patterns can make it difficult to see what every cut will look like on a kitchen splash with multiple stop- ping points. I saw Jason McDaniel of Stoneman Construction, LLC in Lake Oswego, Ore., making tem- plates for these installs and thought it was a great idea. I gave him a call to talk to him about it. Jason has a background in solid surfaces and was comfortable with making templates. The first time he tried it on a tile install was while working on a large proj- ect, a beautiful home where he had already completed four bath- rooms. He came to a backsplash that had many things to consider: a window, cabinets, and multiple outlets. He was setting a 1” x 3” marble herringbone mosaic. He looked over the space won- dering where to start. That’s when it hit him – he made a quick tem- plate, laid the tile on the floor, was able to lay the template over the tile, and quickly see everything. He marked all his cuts, made his cuts, and had the backsplash set within a couple of hours. He saw in that moment that this was going to be something he’d be doing much more of in the future. Jason shared with me other installs where this method really shines, like installing water-sensitive stones with epoxy or a rapid-setting thin- TECHNICAL FEATURE ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Hawthorne Tile using a PLS FT-90 laser square to lay out a marble mosaic floor. Elaborate patterns can make it difficult to see what every cut will look like on a kitchen splash with multiple stopping points – using a template helps. 90 TileLetter | March 2018