I have never laid tiles before and I would like to work from the ceiling down. In the shower I am going to use thin set. the rest of the bathroom is green board. which I intended to use a tile adhesive.the reason I wanted to go from ceiling down is I think the layout will look better
The best way to lay it would... measure from floor to ceiling lets say that its 8 ft. if the tile you are using is 12in then you know that you wild need 8 tiles from floor to ceiling. but you have to add 1/4in gap in the tile or what ever size gap you pick. so with 8 tiles 12ins plus 8 gaps (not counting the top and bottom gaps) you will have an extra 2ins that you have to figure for. It would look really bad if you had to cut the top tile to fit cutting the bottom tile will look much nicer. So the best way to do it is use a spinning laser level to find 2 ins off the floor and mark with black lines. Use nails to hold up your til to that line. Start laying the tile up form that line. Uses spacers to get the gap you would like. side note is that tiles are not all 12 by 12ins some can be as much as 1/4 bigger or smaller than that so if you get a tile like that use a nail instead of a spacer to fit the gap so all the tile are even. your eyes won't see a thiner gap but they will see tiles that aren't even. once you get to the top adjust the spaces to make all the tile nice and even at the top. once your done and the thin set is dry remove the nails holding the bottom tile in place and cut the bottom tile to the size you need. you can't really use the floor as a guild goin up cuz most bathroom floors are slopped and some sides are Higher that others and that will mess you up in you start from the floor up. hope this helps
measure the wall height and measure the tile. Split the difference so that you don't have a sliver of tile at the end of you installation. Take a level and draw a line in the center of the wall as a divider for tile layout. Make sure again you have at least a good amount of a tile at the bottom and the top. You can start from that line using tile adhesive. Don'r glob it on use an 1/8th inch tooth trowel. You dont need thin set except for a floor. BTW the best rock to use in this area is purple board. It resists mold. Good Luck
Thank You all for your answers. saaanen I'll let you know how it comes out. I'm going to start at the bottom.
Tile adhesive on wall NOT thin set!
Why would you want to work from the ceiling downward? That makes little sense. One of the reasons you work from the bottom up is that the thinset isn't completely up to the task of holding up the weight of the tile before it's set. It holds the tile against the wall well enough, but the tile simply rests its weight on the surface before the thinset sets. Starting from the top down, you'll probably find the tiles slumping out of position before you can get the next course in place, and that will slump, and the next and the next.
