How to Tile Your Floor

Hard-wearing, good-looking and practical it is no surprise that tiled floors are such a popular choice.We show you how to save on labour costs by tiling your floors on a DIY basis meaning you can really splash out on your new tiles.

Tiles are one of the hardest wearing and best-looking surfaces you can lay on a floor. Normally reserved for kitchens, bathrooms and hallways, they can also look great in dining and sitting rooms, and are the ideal way to add a Mediterranean look.

Before you go out shopping for tiles, measure the floor area you want to cover. To do this, multiply the rooms width by its length in metres (to give you a square metres figure) and then add on a ten per cent contingency to allow for cuts and breakages. Tiles are mostly sold in square metres, so you can compare prices readily between suppliers. You will also need to buy adhesive and grout and it is important that you ask your supplier for advice on the correct type for your application.

The gaps between the tiles are vitally important to the finished look of the floor. To keep them even, plastic spacers are used between tiles. The in-store tiling displays will give you an idea how different-size gaps look once they have been grouted and finished. The supplier will also be able to advise you on how many bags of spacers you need.

Why should you do this job yourself? Well, its immensely satisfying to create a beautiful floor from fairly basic materials and it will save you the £20-plus per square metre a professional will charge you. These sound like good enough reasons to us to get tiling.

TOOLS:

For around £40 you can buy a diamond-bladed electric tile cutter that takes all the hassle out of getting the shapes you need. If youre tiling a large area its worth getting a full-size metal notched trowel for spreading adhesive (from 8). This is a lot easier than using the tiny plastic trowel that comes with the adhesive. A big grout spreader (around £5) is also a good idea.

• Tape measure
• Hammer
• Chisel
• Goggles
• Dust mask
• Pencil
• Screwdriver
• Tile nibblers
• Tile cutter
• Notched trowel
• Grout
• Brush
• Rubber-bladed grout spreader
• Sponge
• Paint pen or chalk
• Wood plane
• Spirit level

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• Tiles
• Adhesive
• Grout
• PVA
• Tile spacers
• Wooden batten
• Screws

Step-by-step guide:

1. Carefully prise off the skirting boards all round the room and then remove the old floor covering. Chip off any remaining adhesive with a chisel. Some adhesives are easier removed by heavy strikes from a hammer directly on top. This shatters and loosens the adhesive.Whatever method you use, wear goggles and a dust mask because adhesive shards can fly everywhere and things will get pretty dusty.

2. Fill any holes left over from the adhesive removal stage and check the level of the site. If the surface is all over the place its worth pouring a self-levelling cement compound on to even things up. Small dips and hollows can be overcome with the tiling adhesive.

3. Let any repairs or levelling compound dry overnight then remove any dust with a heavy-duty vacuum cleaner or dust pan and brush. Mix up some PVA solution and brush it onto the floor surface.When dry, the PVA will give the tiling the best possible base to grip to.

4. Trial lay some of the tiles across and then down the room with spacers in between. This gives you an idea of how many full tiles you can get into the area and how many will need to be cut. To get the best finish you want to have equal tile cuts at the edges. Move the tiles about to achieve this.

5. Make a mark around the top corner of the first full tile furthest away from the door. A paint pen or chalk is ideal for this.

6. Lift up the tiles you trial laid in step 4 and lay some lengths of wooden batten on the marks you made in step 5. The batten should extend across and down the length of the room.

7. The batten is used to create a square edge to work from walls arent always square and shouldnt be used as a starting point for tiling. To get the pieces of batten square to each other (essential for a goodlooking finish), measure off three equal-length sections from the top-corner mark on the batten going across the room, and four equal-length sections on the batten going down the room. Take a measurement across the diagonal between the two end marks. If this is the same length as five of the equal-length sections, the battens are square to each other.

8.When square, fix the battens to the floor with plugs and screws.

9. Spread adhesive out from the corner made by the battens. A square metre is about right for small tiles but you can up this to two square metres if you are using large-format tiles.

10. Lay the first tile in the corner made by the two battens and then work across and down the room equally for a couple of courses, then fill in the centre area with tiles.Wiggle each tile into the adhesive and follow this up with a few pats using the palm of your hand. Continue like this on the rest of the floor.

11. Check for level across, down and diagonally as you go.

12.When you come up against fixed obstructions like architrave you can either cut the tile with a tile saw or cut the architrave itself. The latter method is much simpler and quicker. Slide the tile up to the architrave and run a saw over the top into the wood. Cut through the wood and fix the tile. Simple.

13. Before you tile past a door that opens into the room, check that there is enough clearance beneath to allow it to open when the job is complete. Use a spare tile to check the clearance at every point on the doors arc, marking the door a couple of millimetres above the tile line if the door catches the tile. Remove the door and plane off the wood if necessary.

14.When all the full tiles have been laid and the adhesive is dry (24 hours), remove the battens and cut, then lay, the tiles at the edges.

15. Leave for another 24 hours and then apply grout in the gaps between the tiles. Squeeze the grout in with a rubber-edged grout spreader and mop away the excess with a lightly dampened sponge diagonally across the gaps.When the grout is dry, give the tiles a shine with a soft cloth.