Q: How would I use wood as a border around travertine tiles? I would like the wood to border each individual tile.
Gail
Before getting into an explanation of how this process is done, I followed up with Gail to get some extra info on her project.
The travertine is 18″. I was thinking it might look good if blocks of 4 pieces of tile to make a 3′ square were bordered in wood. It would be in a nook and a kitchen. It is a home that is under construction and it is a cement foundation. The nook is 12′x17′ and the kitchen is 17′x20′.
Thanks!
Gail
A: The first thing you will need to look into is a product that can be glued down and fits your desires here. Your best bet will be an engineered hardwood to get a thick enough floor that can be glued.
The process of doing this installation is critical and will require some planning. Also keep in mind you may need to buy a bit of extra flooring to account for all of the cut work that will occur here. For prep work, first ensure to give the wood plenty of time to acclimate. The wood should be within 2% or the moisture rating of the subfloor before installation. You will then need to map out the installation. During this time decide on how wide of a wood border you want around the tiles. Based on how wide your boards are, this may require a multiple plank wide border. On a job like this layout is everything. Pencils first, then chalk lines and hair spray. You might be thinking “hairspray?” and my response is a simple yes. A great tip from Gene D. is to use hair spray over the chalk lines because unlike a lacquer thinner it will not ruin how the mortar sets. If nothing is sprayed over the chalk lines, you are likely to ruin the lines while moving over the area as the installer will be spending a bit of time down on the floor mapping out the floor and doing the install itself.
Then rack out the wood portion by laying out each board. Since you will be using the wood as a border, you will need to lay out either the vertical or horizontal rows (choose one) then rack out the opposing row to make a matrix like pattern. The goal here is to leave enough room for each tile along with any grout needed (depending on your install here) between the boards. Also, this is a great time to ensure your measurements and cuts are done well.
Once you are ready to install, you will need to install the wood first. You may have to shim the engineered material to come up to the 3/4″ nominal height of installed granite. (1/2″ material and 1/2″ square notch trowel will provide a mortar bed that will compress to 1/4″ when set) I would also suggest the use of a tile schluter as long as you are going through all of this work, other wise you can expect faults in his grout work as the seasons change and years go by. Make sure you have plenty of expansion room around the border of the entire floor. Give the adhesive time to cure before installing the travertine. Once the adhesive has cured, then install the travertine and grout if you intend to grout. You may need to use a bit of filler putty in places to ensure it looks smooth and appealing.
With an installation like this, you have a lot of room for the design aspect. I found a picture to show something done in a kitchen with stone tile. As you can see in the picture below, with some angular cuts you can get a very nice effect at the joints around the tile. With a multiple plank border, you could also do some other design aspects such as a picture frame style border.
