flooringtiletransition
I planned to keep this marble piece for the transition to the new tile floor in the bathroom, but I broke it during demo. What’s the best way to replace it, or should I use a different transition?
Bonus points for the pros/cons of a marble floor transition versus alternatives.
In view of the new information, I would remove the mortar in the gap. Seal the edge of the wood floor at the sub floor with a waterproof caulk and use a funnel and self leveling (cement based) underlayment to make a flat base. Tape both sides of the gap with some blue tape to make any cement spillage an easy cleanup. When setup (24-48 hr) and well cured, attach the transition to the gap, I prefer the polyurethane adhesives (PL) over LN. (It is stronger, stickier and more flexible, over time).
As noted previously by Tester101 in chat, weight the transition in place overnight.
A usual method is to go down the edge of the wall with a surface bullnose, showing a "knife edge" at the corner. This means the tile rolls down to meet the corner.
Another method, if your bullnose has finished bottoms, is to overlap the edge and go "around the corner", having the bullnose round into the outside wall (the wall that has the striped wallpaper) The bullnose will hide the tile edge, putting that grout line facing the side of the entrance.
This photo shows both methods: the left with a flat-on-wall knife edge and the right shows a wrap-around-the corner
You can use the edge profile pictured, in place of surface bullnose. You would adjust your tile to end short of the corner (equal to the edge thickness of the profile.
In all cases, grout would be filled into the corner/wall junction.
Best Answer
Option 1: Replace with another marble transition
Marble transitions are still sold. Replacing a broken one with another would preserve the original look of your floor. However, marble isn't the most durable material to make a transition out of, and it may look out of place if it's the only marble thing in the area. They're also kind of clunky because of their thickness.
Option 2: Embedded tile transition
There are a number of extruded metal (usually aluminum) transitions designed to be installed in the mortar underneath the tile. These extrusions can transition between even or uneven flooring heights and present a cleaner, more flush transition between floors. The caveat here is that the transition placement might be odd, depending on where the wood floor stops in the doorway.
They typically look similar this, but may vary in thickness and profile depending on the height difference:
Option 3: Wood transition
If you can find a wood transition that matches your existing wood (or an unfinished one you can stain to match), you could replace the marble with a wooden transition of similar profile. The difficulty in matching existing, aged hardwood is not to be underestimated though. Hardwood tends to darken with age and UV exposure, so a transition that matches fairly well now might not in 5-10 years. Alternately, you could stain the wood a different color to match wood elsewhere. Sometimes it's better to go with a completely different color than to get a "close but not quite" match that looks off.
Option 4: No transition
It is possible to butt wood against tile without a transition. A Google Image search shows many instances of tile being butted against wood without any sort of transitional trim piece, and all of them look pretty good. This depends on your tile floor being the same height as your wood floor and both floors being cut cleanly and precisely at the transition. If either of those things isn't true or true enough, I would stay away from this method. No transition and a rough edge will look sloppy and unfinished.