How to set a marble slab style entryway.

OK, so hopefully you have a little bit of experience with flooring. If not that's OK too, if nothing else this article will give you the basic idea of what goes into installing a good size marble entry piece.  A marble inlay piece about 4 ft by 4 ft will run you about 200 dollars or so from one of those specialty marble and stone shops. Materials and tools will set you back a couple hundred, the labor time just a few hours.  For something like this to be installed by a professional can cost you around a grand.  So basically you can do it your self for around half the price, while making the finished product look like a million bucks.  So here we go...........

First we will go with tools, ill get into the measurements and leveling in another paragraph.

Tools: ( Proper tools make any job easier.)

Pencil:

Razor Knife:

Safety Glasses:  Cause eyes are more expensive to replace than glasses.

Card Board:  Large piece of cardboard, Match your inlay this is your template.

Tape Measure:

T- Square Triangle:  Great for a quick measurement or a right angle.

Hammer and Chisel:  Get a heavy hammer and good size chisel.

Tape and Plastic:    Yes you will make a mess.

Wet Dry Vacuum:   A must have for this job.

Levels:   Get a 3 foot and a 5 foot level. the five foot can double as a straight edge.

Chalk Line:   Great for helping square a room, or portion of a room.

Sponge:  Get industrial grade tile sponges not the ones from your dishes.

Trowel:  I recommend using around an inch gap, the bigger the tile the bigger the gap.

Flat Trowel:    To level the floor get a flat metal cement trowl. Good for seting the marble inlay.

Buckets: get two, one for water, one for mortar.

Mixing wand:   A must for even mixing, fits right in your drill.

Spacers:   Use the same size as the pattern of your floor tile.

Thin Set mortar:   One big bag, grab two if you are setting something larger than 4x4

Level ease:   Self leveling floor compound. You can use thin set as well, just add mortar adhesive. 1 Bag.

Water Saw:  Small hand held cutting wheel, found in tile section of you local home builder store. Looks like a small circular saw, with a hose hookup.  Sets you back around 60 to 80 bucks. A must have for this job, as well as a cheaper alternative to other concrete cutters.

Cement Cutting Blade:  This is a 4 inch wheel designed for cutting cement.  Pops right in the saw, another must have.

Marble Inlay:

Friend:  You will need two sets of hands.

Lets Get Started:

OK first you will want to make sure that you know where you want you inlay to sit.  At this point you have picked the tile that you like, as well as the pattern.  Once you have decided which inlay to use you are ready to begin. Before you install your tile, make your template with your cardboard. Cut a matching pattern to the dimensions of your inlay. Make the edges as perfect as you can, this will help you to measure, and better judge your work before you even get started.  Once you have made your template. Set out where you would like to have you inlay. Use your template as a guide to gauge your location. If your room has not been squared, this is the time to do so.

Squaring A Room:

Measure from end to end, and divide in half. Mark the point.  Measure the adjacent walls the same way. Again make a mark. Where the two lines meet is your center.  Measure and mark the center of each wall. You should at this point have five marks, one center, and four mid points for the walls.  Take your chalk line and mark lines at your measuring points.  If you have done everything right your line should meet at the center point in the middle of the room.

Squaring The Inlay:

Where ever you place your inlay you want it to be perfectly square.  To make things easier i will describe setting the inlay in the center of the room.

Once you have squared your room measure your inlay from end to end. Assuming your template is matching your inlay, use that as it is easier to maneuver.  Mark your inlay the same way that you centered your floor. If you are doing an entry way, square your doorway and use your center line to mark your inlay.

Once you have marked your template, line up the template lines with your lines in your floor. There you go you have centered your inlay.  Mark the perimeter, this is where you will cut out the floor.

Prep For Cutting:

Plastic off the area that you will be working. Protect walls from water and over spray from the saw. Four feet up the wall should do. Set up the wet dry vacuum.  Also running your tile up to around two to three feet from you location for your inlay, will help you later in leveling your floor. Cardboard can also be layered s a substitute if you decide to measure your levels without installing your tile.

Cutting The Floor:

Depending on the thickness of your inlay will determine the depth which you will have to cut your slab. Take tiles and spacers, and set up an area just as you would if you were laying that way you can see where your inlay will sit.  Measure the thickness of the inlay, add for mortar thickness.  Do the same with your floor tiles.  If the measurements are equal, ( very unlikely) then skip this next part. More than likely, the measurements will not match.  Most of the time your inlay will be much thicker than you tile.  The difference is half the depth you must cut from the floor. In many cases I have take an inch or more out of the slab.  (Remember) you want the floor to be completely level.  Set the depth of the blade for your wet saw.  You are ready to roll.

Take time to mark the inlay outline as darkly as you can.  Extend the lines past the points of the border about two inches. This will give you a mark to guide your measurements.  Measure off the boarder of your inlay a quarter to a half inch mark and square a perimeter.  You should now have two (squares) one inside the other drawn on the floor.  Make these marks ad dark as possible,  the water waste from the saw can wash your marks away.

Set up your saw. These saws don't need too much water to work. A nice steady trickle will do well. Too much water will make a huge mess.  Throw on your safety glasses,m turn on the wet vac, and here you go.

Start slow and cut the outside square. Always cut deeper than you measures. You will need a little play when you are leveling the floor.

Once you have cut the outside square, cut a checker board grid pattern into the slab end to end inside the box. The closer the cuts the easier to take out the concrete.  Clean up the mess as you go with the wet dry vac.

Once you have your grid, its time to break it all out.  Let the excess water soak into the slab for a little bit. This will help you remove it later. Take your hammer and chisel, and break out all the grid pieces. Try to make it as clean as possible.this will make setting the inlay much easier.

Leveling The Floor:

At this point you have a big hole in the floor.  The square will be deeper than what you need , however the level ease will bring it to the height that you need.  Make your Measurements of tile and inlay.  (Include Mortar in Measurement). Bring the level to the desired level, and allow to set.

Installing The Inlay:

Once the hole is level, set your tiles up to as close as you can, use card board to substitute  for mortar for measurement purposes.

Mix your thin set mortar thick, this way the weight of the inlay wont depress your level. Once this thing goes in getting it out is nothing nice. Make a nice bed of mortar in the hole, than with your trowel, spread mortar on the bottom of the inlay.  You want to spread the mortar evenly, there should be no open gaps on the ends or corners.

Measure the depth and the thickness of mortar and inlay, The hole should be a slight bit shallower than the thickness of the inlay with the mortar spread. The extra mortar will serve as a cushion and as a connectin point fromthe inlay to the mortar bed in the hole.. Gently set the  inlay in the hole. Press the inlay firmly yet evenly to assure complete coverage, avoiding hollow spots from air trapped in the mortar. Using your level wiggle the inlay till the exsess mortar has squished out the gap between the inlay and the cement slab. Recenter the inlay, check levels with your tiles. Place spacers if needed, and let sit to cure. If you have done everything right the inlay should be square and level with the rest of your floor, You are now ready to connect your tile to your inlay.

Connecting Your Pattern:

Set your tile to your inlay, If need be square again if instaling a boarder, if not then lay as normal, taking account for the levels, you can slope the tile slightly if the inlay sits higher than the tile.

There you have it, alot of work for a single piece, however the personality an inlay adds to a room is worth all the effort. I hope this helps answer any questions you might have had. Thanks for reading.