Titling floors is pretty easy…if you’re doing a concrete floor like in your basement…it needs to be pretty level…or if you want tile upstairs, make sure you have your rock-board down on the sub-floor that you are going to tile…
You’ll need a couple things…
Rock board if you are doing a wood surface for the sub-flooring,
Tile,
Adhesive,
tile spacers,
string line,
notched trowel,
rubber mallet,
bucket,
sponge,
grout,
level and a
square.
You’ll want to start in the center of the room so you’ll need a reference line popped using a string Chalk line, you’ll need to work in about a 3′ x 3′ area at a time so that the adhesive doesn’t dry out before you get the tile down. If you are continuing tile from another room, we like to use the hall or the entry into the room as our starting point so that the tile isn’t interrupted going from room to room…tile is just like any other surface in a home, there needs to be a “flow” from room to room so the space doesn’t seem so cut up…
After you make your reference line, take the tile out of the box and kind of shuffle them. We learned the hard way that you don’t just want to take them out of the box..otherwise you’ll get an unwanted pattern and the eye really picks that stuff up!
You’ll need to spread the mortar or adhesive with the smooth side of the trowel and make sure you can still see the reference lines on the floor…when we did this room, we were starting off of a Hall that had already been tiled…but you can see here a 3’x3′ area that we are doing…
So, again we use the thin side of the trowel to lay down the mortar…
once the mortar is down we will use the notched side of the trowel holding the trowel at about 45 degree angle and moving in the same direction…like you are combing hair so the application is uniform…
You can see the excess build up…you’ll want to remove that and return the trowel to the bucket…if you are up against another tile…put in your spacers if your tile didn’t come with self-spacing tiles…
You’ll want to lay the tile in, lightly pressing down and then twist it so that it sets into the mortar…
You’ll need the rubber mallet at this point and the level…lightly bump the tile until it’s level with the tiles around it…and you are done!…on to the next!…you’ll need to let this tile rest on the mortar for 24 hours before putting in the grout…which is also pretty simple…it’s like washing a floor with mud!…and then cleaning it….over and over again with clean water.
I’ve put in wood floors, laminate, vinyl, carpet and I have to say that tile is so easy!…My husband had to take my credit card away cause I would be re-flooring EVERYTHING…
(I will put in a follow up post on how to “Grout” a tiled floor as well)
