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Installing a Marble Tile Floor

Bob Vila meets with Nick Tagios from New York-based Tagios Tile and Marble as Tagios prepares to put down a traditionally installed marble floor. Prior to Bob joining him for the flooring installation, Tagios laid felt paper and and a diamond mesh lath over the subfloor. The small rigid mesh provides perfect keying of the Portland cement and sand dry mix base for the tiles. Tagios expertly levels and sets each piece of marble tile in a running bond pattern. Tagios packs the underlayment by tamping the top of the tile with a makeshift tool created from a sawed off striking hammer. He a leaves one-sixteenth-inch gap between each tile (about the width of his trowel), and will finish the job with a white grout. The marble tile in this installation has been highly polished and requires no sealant. More information