When you’re choosing your residence hall furniture and deciding on the specs, you’ll inevitably choose what materials you want.
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Should it be totally solid wood, including the top? Or should you get solid wood or plywood substrates with laminate tops, or all laminate?
Whatever the selection, your furniture is probably going to include edge banding. Why?
Because it’s an important part of the construction. And depending on where we use it in the cabinet, it improves the longevity of your furniture.
In this short guide—part of our Nuts & Bolts Series for operational and facilities leaders—you’ll learn some of the basics of edge banding.
So let’s start at the beginning. What is edge banding?
It’s actually kind of simple, and the video below will help you understand it even better, but this is a simple overview to get you started.
Here’s the basic non-technical idea.
Plywood, particle board, and other manufactured wood cores like MDF have rough, unfinished, unprotected, and generally unsightly edges.
To account for that, some clever folks developed technologies that allow you to glue different bands of glossy finished material to those rough edges to match the tops and sides.
Those narrow bands or strips are called edging tape, and they range in thickness from 0.018-inch to 5mm thick and come in 250 ft rolls.
The thicker edging is used in high traffic and commercial environments because it provides greater resilience and impact resistance. For example, the military requires a thicker ⅜” solid wood edge banding for maximum impact resistance.
And edge banders are the industrial grade machines that apply the edging tape to the raw edges of the wood panels with a hot-melt adhesive or glue.
Edge banding serves both functional and aesthetic purposes.
Functionally, edge bands perform some key duties for your furniture. First, they keeps moisture out serving as de facto seals on the edge of the core material. Second, edge banding improves durability and resilience by providing impact resistance. If you’re using solid wood edging, it can also add to the overall strength of the furniture.
Aesthetically, edge banding covers up unsightly rough edges and creates a glossy finish to match your tops and sides. You can also create radial edges to soften sharp angles.
Where can you expect to find edge banding in your furniture? That depends on your overall material specification.
A solid wood product won’t include any edge banding, except where we can’t use solid wood. Wardrobe doors, for example, are made of veneer core plywood or MDF.
And even when we use solid wood for case sides and drawer fronts, many customers still use high pressure laminate tops. Those tops need edge banding.
If you’re using plywood or laminate as your material specification, that needs edge banding too.
DCI uses edge banding in places you might not expect, like plywood bed decks. Why? Because a fully sealed deck prevents bed bugs. You can read more about bed bug mitigation here.
DCI doesn’t use edge banding on cabinet backs or drawer bottoms because they are already embedded (sealed) in dato grooves. Likewise we don’t edge band internal plywood drawer parts because it doesn’t add value.
You should note that some manufactures don’t use edge banding where they should—like on the bottom and back edges of plywood cabinets. That’s a problem because moisture, even small amounts, can destroy unsealed furniture.
What are the edging tapes made from? There are different materials, and we’ll just focus on a few here.
1. PVC is the most popular material for edge banding on case good tops. Pros: It’s inexpensive, durable, and boasts a long life. It doesn’t require any finishing process. It’s also easy, albeit tedious, to repair. Cons: You can’t recycle it. It doesn’t biodegrade. Once it’s blemished, you can’t refinish it. (NB: ABS—Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene—is an eco-friendly alternative to PVC because it’s both recyclable and safe to incinerate.)
When it comes to PVC, we recommend 3mm edging in general because it goes on cleaner, quicker, and with better adhesion. Another advantage is that you get a graceful radius and a nice soft-looking finish. In general, we avoid .5mm edging because the corners tend to be too sharp.
2. Solid Wood is still a favorite for case good tops in many woodworking camps. It’s durable, recyclable, easy to fix and refinish, strong, stiff, and economical.
Benefits: it’s more resistant to chipping than veneer edge tape. Solid wood glues are more reliable and less prone to peeling than veneer and PVC. It provides additional dimensional support to plywood and mdf. Climate neutral manufacturing. Cons: Difficult to use for curves.
We offer solid wood edge banding for tops in a range of thicknesses. And you can apply it internally or externally.
When it comes to solid wood we recommend 9.5mm on case good tops.
As we explain below, at DCI, we believe the best way to apply wood edge banding is “internally” with a HPL top. Why? Because in our experience, it’s incredibly durable and never requires additional service.
3. Wood Veneer is the most common edge banding material for plywood cabinet sides, drawer fronts, and MDF wardrobe doors. It’s made from thin slices of wood—typically oak, maple, ash, walnut, birch, and mahogany—that are joined together in a roll using finger jointing.
It usually features a heat-sensitive glue backing. And it comes in a range of thicknesses, so it’s important to use the right one depending on the application.
Pros: It’s attractive, durable, and strong. It provides a clean solid-wood look, and it’s pre-sanded to absorb stains and finishes and seamlessly match your wood. Cons: It’s not heat resistant. Avoid putting it near a heater. It doesn’t do well in high-use environments.
According to RA Learning Center, there are at least four methods of applying edge banding. There are a lot of things to say about each of these but for now, here’s a simple list of application methods and mediums.
There’s no doubt, edge banding is essential to most campus and dorm furniture. When applied improperly, or used incorrectly in critical components, it’s a huge maintenance issue.
One issue you might find in furniture that has edge banding is that it peels. Why?
Sometimes, for different reasons, the adhesive can fail. When that happens, the edge banding will start to peel away from the edge.
Peeling can also happen because of rough use. For example, .5mm edging doesn’t provide much resistance to impact. Therefore you don’t want to use it on the front end of a case side. If you do, your edging might start to peel.
If your furniture starts to peel, we can fix it. Just reach out to your local DCI account rep, and we’ll take care of it for you.
Generally speaking, we recommend PVC edge banding for projects where budget is the first and driving priority. That is not to say there is anything wrong with this material. There are just fewer steps in the manufacturing process and the raw material is less expensive.
Solid wood edge banding is more expensive because it’s labor intensive and the material is higher quality. And with more steps involved in the manufacturing process, we consider this a premium solution. As we alluded to above, internal solid wood edge banding with HPL tops are probably our strongest and most durable solution.
We choose to use a hot melt glue for our adhesive solution because it’s user friendly and provides a great seal. We apply the glue to the edge while it’s still hot and then apply the banding, pressing it to the side.
Ambient temperature plays an important role in the edge banding process. We need to regulate the temperature of both the building and our materials. In essence, we need a warm environment for the optimal adhesion process. It can’t be cold in the building.
And finally, you need a good clean glue edge for the process to work. At DCI, we have state of the art machinery that improves the glue edge and squares it up perfectly.
It’s our responsibility to edge band correctly. But you should know, there are still choices you’ll need to make when evaluating edge banding options.
Those choices can feel daunting if you don’t live and breathe this stuff like we do. Our experts will help you navigate your edge banding options to ensure you get the right product for your project.
Our goal is to help you understand the process and give you confidence that our products are designed based on years of manufacturing experience and time-tested performance in the field.
Here is a stripped down version of edge banding. Of course, when building furniture for Higher Education and Military customers, we do this on an industrial scale. But this video will help you visualize the process in its simplest form.
If you want to find out all about tile edge trim, you’ve come to the right place!
This is Steve with Redblock (Steve’s Bio). In this post I will be providing you with an assortment of tile edging options and some helpful installation strategies.
I’ll also go over a real life installation example to show you how it’s done by a professional.
Not that I want to brag, but here are a couple of the blog comments: “This post was very helpful! Thank you.“, “Hi Steve, Great article!“.
Ok, enough about me…let’s get into it!
Please use the links below to skip to any section that interests you.
Types of Tile Trims and Edging
Alternative to Bullnose Tile
Ceramic (Bullnose) Edge Profiles
PVC & Metal Edge
Schluter Profiles – Finishes
Correct Trim Depth
Outside Corner Trim or Niche Trim
Square Joint or Mitre Joint?
An Easier Alternative to Shower Niche Trim?
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Straight or Square Edge Trim?
Inside Tile Corner Trim
Square Baseboard Trim
Other Interesting Trims
Installing Tile Edge Trim
FAQ’s
There are four main types of tile edge trim that can be used to finish the perimeter of your tiling installations. These include stone trims, porcelain or ceramic trim tiles, as well as plastic and metal trims. They come in various configurations depending on the product and their use, but the metal tile trims (metal tile edging) and stone trims are the most popular.
If you’re not excited about using a standard tile edge trim (TET) profile, you can use real or engineered stone instead. This is one of the fastest growing tile edge trim ideas, quickly displacing the standard edging options.
Capping a shower pony wall or framing the inside of a shower niche with polished stone creates a beautiful high end finish, and also provides a great alternative to bullnose tile. Most of these installations will utilize marble tile, because they looks great on your shower wall and the edges can be exposed for a very nice look.
Marble tiles are almost exclusively used in this situation because they are very popular and also relatively soft, so the edges can be polished with relative ease. Only a few minutes of wet sanding is required to create a fine polished, professional appearance. The image below shows a niche trimmed out with composite marble with polished edges.
You can also use stone material from a local stone fabricator if you can get your hands on some. This material is usually used for kitchen and bathroom counter tops so it’s quite thick (a choice of either 2cm or 3cm thickness). This is a great option for those who prefer the more bold look of a thicker stone.
TThis option can be relatively cheap if you can find a fabricator willing to give you a few small pieces. This may not be as difficult as you think because small pieces are a real pain to store for these guys… and they have lots of these laying around after every job that will eventually be disposed of.
This strategy is becoming much more popular because it creates a very compelling seamless look and is easier to install than other trims. It can also produce a beautiful modern or classic finish depending on your choice of stone.
Ceramic trim profiles can have a finished square edge, or more commonly a larger radius bullnose edge. These types of tile edging were common in modern designs during the ’s and early 90’s but are no longer popular in todays modern bathroom designs.
It’s quite common to see these bullnose tiles in more traditional shower designs. The attached image shows a ceramic bullnose trim being used very nicely around a tiled niche in a traditional bathroom design.
There are also some unique modern trims available today, but they’re usually special order items and generally quite expensive.
Metal trims and pvc plastic trims come in several profile shapes and colors, but plastic (PVC) is the least popular because they don’t stand up well to abrasion. The metal tile edging is by-far the most common trims used in most mid-cost and higher end renovations.
They are ideal for high abrasion areas such as floors, but have also become a standard in most shower wall tiling installations.
They are available in the widest range of finishes and profile styles, but the profile with the very narrow top edge is the most popular (for example, Schluter Jolly).
There are a large selection of Schluter profiles available. You can see them all on the Schluter Systems website.
Most home stores carry Schluter profiles but you can usually only get the Jolly profile without special ordering them. There are a few more Schluter profile options readily available online.
If you’ve decided to install a metal TET, and you’ve picked the type and style you want, then it’s time to choose the finish. The most popular metal edge finishes are polished and brushed stainless steel as well as brushed aluminum and brushed nickel. These are all in the grey color spectrum so they provide a nice contrast to your tile without being too obvious. Grey is also part of some very common bathroom color schemes these days.
The gold and brown color colors are not nearly as popular because of current design trends, but also because it’s more difficult to match with your valve and accessory finishes. When using a particular shade of gold for example, it has to match very closely with that of your fixtures, otherwise these TET’s can stand out and look weird.
You should be prepared to select your trim finish well in advance of your tiling project because some finishes are special order items. You should also be prepared for a wide variation in price. Some of the less popular finishes can easily be twice the cost (or more) of a more common finish.
The general rule when picking a TET finish is to try your best to match it with your bathroom fixture finishes, although there are some exceptions. Generally, when choosing your finish you should keep in mind that TET should be an attractive compliment to your bathroom design, but not a stand-out feature.
It is not always obvious what depth you should select for your metal TET, even when you have your tile and trim in hand at the home improvement store. It’s a good strategy to err on the plus side for your trim depth to avoid the terror when you see the tile edge protruding above the trim during installation. To choose a trim depth that is 1/16” to 1/8″ deeper than your tile is standard in the industry. A DIY’er should stick with a the 1/8″ deeper trim option to give themselves a bit more of a safety margin.
Because the anchor leg of the TET sits beneath the tile (the cross hatched flange seen in the image), it’s important to imbed it into the mortar, so it’s properly bonded to the substrate. Squeezing all the mortar out between the tile and TET anchor leg reduces bond strength so try to avoid this if you can.
Another thing to be aware of if you are installing only ceramic tile, is that many people have the tendency to choose their TET depth based on the thinner outside edge of the ceramic tiles they are using. This will get you into trouble when you have to match the thicker cut edge against the trim in a staggered tile layout.
If you’re installing a waterproofing membrane after you secure your TET in place, you must also remember to accommodate the membrane thickness in your choice of trim depth.
Remember that you can always add a little extra mortar to raise the tile to meet the trim depth, but you are totally stuffed if you choose a trim depth that is too shallow.
The example image shows two different tiles installed with a 1/2″ TET. The darker tile is porcelain with a thickness of almost 3/8″ and the surrounding tile is ceramic with a 1/4″ thickness. The ceramic tile has lots of room beneath, requiring 1/8″ thick layer of buildup material beneath to allow it to match the porcelain tile surface and the TET.
However, the TET is the perfect depth for the porcelain tile. It is 3/8″ thick, so when its surface is flush with the top edge of the TT, the extra 1/8″ beneath allows some room for the TT anchor leg, and for some thinset mortar beneath.
When it comes to shower tiling, you may never need to worry about outside corner trims unless you are installing a tiled shower niche or tiling a pony wall or shower bench. To clarify, outside tile corner trims are used exclusively for the corner, when two tiled surfaces meet at 90 degrees (see TET around the perimeter of niche below).
These days it is most common to use a metal TET for these corners but as I mentioned previously, another great alternative is natural or engineered stone. With stone you can relieve yourself of the burden. Leave the cutting, edge finishing and installing to your stone fabricator instead. Just keep in mind that stone is quite expensive and requires a skilled stone fabricator to cut & polish it.
If you choose a metal tile edge trim, it must be installed with skill and precision. This trim piece is usually quite visible and you don’t want someone’s shoddy work to be on display in your new shower remodel.
Firstly, if you want this installation to go smoothly, you should follow the strategies I have covered in the sections above. The challenging part will be matching the four corners evenly, with no gaps.
You have two choices: Meet the two pieces of trim in the four corners with a square joint, or use a miter joint (45 degree joint). The first option is clearly the easiest and offers the highest chance of success (see image), but it does not look as professional as a perfect miter joint.
Another important condition is that you can only achieve a decent square joint when the top of the trim is flat. This can be achieved quite satisfactorily with Schluter Shiene or Jolly. With other more complex profiles, a miter joint will be required. If you decide on miter joints for your shower niche outside trim, it’s always safest to get a skilled and experienced tiling professional to do this work.
If you want another alternative to installing a shower niche trim and avoid the outside corner installation problem altogether, you can always install a finished shower niche with a built in tile edge trim. This look isn’t for everyone but if you like the metallic look of a finished shower niche, it can sure save you a lot of work and also eliminate the risk of leaks.
Finishing inside corners is an important part of every shower tiling project, but it is also the most ignored when it comes to tile edging. There are some challenges to these inside corners and some elegant products and strategies available to meet these challenges. There are also some very practical and attractive TET’s that are not routinely used in modern bathrooms and showers but are also worth considering.
If you are like most tiling contractors, you will have some issues with finishing inside corners on tiled wall installations.
When tiled walls meet at a corner, you have a choice of tiling right up against the adjacent tile and relying on a white silicon bead to seal the corner (see image). Or you can cut the tile to create a grout line on one of the two walls. The former strategy is the most common mostly because it is simply the easiest of the two. A grout line in the corner tends to interrupt the visual flow of tile from one wall to the other, and is not generally considered to be a good look.
Although these are the most common strategies, you can also install an inside corner TET to give your installation a high-end look. These are extremely uncommon because they are a bit pricey, but I really like this look (see section below).
Most of the standard trims that you’ll see these days are considered straight edge TET’s. These have a very thin top profile which has always been the preferred look for most people until recently.
Square edge TET’s (or box edge trims) are a bit more obvious because of their box shape and wider top profile. This more bold look has been gaining popularity recently. These trims have been around for a long while but a change in style preferences have increased their popularity recently
Most tiling contractors have tended to avoid these trims simply because you need to cut a perfect miter joint in the corners for these joints to look nice. And this is pretty difficult to do well unless you use a miter saw with a steel cutting wheel. I’ve always liked the look of square edge profiles and suggest them regularly to my clients. I used them for trimming out the baseboards in a bathroom remodel I did recently (see below).
The inside corner TET (also called a cove trim) provides a professional finished look and is one of the most under appreciated tile trim ideas, in my opinion.
The benefits of this tile edge trim are an attractive metallic or colored finish compared with the standard grout or silicon corner. It also has a smooth radius making it easier to clean and provides two grout lines, allowing the corner to be completely sealed.
A baseboard trim is also available for installation outside of the shower if your floor & wall tiles meet. It has a very thin top profile and various bold metallic finishes, great for minimalist designs.
There are also some very nice border profile trims designed to be mounted within a section of wall tiles to create a separation between two different types of tiles, or simply as a bold interruption in the your tiling design.
There is even a wall profile trim with a shallow track down the middle for mounting a strip of 1″x1″ mosaic tiles. A very classy look.
After installing the waterproofing membrane, tile edge trim installation is always my first shower tile installation step.
Do not attempt to wedge the trim under the vertical leading edge of your wall tiles while you’re installing them. There are so many things that can go sideways with this strategy if you don’t have a lot of experience setting tile.
Fixing your tile trim in place first, provides you with a firm vertical edge to push your tiles up against so your tiles don’t drift out of plumb as you move up the wall. I usually place my trim around 2″ or more out from the tub edge (or shower pan edge) but this is totally up to you as long it’s beyond the tub or shower pan edge.
The best way to determine the exact placement of your TET is to measure how far out the shower base (or shower pan) comes out from the back wall. Then lay out a row of shower wall tiles on the floor (with spacers), until you reach slightly beyond this measurement without using any cut tiles. If you’re lucky, you can adjust the trim position so no tile cuts are needed. Of course this doesn’t always work if you’re installing larger tiles, but it’s a good place to start because the distance that your tiles come out beyond the shower pan (horizontally) is relatively arbitrary.
Draw a vertical pencil line on both side walls of your shower enclosure where you’ve chosen to mount your trims. Then simply glue them in place using a tiny amount of polyurethane adhesive every 6″ or so along the trim. Further secure the trim to the wall with 6-8 wafer head screws to allow the trims to follow the undulations in the wall (as long as they are not too severe).
As you can see in the image, I fixed the trim to the waterproofing membrane on the edge of the tub wall, and around the niche. And I attached them with white polyurethane adhesive, and wafer head screws. The screws are removed the next day when the adhesive dries.
And if you or your contractor forgets to install any TET, it may be possible to install it afterwards, but it will not be easy… or much fun. But if you’re absolutely determined to do this, here is the procedure I would suggest:
With an angle grinder with a metal cutting wheel, cut the TET anchor leg (the cross-hatch pattern) down to about 1/4″. Smooth off the rough metal burrs on the edges with a metal file. Then use a sharp utility knife (or equivalent) to remove some of the dry thinset mortar along the tile edge where you want the trim to go, creating a gap under the tile. Because you’ve cut the anchor leg down to 1/4″, you’ll need to remove all the thinset under every tile along this edge, to a depth of at least 1/4″. This will allow you push the trim into this gap, and up against the tile edge. This will be a **** of a lot of work, and VERY tedious, but it’s certainly possible with some time and patience.
Then you simply glue it in place with polyurethane adhesive. You cannot use thinset mortar to attach the trim after this modification. Without the crosshatch pattern to imbed into the mortar, it will not stay in place unless thoroughly glued.
Cut anchor leg on trim to 1/4″ width, and file off any burrs. Create a 1/4″ deep trough in the thinset under the tiles, where the trim is to be placed. Apply polyurethane adhesive into the trough, place the trim in (anchor leg first) and push against the tile.
Installing a metal tile edge trim is the most common, but you can also use PVC trims, or bullnose tiles for a more traditional aesthetic. If you choose stone tiles, you also have the option of polishing the edges, as long as you have the right equipment.
I hope that this article has provided you with some confidence (even mastery) in the area of tile edge trim. I have attempted to shown you a range of the most popular and interesting trims, along with a few useful hints to help you with installation.
If you have any thoughts you’d like to share, any questions about this post, or tile edge trim in general, please leave a comment below.
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