On 2007-08-14 12:15:41 +0100, Owain said:

Andy Hall wrote:
I've just completed a tiling job using large format (305mm sq.)
limestone tiles.... ... the best I found was one called Setting Tile by
Michael Byrne. It's a U.S. book, which results in measurements being
in imperial, which is unfortunate,

but given you were using 305mm tiles anyway, not too big a problem :-)

Owain

Well exactly. There were quite a few cuts, and of course the tile
circular saw has proper metric scales.

While I think of it, I also bought some tile layout software -
Precision Tile from another U.S. source, Laurel Creek Software.

My objective was to do some trial layouts which are important anyway
but especially where large format tiles are used. Initially I had
thought of using Autosketch or Google's thing or even bits of graph
paper, but it seemed like a lot of work.

Then I happened on Precision Tile and looked in detail through the web
site http://www.laurelcreeksoftware.com

It seemed to do what I wanted in terms of being a simple to use,
application specific CAD program that allows visualisations and more
importantly, allows quick changes to be made. In effect, it's like a
simpler version of some of the kitchen design packages.

Normally I like to have download evaluations of software before buying,
and this does have the disadvantage of only running on Windows rather
than an operating system, but at $24.95 with electronic delivery (about
£13), in the context of an investment of a few hundred £ in tiles and
materials it seemed reasonable.

The results are excellent. I can run it in a Parallels or VMWare
environment and it does what the author describes. I was able to
produce basic layouts for the room in well under an hour by inputting
tile dimensions and grout widths and then simply drawing the walls.
The tiles can then be overlaid and moved around in different trial
layouts. At one point, I considered adding in bands of small
mosaics towards the corners of two of the walls, but this not only
didn't look right visually, but wouldn't have fitted correctly.

A more difficult problem was the vertical positioning of the tiles.
There were three options for this, being

- to split the cuts equally at top and bottom of the tiling

- to split the space equally between the top of the tiling and a length
of granite used for the basin

- to split the space equally between the underside of a cupboard and
the top of a different piece of granite used to make a top for the
cistern enclosure.

This was debated long and hard. The technically correct solution is
the first one, but it does not produce a good visual appearance around
the focal point when walking into the room, which is the basin and
granite counter on which it sits. As a result, I went for the second
option, which is somewhat better than the third with both looking
better than the first.

I did also mock up bits of the layout in the room with old sample tiles
that I scrounged from the supplier.

It was certainly worth spending the time on trying out the layouts and
coincidentally saved on cuts and material used - the software gives an
indication of how many tiles will be needed.