Offsetting Tile Joints to Add Visual Interest

When your tiles are rectangular rather than square, you can create a more interesting pattern by offsetting the end joints, as shown in the photo sequence.

Offsetting tile end joints takes a slightly greater attention to detail, however, because if you offset every other row of tiles, one of the control lines will be covered half of the time. This is easier to see than to explain. The tiler in our photo sequence is working with 8 in. x 16 slate tiles and offsetting each end joint by 8 in. So every other end joint lines up. As you can see in the second photo, the first tile in his first row fits nicely into the intersection of the control lines; the first tile in the second row overshoots the control line by 8 in.; the first tile in the third row lines up, and so on.

Not to overthink things, but when one of your control lines is covered half the time, you will probably rely more on the control line that isn’t covered up (because it runs parallel to tiles’ long sides). Our tiler seems to be doing just that. After setting his first row of tiles all the way to a wall, he uses a straightedge to check tile alignments and then weights down the straightedge so it won’t move as he adds and adjusts subsequent rows.

Installing each row is an ongoing process of adjusting and aligning–using a tiler’s straightedge, a measuring tape, a framing square–but that’s true of any tiling job. And, of course, while you’re constantly checking tile positions against the two control lines, you must also keep an eye on the third dimension–how level the tiles are–as seen in the sixth photo. This job was particularly exacting because tile thicknesses varied somewhat. So in addition to the layer of thinset he applied to the floor with a notched trowel, he also “buttered” the back of each tile, using the trowel’s straight edge.

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