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I’m a serious DIY’er and am in the process of finishing a small room in an addition to my home. The walls and floor are wood in various configurations; the design for the ceiling thus far consists of three ‘field’ areas delineated by wooden trim pieces, much like rails and stiles. I’ve been trying to visualize different materials in these ‘field’ areas of the ceiling design. I don’t want painted drywall. I don’t want more wood (i.e. – beadboard, etc.). I keep coming back to 12 in square marble tile (carrera – sp?).
Hope nobody out there is laughing. Basically I’m after structural advice. The ceiling, presently, is drywalled. I’d be applying the tiles so that they’d butt tightly (no grout joints). I’d use a variation on the harpsichord builders ‘go-bar’ deck, holding the tiles in position with poles bearing on the floor directly underneath until the adhesive sets.
My questions: Will the tile stay put? Would the paper surface of the drywall substrate delaminate?
Could anyone recommend an adhesive for white marble, one that wouldn’t telegraph on the show side?
Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks much.
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Hi Eric,
Installing marble on the ceiling is not new however not the way you want to do it. The drywall paper will get wet during the installation and will delaminate.
If you must do this, I would recommend replacing the drywall with backerboard and use expanded metal mesh and a good scratch coat and then set the marble into it, supporting it as you already indicated.
Most ceiling marble is actually faux marble that is painted on the surface of plaster.
This is actually what you should consider doing or having done. You can easily get the knack of this with a little practice and the results can fool just about anyone.
Gabe
*Eric , That sounds like an interesting ceiling, I don't know about tile adhesives . If nobody replies with a good product for your job maybe you could have a good painter marblize your sheetrock.
*Eric - It all depends on the ceiling height. With a low ceiling you won't mind as much when the tiles land on your head. At 10' plus it will hurt a lot more.We've successfully put marble tile on bathroom ceilings as long as there is cement backer as a substrate and the tiles are grouted. Your method won't find itself into the TCA (Tile Council of America) detail book, I'm afraid.How about having a faux finish painter paint it on? Otherwise I'd try something else - maybe a coffered look in a different color or texture. Drop your dividers a bit and use a crown to trim out the coffered areas, perhaps.JeffPS If memory serves there is a thin gauge 'elevator' marble bonded to a backing, maybe 1/8"-3/16" thick, to avoid weight in elevators. But, you may have a touch time finding this in a tile size and it's very expensive.
*Yeah, the faux finish is a good idea, but I've got a better...just go down to the hardware store and pick up a roll of whatever pattern contact paper you like. That's the thing here, a guy puts all his time into properly preparing a straight forward question and he gets alternates.Gabe's right, you'll want something more substantial than drywall. Your choice: tile backerboard glued and screwed/nailed to the joists or metal lath for the substrate to which you'll bond the marble. If you are truly the serious DIY, you'll float a scratch and brown coat over the lath. To bond, use a thinset mortar. Skim coat the marble with thinset, push marble into thinbed of thinset troweled to no more than 1/4" thickness bed. It helps to slide each tile to/fro 1/4" when bedding.
*I'd be concerned with how this will look over a large area. It could really be wierd. Consider using a wood grid in conjunction with the marble tiles. You can probably even get tiles larger than 12x12. Not only would the grid physically support the tiles, it would visually support them, too.
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As far as adhesive have you considered white speedset thinset. As long as you have a good helper mixing and keeping tools clean this should help with your installation.If you havent used this product buy an extra bag for the one you need to throw out until you get the hang.
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I'm a serious DIY'er and am in the process of finishing a small room in an addition to my home. The walls and floor are wood in various configurations; the design for the ceiling thus far consists of three 'field' areas delineated by wooden trim pieces, much like rails and stiles. I've been trying to visualize different materials in these 'field' areas of the ceiling design. I don't want painted drywall. I don't want more wood (i.e. - beadboard, etc.). I keep coming back to 12 in square marble tile (carrera - sp?).
Hope nobody out there is laughing. Basically I'm after structural advice. The ceiling, presently, is drywalled. I'd be applying the tiles so that they'd butt tightly (no grout joints). I'd use a variation on the harpsichord builders 'go-bar' deck, holding the tiles in position with poles bearing on the floor directly underneath until the adhesive sets.
My questions: Will the tile stay put? Would the paper surface of the drywall substrate delaminate?
Could anyone recommend an adhesive for white marble, one that wouldn't telegraph on the show side?
Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks much.
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Eric,
Wilsonart makes a laminate product that looks like stone tiles. The lighter weight of this product makes delamination a lesser concern and at ceiling height you'd have to look long and hard to tell it from real stone.
Eric