Tileing my bathrooms?

Question

I have purchased all the tile to remodel 3 bathrooms. I know how to lay the tile and grout it. I just can't remember how to start the Lines to follow. The bathrooms measure about 5'x7'. All advise is needed.

Answer 1

Because you're dealing with such small rooms all you need to do is center the tile. Full grid lines are not necessary.

1. Measure the width of the room wall to wall at it's widest point. Divide the measurement by 2 and make a mark at that point.
2. Measure and mark the same way for the length of the room. This gives you the exact center of the room. (overall squareness of the room isn't very important when tiling a room this small.)
3. You should end up with two perpendicular lines on the floor intersecting in the center. You'll have 4 quadrants now. Start the tile in the quad farthest from the door and work out.

There's really no need for laser levels and other squaring equipment and procedures for this project. There's no way your walls would be far enough out of square to be noticable in the tile in a room this small.

Answer 2

For the best looking layout, center the tile in the room so you have equal big boarders. Example: If your room is 5'-2" wide and your using 12" tile, you will have three layout options.

1) Place five tile wide and have a 2" cut on one side.
2) Center five tile in the room and have 1" cuts on both sides.
3) Center four tile in the room and have 7" cuts on both sides.

After looking at the options for the 12x12 tile, option #3 would yeild the highest professional look. To layout this option measure and divide 5' dimension in half. Using a taunt chaulk line, snap a straight line on the floor. You should end up with two 2'-6" x 7" rectangles. You will use this line to alighn your first row of tile. But before you start laying tile remenber to divide the 7' distance in half as well. All you need here is a starter mark on the snaped line. Start installing tile alonger the snapped line with the first tile installed at the starter mark in the center of the 7' spand.

If you purchased 6" tile the following would apply:

1) Place ten tile wide and have a 2" cut on one side.
2) Center ten tile in the room and have 1"cuts on both sides.
3) Center twelve tile in the room and have 1" cuts on both sides.

As you can see 6" tile does not layout as nice as 12' tile does in this room size. In this case you moght think about purchasing 12" tile and having a 12"x 7" boarder around the 6x6 tile.

In any case I hope this helps you with your layout question.

Enjoy!

Answer 3

After installing thousands of sq. ft. of tile, and remodeling more bathrooms than much else, I have some suggestions.

Square the rooms first of all, either with the laser level or the basic method of diagonal measuring, keeping in mind that corners should be 90 degrees but can be off a degree or two. Tile might be best accomplished with NO base molding installed until after,,,allowing for cuts and variations in fractions.

The more important issue is to use as many full pieces as possible in those areas most evident,,, working toward the perimeters, allowing cuts will be hidden. Certainly you can also accomplish an idea of that by laying out full pieces in two directions. Using that philosophy you can "center" the room with 4 full tiles at an intersection. Cuts can butt a tub/shower pan... or where a door opens in against that wall,,,under or butting to a vanity,,, etc. Since you aren't joining tiles to a hall or other room, you should likely craft the design to begin at the room entry with a full piece. Then use "transitional" molding specific to the purpose.

Without knowing your tile size,,, even if 12/12, you will have cuts,,, considering losing 1/4 inch for each grout line.

Steven Wolf

Answer 4

Use a 4 or 6 foot level to make the straight line, if you want a new toy you can go to home depot or lowes and get a laser line

Answer 5

The initial phase in the bathroom renovation included stripping the old bath down to the studs and sub-floor, leveling the floor, knocking out a wall into the hall closet to enlarge the room, building a partition and new door frame and getting an estimate for rough plumbing work. The next phase will consist of laying out the ceramic-tile floor, cutting and installing the tiles. This day's work will also include installation of the pre-hung door.

One of the most important features of the new bath is the ceramic tile floor. For today's project Sarah -- the homeowner and do-it-yourself bathroom architect -- learns about the entire tiling process. Following an initial layout, she measures, cuts, installs and grouts the modern 12x12-inch tiles she has selected. This includes learning use several tile-cutting tools. She uses the "score and snap" method for straight cuts and the nippers for smaller spaces. By far, the most useful tool she discovers is the water-cooled tile-saw. This makes quick work of most of the cuts she has to make.

Sarah begins prepping for the new tile floor by leveling the floor and covering it with cement backer board. In addition to cutting the backer-board panels to fit the space, one section had to be cut to fit around the toilet drain. Backer board is fairly easy to work with and, once the pieces were cut, Sarah covers the wood sub-floor with pre mixed mortar and sets the backer board in place -- rough side up. She then secures it with screws and fills the seams with mortar.

Materials:

Tiles
Thin-set mortar
Grooved trowel
Plastic tile spacers
Tile-scoring tool



Steps:

The first step is to sweep up and clean the floor of any debris leftover from the construction up to this point (figure A).


Sarah's next step is to actually lay out the tiles as she wants them to look when she's finished (figure B). Sarah has chosen a 12-inch ceramic tile with the look of gray stone. She starts with a full tile placed in the corner in front of the toilet. Working out in both directions, she inserts quarter inch spacers between the tiles to define the grout lines. A few inches will need to be cut off the last tile at the end near the shower. Because these are large tiles, the cut tiles will not look out of scale. The last tile on the short run will also have to be trimmed slightly.


The mortar used in this project is commonly called thin-set, and it comes two ways --in a box ready for mixing or pre-mixed tubs. The pre-mix is more expensive, but it's much easier to work with and ideal for small projects. A trowel with quarter inch grooves on two sides is used for spreading the mortar (figure C).


It's important not to try to do too much at once. For tiles this size, Sarah spreads enough mortar to set two or three pieces at a time. She sweeps the grooved end of the trowel at a 45-degree angle keeping the mortar an even thickness on the backer-board (figure D).


Sarah sets spacers along the wall then carefully places the first tile (figure E). She drops the tile into place, making sure not to slide it in. Then Sarah applies as much pressure as she can with her hands as she twists it into position


To make sure she has the tile firmly in place, Sarah has covered a small two by 4 with cloth and gently taps it on the tile (figure F).


The spacers keep the alignment even and all the grout lines the same width (figure G). With these tiles, it was easier to place them upright between the tiles instead of flat on the corners.


Use the spacers as a guide, but keep checking to make sure the alignment looks right. Also, keep checking to make sure the tiles are level with one another. Sarah uses a short board to check the tiles for a level surface, and gently rocks it to push down any high spots (figure H).


To cut the tiles for the row along the back of the room, Sarah uses a hand tool to score the line (figure I). Though the scoring tool is good for making small or custom cuts, a water-cooled tile-saw is much easier to use for big jobs. In the segment that follows, Sarah learns how to cut tiles using this powerful tool.