Subfloor Preparation
One of the most important aspects of your job is to prepare the subfloor before you start laying. If the subfloor is not in good condition, you are going to have to spend some time fixing it. If you are working with a floor that already has some type of flooring on it, you are going to want to remove the flooring. If the subfloor is concrete, you are going to need to level it out with self-leveling compound if there are problems with the floor. If you are working with a wood subfloor, you are going to need to install concrete board before you can put the marble tile in. Concrete board is going to provide you with a very strong surface to put the tile on. You will need to use adhesive under the concrete board and then use nails or screws to adhere it to the wood subfloor. Regardless of what type of subfloor you have, you want to make sure that it is completely level and smooth for your tile installation.
Wet Saw
When you are working with marble, you will definitely want to use a wet saw. When using other types of tile, you could potentially get by with other cutting methods. You could use tile snips or some other type of saw. However, with marble, you have to use a wet saw. Marble is somewhat brittle and it tends to break along the grain if you do not cut it with a wet saw. The wet saw sprays a stream of water on the marble while you cut it. This helps to make a clean cut and you will not have any rough edges when you are done.
Proper Adhesive
When you are installing marble tile, you will want to make sure that you use the proper type of adhesive. They make and adhesive that is specifically designed to work with marble and stone tiles. This type of adhesive works very well. However, you could also use traditional tile thinset if you do not have access to the marble adhesive. When you use regular thinset, you are going to want to make sure that you use white thinset. If you use a dark color, it could potentially get through the marble and you will start to see the color of the thinset underneath.
Buy Extra
Before you get started, you will want to make sure that you buy plenty of marble tile. If you are short, it can be very difficult to find tile from the same batch. This could result in you having to put tile down that does not necessarily match the tile on your floor.
Source: www.DoItYourself.com
