Had a tile job go sideways at a house near the BioPark and now I'm split on using spacers

I was helping a friend redo his bathroom floor last month, a 1970s place off Central. We started laying the 12 inch ceramic tiles dry to check the layout, and he insisted we didn't need plastic spacers, that we could just 'eyeball it' and keep things tight. By the third row, the grout lines were all over the place, maybe a quarter inch off in some spots. We had to pull up everything, scrape the thin-set, and start over, which cost us a full day. I've always used spacers for a clean grid, but he says they're a crutch and that a skilled person can work faster without them. I'm not so sure after seeing that mess. For folks here who do tile work, do you always use spacers or do you think you can get by without them on a standard floor job?

2 comments

2 Comments

ninamartin2d ago

Honestly, the real cost isn't the spacers, it's the time you lose fixing mistakes. A pro might skip them on a perfect wall, but floors have way more room for error to creep in. That quarter inch you saw is exactly why most of us just use the cheap plastic insurance.

ryan9522d ago

Totally get that. Reminds me of the time I tried to eyeball some laminate without spacers. Ended up with a board that wouldn't click in because everything had shifted.