Before you start installing marble tile, you should do some research on the techniques involved. The reason for this is that it could save you a lot of time and money. We’ve all heard the old saying: if you fail to prepare, you’re preparing to fail.

Every professional tile installer was once a novice too. He honed his craft by partnering with an experienced tiler or enrolling in a full- or part-time course to learn the skills from him. You may not have the opportunity to do this. Another method of gaining this skill is to learn some of the basic techniques and avoid the most common mistakes. The work will turn out to be a great success if you do this.

There are many mistakes that people make when installing marble tiles. I’ll highlight the most important ones so that if you’re laying marble tiles, you’ll have a chance to anticipate mistakes before they happen.

The first mistake to be aware of is not preparing the surface correctly. Your floor is like a blank canvas of a painting before you start painting. You should check your floor levels before you begin, otherwise you could end up with a floor that slopes out in one or two directions. This could jeopardize the entire job and is very difficult to correct once the job is complete. Surface cleaning should be done before marble tile installation. Normally marble tiles are laid on a hard surface like concrete. This surface collects and retains dust and dirt. Not cleaning the surface will result in loose marble tile. This may sound like a creak as you walk through the finished work. This is not the desired effect you are looking for.

The second mistake is not laying the marble tiles correctly. You want the tiles to look symmetrical on the floor and the pattern or design to fit the floor. A large marble tile on one side of the floor ending with a small marble tile on the other side does not look good on the floor. Making a drill without adhesive is always a good option, especially if you are new to the task.

Another mistake that people make is in the cutting of marble tiles. This can happen very easily and should be avoided because marble flooring tiles are usually expensive to purchase. I have heard of marble tiles breaking and chipping while being cut. One reason for this may be that the wrong tool was used for that application. Not cutting to the correct size is another mistake that occurs. This results in a large amount of waste and more expensive work. A good rule of thumb that I use is measure twice and cut once. This information has held up well to me in the past.

The last thing to watch out for is not cleaning the grout properly on the marble floor. This may not be noticeable on the marble tiles until the next day due to the drying process. It looks like white speckled film all over the beautiful marble floor. This is like falling over the last fence. You’ve done all the hard work and the job looks terrible because you rushed the last step ahead of time to finish. Mistakes will always happen. We have to find a solution when they do. Or the best solution is to learn how to avoid them in the first place.