How to Install Bathroom Tile

bathroomtileYour choice of bathroom tile is extremely important for establishing the décor of your bathroom. However, no matter what fancy pattern and color scheme you choose, it won’t look good unless it’s installed properly. It can cost a fortune to have a contracted install bathroom tile for you, so you may be interested in trying to install it yourself. The good news is that installing bathroom tile isn’t too difficult at all, and even a novice at home renovation should be able to handle it.

The first step to install bathroom tile is to prepare the walls for tiling. All this basically means is just giving the walls a thorough cleaning and ensuring that it is as smooth as possible. Depending on what’s currently on the walls, this may mean removing wallpaper or sanding down and splinters in wood.

While you’re cleaning, you should take an opportunity to start plotting out your tiling. Professional tillers use something called a “gauge stick” to help them measure where they’ll place tiles once they start working. All you need to make your own gauge stick is a piece of wood and a pencil. Simply lay some tile next to the wood and mark off where one time ends and the next one begins. This will come in handy later once it’s time to actually install bathroom tile.

Once the walls are completely clean, your next step is to apply the adhesive that will make the tiles stick permanently. Make sure that the walls near your shower and sink have waterproof adhesive or you may end up with tiles falling down in those areas. You want to apply the adhesive in squares roughly 1 meter by 1 meter, then apply the tile. You generally want to start from a bottom corner and work your way across, then up. However, if you’re tiling around a window or other fixture, then use that as your basis.

One of the tricky parts that tricks some people when they try to install bathroom tiles is the border tiles. Border tiles are the ones that you use to close the gap that between two walls at a corner. Since you’d have to be really lucky to have your tile end exactly where a corner starts, you need to measure and cut border tiles to fill the gaps. To cut a border tile, simply set a free tile up against the wall and mark where you’d need to cut it off to make it fit. Then it’s just a matter of making a clean cut before you can continue to install bathroom tile.

Another thing to remember as you place your tiles is to leave enough room from the grouting. Some tiles have lugs that are designed to make the spacing process easy. If your tiles have lugs, you can simply force them together and they’ll already be preset for the grouting. That’s really all it takes to install bathroom tile – it just takes a little precision to get it right.

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1 comment so far ↓
#1 Dave on 11.16.09 at 5:30 pm

Can I apply tiles over existing tiles? Or do I have to smash and remove the old ones on the wall that are there now.

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