlative of the ridge, and then spread out.

A U-shaped ridge, on the other manus, spreads OUT when embedding a tile into the bed. Pushing a tile into the bed of rounded ridges causes the ridge of thinset to spread out, from the bottom, with less possibility of trapping air.

Which trowel size for tile to utilise

Determining which trowel size is proper for your installation depends on both the tile itself and the substrate. More than accurately, information technology depends on how flat the tile and substrate are. The less flat the tile is, the more thinset mortar yous need beneath it, which means a larger trowel size.

Commencement, y'all must know how much thinset mortar you want beneath the tile in the finished installation. A finished installation requires a minimum of 3/32" beneath the finished installation, aiming for a 1/8" minimum makes it easier to calculate the proper tile trowel size.

There are two basic ways to determine which size of the trowel to utilize: calculating the warpage (cupping) of the tile and substrate or visual inspection.

Calculating the warpage (cupping)

Cupping of the tile means the corporeality of variation from the plane. That's but a fancy manner of saying how 'out of flat' your tile is. Figure this out by placing the tile contiguous and squeezing one corner. If the tile is cupped, the opposite corner will non be face up-to-confront, it will spread apart. Measure out the corporeality of space between the faces of the tile on the opposite corner then divide that number in half. That is the amount of cupping in the tile.

If squeezing the tile in this manner produces a one/4" infinite betwixt the tiles in the reverse corner, it means the tile is cupped by 1/8". You must add this corporeality to the minimum thinset amount y'all want beneath the tile in club to get proper coverage!

If you want a minimum of 1/viii" bed of thinset beneath the tile cupped past 1/8", you must use a trowel that will leave a ane/4" bed of thinset beneath the finished installation. A 1/2" square-notched trowel volition attain the proper coverage in that instance.

Visual inspection

Visual inspection is simply fully embedding the tile into the bed of thinset mortar, and so removing information technology and looking at both the substrate and the back of the tile to determine whether you have proper coverage.

This tile was pushed down simply about halfway into the bed of thinset. Notice the one/2" foursquare notched bed on the left side has the most coverage with the 3/8" square notch in a close second. The u-notch in the eye has even coverage, but you lot need a much larger notch to get the aforementioned corporeality of coverage.

What's The Trowel Size for a 12×24 Tile?

When you calculate the corporeality of cupping in the tile to determine the properly sized trowel, you however need to visually inspect the coverage to ensure y'all utilize the proper size of the trowel!

To apply what we've learned in this commodity more practically, let's consider the correct trowel size for 12×24" tile? What kind of notches should it take? Well, in perfectly flat weather we want a layer of agglutinative that'southward one/8" to 1/4" thick.

Just in existent life, weather are rarely perfect, so let's assume that we have nearly a i/16^thursday inch of cupping. Like we said earlier, we need to add the lippage to the normal recommended thickness for our adhesive layer.

This gets u.s. a layer between 3/16^th and v/xvi^th inches thick, which is about a quarter inch.

Next, nosotros need to multiply this thickness of mortar by 2, for square notches, or 3, for U notches, to figure out the ideal notch dimensions of our trowel. This comes out to square notches of i/two inch past one/ii inch or a rounded notches of 3/4 inch.

And in that location you have it! You've found the platonic notch size for your trowel!

Personal preferences

Above and beyond using the proper method to go proper coverage for a successful installation, your personal preference will help determine which specific tile trowel you lot use for different types of installation.

Equally a rule, the larger the tile the larger the trowel. It is always meliorate to use a larger trowel than you might need for the installation. A little extra thinset below a tile is completely acceptable, non enough thinset beneath the tile is not acceptable.

U-notched vs. square-notched is a personal preference. While it is easier to obtain complete coverage with a U-notched, you lot must likewise use a larger U-notched trowel to achieve the same bed thickness beneath the installed tile. This is sometimes difficult with vertical installations. It is easier to continue a standing ridge on a wall with smaller foursquare-notched than with a larger U-notched.

U-notched trowels arrive easier to keep thinset out of the grout lines as you embed the tile. In that location is more space between the half-moon ridges with a U-notched than there is with a square-notched. This makes it easier to have the tile drop into the bed with the edge over an open area between the ridges than over the elevation of a standing ridge. Since the thinset spreads out, rather than folding over first, it is less probable that the thinset will fill the grout line every bit you embed the tile.

Your turn! Permit me know your tips to choose the correct trowel size for tile!

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