When tiling a wall AND the floor, how close to the floor should I get the wall tile?

Question

Should the wall tile touch the floor? OR
Should I leave enough space for the floor tile to go under the wall tile? OR
Should they meet at each edge of the tiles?

I dont' know the best way to do this? I'm tiling up the wall about 3.5 ft and laying a new tile floor.

Answer 1

It is better to have wall tiles cover the cuts on the floor tile.

Set the floor first and then the walls. Keep the wall tile to floor gap the same size as your grout joints. Caulk that joint, do NOT grout it because it will break up over time.

An alternative I use is to set ledgers on the wall all around the room one tile up and set the wall tile first. Then I do the floor and go back and do the last row of wall tile last. This way you are working off a level ledger instead of a questionable floor.

Answer 2

One of the things that can hurt you with the floor when setting tight from the wall is if your floor tile is not laid flat. If your tiles undulate more than say 1/8 of an inch you could have a pretty serious chaulk bead to cover up the gaps. A suggestion that I can give you on setting flat is to use a straight edge. A straight edge can be a good level with a hard 90 degree edge. Set the level across two tiles one that was set previously and the new set at a 45 degree angle and look at the hard edge against the tiles to see daylight. Any daylight raise or lower the newly set tile. If you just want to 'stick and forget' I suggest putting in at least an 1/8th inch grout joint between the floor and wall to make up for the differences. Also, get some white wedges from a local tile shop that sells materials and supplies. This will help in raising and lowering tiles to keep a level line on your wall tiles. Also, one more thing to remember is to use an anti-fracture membrane on the floor so if there are any cracks in the surface they will not crack the tiles from future movement of your concrete foundation. If you are setting over a wood subfloor you will have to use a tile substrate like cement backerboard. Check out your local where house store for information and classes on how to set basic tile installations. Good luck.

Answer 3

If the tile is vinyl and not ceramic I would slide the floor tile under the wall tile. If the floor will be ceramic then the tiles on the wall should go all the way down with cove molding as the bottom course. I would also leave a small expansion gap between the two to cover temperature changes over the seasons and grout there.

Answer 4

Tile the floor first so that it goes under the wall, it's easiest, then use the same spacers that go in the wall between the first row of tiles, and the floor. it will give you an even look all the way around, and if you did your floor right and it's perfectly level, then you'll have an excellent start on your wall. good luck

Answer 5

I've installed thousands of sq. ft. of tile, and with all due respect to the first 2 answers, USE the spacers you use for separating the floor tile to lift the first course of wall tile. The floor should be installed first.

In a joint/butt of floor to a wall I always remove all cove base molding, put my cuts to the perimeters, then reinstall molding after all the grout work is complete. It sounds like you won't have any molding and in that case I might use a Convex Bullnose at the wall/floor joint to begin the first course of wall tile above.

Dropping a wall tile to a floor tile assumes that all you'll be able to do is use caulk to seal the seam... Not strictly a good idea,,, especially as it regards having to use water/cleaners to wash the floor.

If anyone MUST give me a thumbs down, step up and say so, and why. I don't depend on much more than trying to help people here, and I do quite well in the trades without accolades from Q&A. Thank you.

Steven Wolf

Answer 6

the floor tile should touch the tile that is on the wall that touches the floor.

Answer 7

It should touch the floor, then you put floor tile.