Having just done a load of tiling...
David Robinson
wibbled on Friday 16 July 2010 18:28
I'm going to tile my bathroom and en suite. This will be my first
attempt at tiling. Any advice? ;-)
Get a Rubi lower end score'n'snap (or higher end if you're rich). Superb
machine for all the straight cuts
The plan is to make the floorboards as secure as possible, put "no
more ply" down on the floor, and tile on top of that.
The walls are mostly newly plastered.
I'm looking at getting a reasonable electric tile cutter, so I can do
straight cuts and L-shapes around the window (also, later, L-shapes
around the sockets in the kitchen). I can't find the previous
suggested models any more - any current suggestions?
I have the Erbauer as I had very few wet cuts to do. It's a simple crappy
machine that basically *just* works but will chip the tile edges very
slightly. Nothing a diamond file couldn't fix. It I had more wet cuts (like
doing slate or something) I'd have got a decent machine.
I'm planning to use silicone at the corners and around the bath
(leaving the bath full of water before+after doing this). How big a
gap should I leave at the internal corners of the room for silicone +
movement?
I grouted the corners using Mapei Keracolor grout powder and Fugolastic
additive - slightly flexible grout with mental adhesion.
Can I use the same flexible adhesive and grouting for the floor and
walls? Any particular brands good but not-too-expensive? Or better to
use cheaper for walls than floor?
I used BAL Greenstar (Bluestar is similar) premixed for the walls as they
are solid. It was easy to work with and for wall tiling I just couldn't be
arsed to mix adhesive from powder - I would recommend BAL.
For the floor, I used Mapei Kerabond with Isolatic additive to get a class
S2 flexible which is what you should be aiming for. There are powders that
can be mixed with water that are flexible too. Tile Giant sell a wide range
of Mapei products, but I'd certainly go with BAL or Mapei for this as it is
a demanding application. So in short I would use different adhesives for
wall and floor, using the less hassle-some tub mix for the wall.
Grout - the one I mentioned was rated for both applications and supported a
wide range of gap sizes so I stuck with the one product.
I wouldn't use a pre mixed grout - especially not a crap one.
Get some grout sealer ready too. There's Lithofin paint on which is sworn by
by some here. I used SealGuard spray on on the recommendation of the pro
tiler who did my slate floor in the kitchen. When that ran out I used LTP
Grout and Tile Protector spray which AFAICT is the safe stuff. Easy to
apply, overspray doesn't show but it stinks like buggery (organic solvents)
so choose a day you can open all the doors.
Do apply as soon as possible.
Some people seem to leave tile spacers in behind grouting, others seem
to take them out before grouting - does it matter? What's best?
I stick then in by one leg then pull them out as I go (eg I have about 3
rows of tiles up the wall with spacers, then for row 4 I start recycling
them from row 1). BAL Greenstar has such a good "grab" that you don;t need
any technically - tile goes on, tile stays on, tile can be tweaked for about
10 minutes +/- if necessary. But I do use spacers just to keep an eye on teh
gap. Sometimes I won;t use a spacer if a row or one tile needs a slightly
smaller gap.
I did find a self levelling line laser most useful, but ruling some guide
lines on in pencil would work (say every 3 rows and columns) - avoids
cumulative error that can happen from relying on spacers alone.
What's the best order to do this - walls first, or floor?
Either. Wall tiling isn't half as messy IMO as floor tiling. The grout
droppings are easily wiped up. If you do the wall first, I would leave out
the bottom row, so the floor tiles can go under rather than around the wall
tiles. I would however grout the floor first. Trying to scrape out dropped
grout from the gaps would be a PITA. But if the floor is grouted, it's easy
to wipe up.
I was
planning to start near the bottom and work up, but found one on-line
guide that suggested starting in the middle - sounds strange to me.
I star at the 2nd row, allowing teh bottom to be trimmed in. Unless your
floor is so dead level that a whole tile would work.
Also I prefer a whole tile to the bath rim so that forced me to have a 3/4
tile on the floor.
I'm going to tile after the bath has gone in, but before the basin+WC.
Do you do a whole row at a time, or a row on one wall at a time, that
whole wall, and then start on another one?
Short walls, I did a row at a time and applied enough adhesive to the wall
for about 3 rows - that suited the "life" of the adhesive.
For one long wall, I did it in 3 column-batches and with teh laser (or
pencil lines) you wouldn't know.
Anything else I should watch out for?
Yes. Pre plan so you don;t end up with a silly 1cm bit of tile down one edge
of a wall. It's better to have 2 half-ish tiles at each end.
Blanket/sheets in the bath in case you drop one. Also prevents your feet
grinding slightly abrasive adhesive or grout into the bath and damaging the
finish (esp. acrylic baths).
Wash your clothes and the sheets after each day - last thing you want is to
step on a hard lump and grind that into the plastic!
You'll need a nice rubber type float for grouting, a decent tiler's sponge
(OK I used the B&Q one and it was OK). And I found an open mesh "scourer" on
a backing board with handle a most excellent way to finish the grout. I'll
have to find out where I got it.
See my thread on grouting - I learnt something this week that may be of
help.
Read the data sheet for the
Many thanks in advance. My house is already far better than it would
otherwise be thanks to help from this group!
Ditto!
Cheers,
David.
--
Tim Watts
Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.