Apron from tiles hog in the kitchen

Recommendation points

• What a hog
• Choosing tiles for the kitchen
• Substrate surface preparation
• Cladding technique and layout scheme
• Seam processing

The use of materials for outdoor decoration in residential premises is considered a rather extravagant undertaking. One of the private solutions of this kind is the facing of the kitchen apron with hog tiles, imitating brickwork. We will tell you about the rules for choosing such a tile and finishing technology.

What a hog

The tile, in the common people referred to as a hog, got its name from two grooves at the ends. It is a rather heavy finishing material, originally intended for use on building facades. By the way, the first objects lined with a boar are alive and well to this day, most of them have not a hint of broken tiles.

Over the past half century, the boar, due to its unique appearance, quickly migrated from the facades of houses to underground passages and the metro, and then began to be used in the interior – mainly in loft and high-tech styles. As the main tile covering, as in bathrooms, for example, such tiles do not bring much benefit. But it looks very impressive in different decor options and with visual zoning.

The main feature of the hog tile is its considerable weight and thickness, much greater than that of most types of tiles. Of the visual differences, the most striking is the constant wide bevel, which spoiled the nerves of almost every tiler who tackled the laying of the hog. Working with such material really requires professional skill, otherwise there is no point in using material with such a high aesthetic value..

Choosing tiles for the kitchen

The boar belongs to small-format tiles, which are traditionally used for facing the apron. The element has an aspect ratio of 2: 1 or 3: 1, which directly affects the layout scheme. But more on that later, for now let’s talk about the stylistic variations that are optimal for this type of tile. It is worth noting that the hog really has something to offer in this regard..

Option one – a monochrome surface without variations. This is the most advantageous option in terms of appearance versus effort. The exclusivity of the cladding in this case is determined exclusively by the shape of the tile surface. It can be either a strict bevel, or a softer wave, or a combination of the two. You can emphasize such an apron with contrasting seams..

The second option is to use a monochrome base with decors: dotted, linear, patterned and in general any that suit the fastidious gaze of kitchen owners. In the assortment of the boar suppliers there is a really rich selection of such products. The optimal ratio is the ratio of one decorated element to 9-12 monochrome.

Another advantageous variation is a combination of two or three colors; for convenience, you can use Itten’s color wheel or stick to a more “calm” range. If there are two colors in the finish, it is advisable to determine in advance some meaningful layout scheme. A pattern of three or more colors can be chaotic, this is also a very advantageous option. Please note that for a high-quality combination of multi-colored tiles, all cladding elements must have the identical shape of the front part.

Substrate surface preparation

Due to the large thickness and massiveness, the hog tile is extremely demanding in the preparation of the base. There is also one trick related to the size of the tiles: ideally, if the apron is designed in such a way that its length is a multiple of the format of the cladding element, taking into account the seams.

The surface quality of the base on which the tiles are glued should also be almost perfect. In the event that drywall is faced with a hog, practically no additional requirements arise. It is only important to thoroughly process the sheets with a high-quality primer, preferably containing stone dust. After priming, dry the surface and peel off adhering large particles.

When laying on solid walls, everything is more difficult: not only do the geometry have to be corrected with plaster with a tolerance of no more than 2 mm / m, it is also necessary to ensure high strength and good quality of adhesion with glue. Substrate stability can be guaranteed provided that the plaster is reinforced with a mesh, preferably galvanized. It is optimal in such cases to use a reinforcing mesh made of wire 2–2.3 mm thick with a mesh size of about 50 mm. When plastering, it is recommended not to rub the surface into an ideal plane, it is enough to stretch the wall along the lighthouses, leaving grooves and small depressions. After drying, the plaster must be removed from crumbling particles and covered with a strengthening primer in 2-3 layers.

Cladding technique and layout scheme

It’s time to move on to the most important thing – laying the boar. On the one hand, this is a simple matter: using high-quality tile adhesive and aligning with a laser axis builder, you can achieve a very high-quality result. Recall that in the optimal case, the glue is applied under the comb on the wall surface, after which the tiles are applied. But since the pull-off load increases due to the weight of the boar, it is advisable to also wipe its back side with glue.

The most interesting thing about hog facing is the choice of layout scheme. There are half a dozen different tile options available for a backsplash. The simplest layout schemes are horizontal: classical without offset, as well as with bandaging for a third and half of the tile length. Offset by a third of the length relative to the adjacent row avoids the appearance of pronounced diagonals.

Diagonal laying involves laying the tiles at an angle of 45 ° or 30 ° to the horizontal. The smaller the format, the greater the preferred angle of inclination. Laying can be carried out both without displacement in the rows, and with dressing, this is a matter of purely personal taste. The main difficulty of the diagonal layout is the need to use special tile saws, otherwise the oblique undercut with a burr will not be done correctly. Corner reduction through the profile with a diagonal layout does not look very nice.

Finally, the third and least common installation scheme is with vertical orientation of the tiles. Despite the ability to visually increase the height of the room, the vertical layout looks beneficial only in the absence of the upper tier of the kitchen. For facing a wide and low apron, this method is not suitable for the best way: ridiculous convergence in the corners and incomplete vertical rows look simply ugly.

The main difficulty of working with a hog is caused by problems with trimming and converging corners. It is for this reason that it is recommended to sacrifice a few centimeters of the length of the kitchen unit in order to end up with a layout without extras in the rows. If the headset is located in a niche, it is better to build up one of the side walls with the help of gypsum board so that the length of the row consisted exclusively of solid elements, you can also vary the thickness of the seams. If a layout with an offset is chosen – it is preferable to use shortened tiles in half and a third of the length as extensions, they are in most collections.

The layout of the boar begins from the corners where the joint is made with a burr with cutting off half the thickness of the chamfer. Additional difficulties arise with the insertion of electrical fittings: due to the small format of the tiles and the large depth of the joints, a snug fit of the frames to the surface is not ensured. Therefore, installing several sockets under a common frame is not a good idea; it is better to evenly distribute several single points over the apron, each of which is located on a separate solid tile.

Seam processing

The final stage of working with the boar is the sealing of the seams. Due to the wide and deep bevel, the putty is applied unevenly, creating a wavy seam of varying thickness. On the plane, it is better to fix it with a rubber spatula, which is pre-cut in the form of a joint with chamfers. Thus, the working part of the tool takes the form of a protruding trapezoidal tooth with two gentle shoulders..

Similarly, you can act in the inner corners: trim the side of the trowel and cut the oblique corner. External corners can be rubbed to form a triangular chamfer: external slopes are formed by the tile itself, the central one – by the seam material. As for the thickness, there are two options. In the first, they are made as thin as possible (2-3 mm) and rubbed with the usual composition to match the tile. Otherwise, the apron is emphasized by contrasting veins – the thickness of the seams is chosen by analogy with the brickwork, which the hog imitates, that is, about 7-10 mm. To fill thick grooves, it is best to use two-component compounds, processing seams at a time on an area of ​​no more than 0.3-0.5 m².