Currently, tile formats are only getting larger and larger. Technically speaking, a "Large Format" tile is any tile with one or more dimensions larger than 12 inches. It wasn't all that long ago when 12" x 24" tiles seemed very large. The popular 'Wood Plank' look expanded the genre even further by introducing tile with sizes such as 8" x 48".
Now a days, a 12" x 24" tile seems small. A new format has emerged on the market: Ultra-Large. These tile are manufactured for use on both walls and floors; typically porcelain for floors and ceramic for walls. Over the last couple years, we have grown accustomed to installing everything from 16" x 38", to 32" x 32", even 48" x 96" and 32" x 118"! Yes, that is correct: a single tile that is the size of a sheet of plywood, and one that is 10 feet long and almost 3.5 feet wide! Monsters that cost upward of $1,000 a piece, they require multiple installers at a time to handle.
While available tile formats increase in size, the demand for ever tighter grout joints continues. 1/16" is the new 1/8", which replaced the 1/4" not that long ago. Only a very specific type of large format tile can be set with joints as tight as this, called Rectified Tile. This tile type has an extremely low size-variance within each dye lot. Mortar and grout producers are struggling to keep up with the mechanical demands of installing tile this large with grout joints this small.
We recently set a wall 60' W x 20' H with 18" x 48" tile, all at 1/16" grout joints. It came out magnificent. Pictures are to come!
Rest assured, SharpStone Ltd fears no format, large or small!