anyone familiiar with laying tile flooring? never done it myself but i just bought a house and want to do it. is there anything an amature would mess up?? any info would be great
firstly don't use ceramic tiles on a wooden floor, you will need to do a lot of preparation before doing so. right, concrete floors, basically you find the centre of the room by measuring off the same wall twice, once along each return wall, ping a chalk line across the two marks. repeat in the other direction. you will end up with a large cross. use each corner of the cross as a starting point. the reason for this is that when you reach the walls your cut tiles will be even.. bin tilin' for 10 years. good luck ps don't knock up more adhesive or grout than you can use within approx. 1 hour. its easier and cheaper to knock up small quantities than wasting a load 'cause you've knocked up to much. oh and don't bury your spacers leave them sticking up after about an hour remove and re-use. when left in they can sometimes be difficult to cover with grout.
determine if you would want lots cut tiles along the edge or not. if you do want cut tiles, square the room, level the floor, line the floor and start laying tiles from the center towards the wall. if you dont want a lot of cutted tile. plan it that the cutted tiles on the side of the wall that can be hidden. square the wall, level the floor and line the floor. you may want to start from the entrance door. use tile spacers and use the lines regularly so you would have a well alligned tiles. remember not to use too dry or too wet tile adhives. too dry is difficult to manage and too wet will cause bubbles and would be hallow. these would be weak points of the tile and breaks easily. get a book with illustrations or someone to help you. especially wiht the cutting
first take a 4 foot level and place it on the floor move it around and look between the level and the floor for gaps. small ones are ok any more than 3/8 should be filled with self levelling concrete. do a dry run with your tiles. from the door to the wall and 90 degrees to that to the other wall.like an L shape. you don't want to have to cut a half inch of tile to make the wall sh space them at the start to end with about 1/2 tile on the finish wall. and the one thing no one will tell you is if you look on the back of the tile you will see paint lines going in one direction all the tiles should be layed with the line going in the same direction. use adhesive concrete to hold down the tile and use the spacers for your grout lines.
It is not difficult as long as you properly prepare for the job. If it is a single room check if it is square and using a chalk line mark a line you will start with. Use the most exposed area of the room to get perfectly straight line of tiles. Once you start right the rest is just repetition. Another area of concern is what are you putting the tile over. Is is a concrete slab? If so just make sure it is does not have any areas that are elevated. If it is wood sub-floor definitely use backing like wonder board or something like that. Depending on the size of your tiles you need to choose a spacer size. Your retailer will help you with that. Another issue is your connection of tiles to the wall. Do you have a baseboard? If possible remove the baseboard and reapply it after you are done. It will look better and you will have easier time laying the tile. Consider getting a DVD on laying tile, I am sure you retailer can sell you one for just a couple of bucks. Good Luck!
