Expert: Jamie Yocono - 3/31/2008

Question
I bought a new dining room table from the unpainted furniture store. The table did have some type of stain on it. I applied ceramic tiles to the tabletop(after sanding) using Premium Multi-Mastic Adhesive #15. I allowed approx. 1 week for the glue to dry. I could not move any of the tiles by hand. At this time I grouted my table with a bag of (sanded)grout. My table came out BEAUTIFUL! We move it in my house in November. We used the dining room table for approx.3 1/2 months on a daily basis when I noticed the tables were loosening. At this time I removed all the tiles(with little to no effort). I've resanded the tabletop and removed all glue and grout from the tiles. I'm not giving up! I'm going to try again.Now after doing some research I understand that wood contracts and expands. So, finally my question is... What can I glue the tiles down with and is there a certain type of grout I should of used?? Thank You so much in advance and I hope to hear from you shortly? Robin Rhea   Goldrhea@aol.com

Answer
Hi Robin,

You're experiencing one of my worst nightmares - wood movement causing the tile bond to fail. I know exactly what you're talking about, and you did well in diagnosing the problem, it's that seasonal movement you mentioned. How to solve it? I have two suggestions.

As long as you have a table top made of solid wood, it's going to "breathe" and move with the seasons. There just isn't any way around it. So my first suggestion would be to switch adhesives and grouts, to allow a little more flexibility. Silicone is usually the way I go, I use a silicone adhesive that remains somewhat flexible, and can "give" when the table top needs to move. The grout is a little trickier. See, silicone grout is not attractive, in my book. Plus, it looks smooth, sort of like colored toothpaste. And you usually don't have a lot of choices in the colors it comes in. It's a problem all the way around.

Here's the part where I've done a good deal of experimenting. Let me digress a bit. If I met you and you asked what I do for a living, I would tell you I'm an artist. I think of myself more as an artist than a woodworker, I'm not sure why, but I think it's because I feel like the various tasks I've done in my career lean more toward being aesthetic than completely functional. The reason I'm mentioning this is because there was a time that I was having serious problems with grouting issues, and I tackled it as an artist rather than simply trying to fix the problem without caring what it looked like. One of the most bizarre things I did was make a purple grout, mostly because I couldn't find it anywhere. But it started me thinking- if I can make this, I can do anything. See, I wanted a sanded grout, so it had that nice - textural - quality, but I couldn't find anything like it. I also needed it to be flexible, with silicone as it's major ingredient. So I ended up spray painting some sand - yes, regular play sand. I painted it purple, and then mixed it into some clear silicone caulk. Once I had the right consistency, I grouted the piece. And you know what- it's still perfect to this day.

The reason I mentioned that is because you're going to be limited in the colors of silicone you're going to find. Don't let that discourage you, make your own color if you need to.

The second suggestion I have for eliminating this problem is to eliminate the movement the tabletop experiences by eliminating the solid wood. What about substituting the table top with one made of MDF? That is the single best way to make a tiled table top. MDF is smooth, it doesn't move, and it's a perfect flat base for tile. So if you want to go to the trouble, I suggest you remove the old solid wood table top and replace it with an MDF top. You will have to figure out a way to treat the edges, most people use a band of solid wood, which is quite easy to do. If you use 3/4" MDF, and the tile is 1/4" thick, you will need 1" material for the edging. There are a lot of ways to do it, a nail gun helps, but I basically glue it and nail it with a brad nailer, and it's fine. A little stain and varnish and then you can grout. I always finish the wood first, so the grout doesn't stain it.

OK, I hope this helps. I think you will have luck with either suggestion, it just depends on how detailed a solution you want to tackle. But if you're lucky enough to find a silicone caulk/grout that is the color you want, you might be able to just use that straight from the tube and you should be fine.

Good luck, write back if you need more advice or if you have questions after reading this. By the way, did you know tiled wooden furniture is my specialty? I make my own tiles, it's quite a process. If you're interested, check out my website.

Jamie Yocono
www.wooditis.com
Las Vegas, NV