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Outside Corner Options for Norstone's Planc Series Large Format Tiles
Norstone’s Planc Large Format Tile series launched in the Spring of 2018 and with a decade plus of experience in the natural stone veneer industry we knew that having an easy to use, reliable, and good looking system to address outside corners was a must. Unlike most of our other natural stone veneer products which have stones of varying thicknesses within each panel, the Planc series is unique in that all of the tile strips are a consistent .8” thick. That consistency gives us and our clients and their installers more options when tackling an outside corner. In today’s blog,we’ll review the different ways to handle an outside corner with our Planc Large Format Tile series of products.
The first method we recommend for addressing an outside corner with the Planc Large Format Tile product is what we call an “alternating overlap” method. This basic concept of this method is that one of the saw cut edge profile of the tile is going to face out per row while the adjoining tile will terminate into the back of the tile with the edge facing out. The installer alternates which edge faces out row by row as they work their way up the installation. This can be seen in the photo above, where the cut edge faces on the short side of the corner (marked as 12”) on the top and bottom rows, and the cut edge faced on the long side of the corner (marked as 19.5”) in the middle row.
As you can see in practice from this project photo of a stone clad entryway to a restaurant down in Florida, the alternating overlap provides a nice clean look to the corner and works particularly well when the tiles are set in a brick set or random stagger. One important thing to know when considering the alternating overlap method is that it looks best when the cut edge profile of the stone looks the same as the face. Our Platinum Lavastone and Silver Grey Quartz colors both have a saw cut finish on the face of the stone, so a cut edge blends together nicely. The Graphite, Grey Basalt, and Ebony Basalt colors all have a polished finish on the face, so the saw cut edge will generally appear a little lighter in color and won’t be as smooth to the touch as the face of these color tiles. Experienced installers can polish those cut edges on site using a stone polishing compound and appropriate polishing pads to create a match.
The second method we recommend for outside corners with our Planc Large Format Tile products is a standard outside miter cut. As you can see in the photo above, the miter cut method forms a nice crisp edge at the point of the outside corner and is relatively easy to do with this product provided the installer has a wet saw with either a tilting blade or miter attachment. Some of the benefits of the miter cut method for forming outside corners is that the edge profile doesn’t get exposed, so when working with colors that have a polished face there’s no concern that the exposed edge is a different color and finish than the face of the tile. Miter cuts can also be done at any angle, so for projects with outside corners that are greater than 90 degrees, miter cuts are the only way to handle an outside corner.
A last method worth considering for addressing outside corners with our Planc Large Format Tile products is using a pre-fabricate corner strip. These strips are available in a variety of different materials, shapes, and sizes and are commonly found at tile stores. The strip is attached to the wall such that it sits at the apex of the corner and the tiles are cut to terminate right into the strip from both sides of the corner.
If you are working on a Planc project, or any natural stone veneer project and have questions about how to handle outside corners give us a call and our technical team will be happy to learn more about the details of your project and make some recommendations on what is possible.
