On Feb 20, 1:31*am, wrote:
I purchased some "made in china" *marble tile from big box store, .size is
12 x 12 x 3/8 * *25 @ $2.00. * I'm liking the price, *and they look good,
but now am concerned the quality may not be so great.........I reached to
pick up one tile that was sitting *on the counter.... and the *corner broke
off in my hand...........they are a little heavy and I guess *that when I
tried to pick up by the one corner it put too much stress on it???????????
I have very little experience with tile so not sure if this is unusual or
this is poor quality tile? *

Chinese marble has some known deficiencies. Obviously there's a
reason that the tile is so cheap. The worst thing that could happen
would be for you to install the tile and have it crack. In that case
it wouldn't matter if you got the tile for free, or they _paid_ you $2
a tile, you still wouldn't be happy looking at it every day. Cut your
losses and return the stuff.

Some of the Chinese marble actually deforms when someone tries to use
the typical water-based thinset to set the tile. If it's that sort of
tile, and it's going on a floor where the edge discrepancy would be an
issue, epoxy thinset is the way to go. Probably not an issue for your
fireplace.

R