Floor Tiling for Beginners
If that vinyl covering on the bathroom or kitchen floor has seen better days, give the room a boost with some gorgeous new floor tiles. Don’t panic – this isn’t major property development; it’s just good old DIY, hardly more taxing than a spot of painting and decorating. No plastering, no building and no architects will be required!
Find the mid-point of the two longest and the two shortest walls and chalk straight lines between them, ensuring that they cross at right angles (tweak the mid-point of one of the walls if they don’t).
Start by tiling loosely along the two lines to check they look OK from the doorway. Nudge the lines again if necessary to make the gaps at the edges at least half a tile width. Tiles should be symmetrically laid around features like French windows or fireplaces, so another line shift may be necessary.
Start along the longest line from the intersection, spreading a square metre of grout at a time and scraping it with the notched trowel. Check that the tiles sit squarely with the other line and gently press them into place, slipping plastic spacers into each corner. Keep going with whole tiles until you’ve almost reached the edges, working out from the centre (use a spirit level to make sure they’re sitting evenly). Leave to dry for 24 hours and cut the edge tiles to size, allowing a further 12 hours for drying. After you’ve sealed the surface (leave 2 hours to dry), grout between the tiles, cleaning the excess with a damp sponge as you go. Finito!