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My wife fell in love with some "rustic" tiles for our kitchen when i fitted it, and then insisted that this very amateur tiler lay them in a herringbone pattern, after whole sentences made of nothing but swear words i got there, but, we have some silver sockets and oven switches that look great, but along the length of the tile, there can be a few mm in the depth of the tile as the edges are not flat.
As such, there is gaps between the socket and the tile in places. I don't really want to go down the clear silicon sealant route if i can help it, but does anyone know if you can get something like this gasket:
But not as deep at 10mm and made of a silicon or more flexible material so it can be "squeezed"?
Or any other ideas?
Something like this? 2.5mm thick
https://www.downlightsdirect.co.uk/click-deco-gaskets.html#click-deco-2-gang-gasket-black
https://www.downlightsdirect.co.uk/click-deco-grey-gaskets.html#click-deco-grey-gasket-2-gang
Thanks Stumpy, strange how no amount of Googling i could find thinner ones, i think they are still a rigid plastic? Do you know if they do anything that is a flexible material so that as you nip up the screws it may confirm to the tile ridges a bit?
snap on wife insisting on herringbone for our kitchen with similar sounding tiles 🙂
tooks ages but does look smart
luckily we don't have sockets on the tiled section, if we did I'd probably use the same coloured grout or caulk - there is a risk it will crack with movement but it probably won't in my experience. mapei do coloured silcones which are a fairly decent match to their grout if you used that product. It'll make replacing the socket a little more of a pain but its not something you will be doing any time soon
Thanks DT78, i used a silver grey Mapei grout and the matching silicon bead around the top of worktop, but like most amateurs i hate blinkin silicon, so wondered if there was another way out of the problem!
Its a messy job for sure. I use a cramer fugi kit, makes an amateur look pretty good - my silicon is better than most professional jobs I see. That said, if it looks crap I wipe it out and do it again before it dries so I probably take 10 times as long
Double sided rubber tape. Like what number plates are stuck on with. Stick it to the very cleaned tiles overlaping the socket plate footprint.
Snug the socket plate down nicely.
With a very sharp (ie scalpel not rusty Stanley) stroke the blade aling the edges.
Can probably achieve something similar with a rolled sausage of sugru.
But basically fit it messy then tidy up.
Actually you can even use the silicone, if you mix it with something you can make a sugru type material.
Edit: its cornflour you mix it with, 50:50
Also if you tiles are porus, making tape down first the once its cured cut through to overspill and the tape and peel away.
I don’t think you’ll find any gaskets that will do the job, as faceplates are all slightly different sizes and shapes. AliExpress has a wide selection of silicone edge strip that you could cut to size. I wouldn’t caulk or grout around the sockets, it’ll look awful.
Consider changing the sockets? BG do an ultra flat range that goes quite nicely onto slightly uneven tiles. If not then I’d just use a thin bead of clear silicone along the top and sides, with masking tape as tight as you feel comfortable going. You probably want something if there’s a gap to prevent condensation from cooking running down into the back of the socket.
Those box extenders are not for the purpose you've in mind.
I'd be carefully scribing the outline of the socket on the tile and be taking a diamond wheel Dremel or similar and knocking back the high tile to create a flat plate mounting surface.
Inset into the high tiles and with a square edges plate/socket cover you should have plenty of recessable depth whilst still being able to hide the cut edge and body color of the tile keeping the glazed (finished) face ot the tile tight to the box.
Any gaps you leave yourself with from "over enthusiastic" grinding I'd hide with a color matched caulk to match the grout.
You could apply a super thin bead of silicone to the back of the face plates before fitting them, let it dry fully and then fit fit. Should squidge enough to hide the gaps.