Laying Marble Tiles- DIY

Folks,
Looking for some advice. Sister has bought some marble tiles for her entrance hall & asked "your's truly" if he'd lay them for her. Have laid polished porcelain & ceramic galore in my own house but not marble. Don't want to say NO given the cost of a tiler but want to know if there's any major differences in laying marble as opposed to polished porcelain. I've seen her tiles and they can be laid in a fairly random pattern (i.e. don't need to match any veining thru' the tiles) but by the same token, I don't want to ruin her new 'grand' entrance hall. Thanks.

I'm no expert on tiling but I have worked with Travertine (that's a type of marble isn't it?) tiles. The only difference is sealing. You must seal the tiles after they are down but before they are grouted. Then after grouting you seal them again (three coats is best). Also if the tiles are a light colour, use a white adhesive as the gray adhesive will seep through and mark the tiles. Any tile shop should be able to give you advice on sealants and adhesive products.

I used a wet saw to cut them so I'm not sure how they would react to manual cutters.

Hi actually looking at Travertine/marble tiles yesterday and asked about laying them.

The ones we looked at were limestone and has small "holes" in them, they need to be filled with grout and then sealed with a special sealant.

We saw a before and after tile and in fairness they looked quite different, when it was grouted and sealed it went a more uniform colour.

Just so she is aware and doesnt kill you !!

Also the guy told us that because they are a natural product the colour may vary and that if we found a particularly dark tile we could bring it back and they would change it.

Hi there, shouldn't be too hard, but be aware that it's quite difficult to cut and very prone to cracking if cut badly.

Also, marble is very heavy, so make sure that you prepare the sub-floor well.

And lastly, marble hates acid (hence the importance of sealing it). If you drop anything like wine or vinegar on unsealed marble, it will eat away the stone and cause really bad damage.


Hope this helps!

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Thanks Marion. Would you recommend a specific type of cutter for cutting the tiles? Would a typical 'light' wet-saw that I've used previously for porcelain suffice? The marble tiles are nearly 2x in thickness. Thanks, apple1

You'll love this - have a look at this page. Detailed instructions on how to lay a marble floor yourself



Electric cutters (the type you can rent) will cut up to 6mm. I know there are specialist marble cutters available, they look like hand-held rotary saws with a special blade, but they look really expensive... I'd say try it out?

Good luck!