Please hire an experienced “licensed” tile contractor to install your new color changing glass tile. Also, make sure who ever does the “actual” installation has worked with glass before and is comfortable with glass setting techniques.

Please follow all proper setting methods for glass tile as written in TCA Handbook for ceramic tile installation, as well as, any local codes that might be specific to your area/installation.Every glass tile is hand made. Chips, cracks, bubbles and irregularities are inherent and part of the beauty of each tile. Every piece has a waterproof epoxy seal around the edges of the glass for maximum performance; please do not disturb this seal.

Substrate
Walls need to have either a cured mortar bed or cement backer board. Never apply our color changing glass directly over drywall or green-board.
Floors need to have either a cured cement slab, cured mortar bed, or cement backer board.
Countertops need to have cured cement mortar bed.

The following are three Thin-Sets and Grouts we recommend:
Thin-Set:

1. Custom Building Products (MegaFlex Ultimate),
2. Hydroment (Reflex Ultra-Premium Latex-Modified),
3. Laticrete (254 Platinum Multipurpose).
   Grout: Custom Building Products (Polyblend Sanded), Hydroment (Sanded), Laticrete (1500 Series).

Please note: It’s important to follow the manufactures instructions exactly. These companies are constantly making improvements and their mixing instructions do change periodically.

Cutting and Drilling:
As with any beautifully installed glass tile project, it all starts with a well thought out layout/design.First and foremost, use your imagination and be creative! It’s well worth the time to think through the overall design. After all it’s going to be there for a long time.
Try your best not to cut the color changing glass tile!
Do your best to use full pieces as much as possible and try to minimize any and all cutting. Based on your layout, you should know before the tile setting begins how many cuts you’re going to have. If you have a lot, you may want to consider changing your design.In most cases you will have some flexibility in changing your starting point by bringing the glass tiles out wider or taller etc…However, we know from experience this is not always possible, in these situations you still have a little flexibility in the amount of spacing between each tile.If the tile must be cut, try to make it as large as possible or at least a half cut. Small cuts in most cases do not look very good. Remember to always hide the cut edge of the cut tile to the best of your ability. Example: In a three wall shower the back wall is predetermined; let’s say its 5 feet wide. After centering either the tile or grout line on the back wall you determine there has to be a cut. If the two side walls are laid out for full tile, then hide the cut tile on the back wall with full tiles on the side walls. Do this whenever possible, it looks much nicer.

The following two cutting blades are recommended, however, there are other glass blades on the market that will work:

1. 10” Alpha Vetro or
2. 10” MK-215 GL.

For drilling the glass tile, please use a water swivel and fractional core bit.
Our glass tile cuts and drills like most other glass tile, with one exception. We ask that you cut or drill glass side down with epoxy side up. We also recommend using blue tape on the glass side to minimize glass chips. Once the glass tile has been cut, pull the blue tape and carefully polish the sharp edge with diamond polishing pads to achieve desired smoothness. Always be extremely careful when working with glass. Take all necessary safety precautions; gloves, eye protection, etc…

When using our color changing glass tiles as accents or decorative purposes, we recommend cutting the surrounding materials. For example: If you where using our color changing glass to create a wave type pattern in a shower, you would want to do so with little or no cuts at all in the color changing glass. However, creating a wave pattern will require several unique cuts, we recommend cutting the other material that the color changing glass is being blended with (ceramic, stone, porcelain, etc...). These other materials are often softer and easier to cut in irregular shapes. Esthetically this will enhance the overall design.

If you have any other recommendations in making these instructions more helpful, please contact us at (800) 497-6827 or e-mail us at sales@movingcolorstore.com