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Tiling a wall
Tools for this section
Spirit level, plumb and chalk line, planed 50mm x 20mm batons (2 x 1"), marking stick, tile cutter, adhesive spreader, tile nibbler or saw, rubber squeegee. For preparation: abrasive paper, filing knife and scraper. You can get these tools from Tooled Up online
Improvements in tools and materials mean that it has never been easier to tile your wall. Master the basics, and it is really quite easy. When tiling a wall, don't try to finish it all in one go. Plan it well and you could have a beautiful wall in the end! Preparation is key, older houses may have really bad plaster when you remove the old tiles - you should re-plaster these walls to ensure there is a good surface for the tiles to stick to. Good luck if you have an odd shape bathroom with alcoves and odd slanted walls, you have a lot of cutting to do.
Planning Tips - setting out the room (if you want the tiles to have even cuts around the edge):
- Mark the walls around the room a tile's width above the skirting. Use a batten to draw a level line just under these marks.
- With a marking stick plot your vertical layout of tiles remembering to allow for things like wash basins, pipes and windows.
- Adjust the base line so that any cut tiles are even at the ends of each column. Fix the batten with its top edge just touching the base line.
- Find the wall's midpoint and plot the horizontal layout working outwards from the centre so that the cuts are equal at the end of each row.
- Mark on the batten where the last left hand column of whole tiles finishes. Drop a plumb line to this mark and draw a vertical line on the wall.
- Nail a vertical batten to make a right angle. Press a tile into the angle. If the battens are positioned well it should fit perfectly.
Corner / edge tip:
External corners you should always put edging strips on - they will not get chipped and have rough edges exposed then. When the tiling finishes on a wall area and an edge is exposed, use a proper edging strip, border tile or glazed edge tile to prevent rough edges.
Money saving tip:
Ok, you may laugh at this one - but I am being serious here. Don't tile it! You can get just as much waterproof protection from waterproof paint like eggshell, and will have a cleaner finish that wont need re-grouting every so often or risk cracks etc.
Further help available here:
here
Shops available:
Tooled Up supply all the tools you need for tiling.
