CUSTOM Quality and Tile Craftsmanship Showcased with Five-Foot Porcelain Planks

CUSTOM Quality and Tile Craftsmanship Showcased with Five-Foot Porcelain Planks

Porto’s Bakery and Café is a Los Angeles institution with a devoted following among food lovers of all backgrounds.  In 2016, Porto’s took the number one spot on “Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat in the US” for their decadently delicious and visually stunning food.  Despite the acclaim, the Porto family wanted to grow business slowly to maintain their standard of quality. When they finally decided to expand to Buena Park, in nearby Orange County, CUSTOM products were chosen to install 25,000 square feet of tile.

CUSTOM Quality and Tile Craftsmanship Showcased with Five-Foot Porcelain PlanksThe work was executed by Custom Pro Tile and Stone, contractors specializing in high-end natural stone installations.  The company have been in the industry for over 20 years and have used CUSTOM products during the entire time.  This installation materials tradition includes their meticulous tile work at the Porto’s location in West Covina, CA.

“We have used Custom Building Products for many years,” said Marco Emmert, vice president of Custom Pro.  “They are reliable, consistent, give great performance and the warranty that the company offers is the best in the market.”

 

Hardworking Tile Assemblies

CUSTOM Quality and Tile Craftsmanship Showcased with Five-Foot Porcelain PlanksWith a total of four service counters and lines of patrons often lining up all the way out the doors and down the block, the floor at Porto’s Bakery and Café needed hard-working, great looking flooring assemblies.  A lot of the restaurant’s personality comes from the extensive use of tile large and small.  The entire space is ultimately designed to showcase all of the artistically crafted food on display in the bakery.  A warm welcome is offered by the old world wood-look planks, deli-style mosaics and sunshine streaming through the windows.

The biggest challenge on the project was literally the 10-inch x 59-inch porcelain planks that were set in striking herringbone and starburst patterns.  This over-sized tile was set throughout the public spaces as well as the company’s offices and employee facilities on the second floor and even on the stairs.

CUSTOM Quality and Tile Craftsmanship Showcased with Five-Foot Porcelain PlanksThe initial layout took a couple of days tracing chalk lines and taking levels.  Fortunately, the concrete slab at the site was finished to perfection and did not require additional leveling to meet the flatness standard for large format tile.  Cutting the planks for all of the different configurations was intricate work and had to be done on a wet-saw.  Of course, setting such large tiles takes more time and skill than an equal square footage of smaller tiles.  Exacting planning and very experienced installers allowed the tile contractors to deliver a flat, robust tiled surface.

Custom Pro’s partner in setting the five-foot planks was Versabond®– LFT Professional Large Format Tile Mortar.  Versabond LFT is polymer-modified and designed for use with large format and heavy porcelain, ceramic and natural stone tiles.  With a non-slumping formula to help eliminate lippage, this mortar can be applied up to ¾-inch thick on horizontal applications and exceeds ANSI A118.4 and A118.11.

CUSTOM Quality and Tile Craftsmanship Showcased with Five-Foot Porcelain Planks“Ever since Versabond LFT came out on the market, we have used it on a lot of our projects,” offered Emmert.  “It is a great mortar for the large format tiles, non-slumping and dense.”

In addition to using a mortar designed for bigger materials like the planks, installers employed the large format tile setting methods shown in the well-known “Trowel & Error” training video. These techniques include keying a burn coat into the substrate, combing mortar in straight lines across the short side of the tile and back buttering.  Once the tile is bedded, it is moved back and forth across the ridges to collapse them and release air, which can otherwise create voids and eventually cracks in the tile as demonstrated here.

A variety of both traditional and modern tile was installed on walls throughout the restaurant and also in the back of the house.  These included quarry tile in the kitchen and glazed ceramics and porcelains of various sizes.  ProLite® Premium Large Format Tile Mortar was used for these materials due to its outstanding performance on walls.  ProLite offers a high bond strength and thixotropic performance to prevent sagging on vertical installations.

A Side of Grout

CUSTOM Quality and Tile Craftsmanship Showcased with Five-Foot Porcelain PlanksTo meet the varying service conditions at the site, a total of four different CUSTOM grouts were employed.  Most of the floor and wall tile, from the highly textured wood-look planks to the deli-style mosaic mats, was grouted with Polyblend® and Prism®. Polymer-modified Polyblend is America’s Number One grout, comes in sanded and non-sanded options and produces hard, dense joints that resist cracking and wear for extended durability.

Prism Ultimate Performance Cement Grout is a Calcium aluminate-based product that offers consistent color without mottling or shading and will not effloresce.  Formulated with recycled content and fine aggregate sand, lightweight Prism delivers premium handling qualities and sets up rapidly for fast track projects like hospitality and food service.

CUSTOM Quality and Tile Craftsmanship Showcased with Five-Foot Porcelain Planks“Prism was chosen primarily because of its color uniformity,” said Emmert. “We are substituting with or staying with Prism every chance we get.”

The glazed white tiles on kitchen walls were grouted with matching and contrasting Fusion Pro® Single Component® Grout.  Fusion Pro is guaranteed stain proof and color perfect and helps to maintain a spick and span look where patrons can view bakers and decorators at their work. CEG®-Lite 100% Solids Commercial Epoxy Grout was used for quarry tiles on the kitchen floors where a high degree of chemical resistance was required.

ProLite, Prism and CEG-Lite are all Build Green® products featuring CustomLite® Technology, meet GreenGuard® Gold requirements and contribute to LEED certification.

CUSTOM Quality and Tile Craftsmanship Showcased with Five-Foot Porcelain PlanksThe Porto’s Story

This popular family-owned restaurant features traditional, homemade-style Cuban pastries, breakfasts, sandwiches and treats.  The recipes originated with Rosa Porto in her own kitchen, moved to the first shop in 1965 and today they ship nationwide to bake at home.  Porto’s now has five locations in the Los Angeles metro area, including Buena Park down the street from world famous Knott’s Berry Farm theme park. They are still rated by customers at 4.7 out of 5 on Yelp.

Location:

Buena Park, CA

Year Completed:

2017

Architect:

Prats Architecture + Construction, Los Angeles, CA

Contractor:

AEN, LLC, Los Angeles, CA

Tile Contractor:

Custom Pro Tile & Stone, Inc, Rancho Cucamonga, CA

CBP Regional Technical Representative:

Jose Leyva, CTC, territory manager