You decided to go with tile in your home. You even are ahead of the game and know which tile you prefer. You’ve measured your space and even know that you should order roughly 10% extra tile just in case you need some wiggle room during your project. You even picked what color grout you want to go between your tiles. You’ve got this.
Then someone asks how much of a joint size you want with your grout.
Suddenly, that warm and fuzzy feeling you had in your gut for being so prepared and ready to tackle this project just fades away.
Joint size? Joint size?
What Is Grout Joint Size?
It’s actually a lot simpler than it sounds. Joint size simply refers to the amount of spacing between tiles that will be filled with grout. While previously, grout joint size was seen as a means-to-an-end, today, grout joint size is looked upon as a design element that can have a decided impact on the overall aesthetic of the space you’re looking to accomplish.
Most tiles will come with an industry standard recommendation for joint size, allowing you wiggle room to make the decision on how much or how little of a joint size you would like.
Here’s where it can get tricky. While using industry standard recommendations, you can easily calculate the amount of tiles you will need for a given square footage. Once you increase or decrease the joint size, then that calculation gets… complicated.
Important Factors to Consider
Typically, we use thicker grout lines with larger tiles. It tends to give a more balanced look. The thinnest grout is usually reserved for installing the tiniest tiles – think “penny” tiles. The result is more subtle, like an outline. But of course, as any designer will tell you, rules are meant to be broken.
If you are using handmade tiles there will be more variance in the individual tiles. In this case using thicker grout lines will camouflage those inconsistencies. However, making the choice to use thinner grout as a way to accentuate the uniqueness of your handmade tiles is also an option. The goal is to ensure your tiles are installed properly, and will be able to sustain heavy foot traffic if on the floor.
Where your tile will be installed should be taken into consideration as well. Any surfaces that are not level will benefit from thicker grout lines as they are more forgiving. Grout allows installers to make smooth transitions between tiles, so the more grout they have to work with, the better.
If you have questions about grout, joint sizes or flooring in general, give us a call, we can show you what the different thicknesses of joint size look like with different types of tiles.
