Any tips for tiling a bathroom that I should know about?

[Guest Steeroits]

I plan on tiling a bathroom soon so are there any useful tips out there to help it go smoother? Also what should I do when re installing the toilet? What needs to be done with the tile going along the side of the bathtub as far as grout or sealing it? I'm going to be keeping a step by step dairy on my bathroom blog if anyones interested, it's one thing writing abour bathrooms, its quite another re-modeling one yourself!

[Michele B]

No real advice, except mix the grout according to the instructions! Sounds like a no-brainer, but my sister-in-law helped me put tile around our garden tub a few years ago. She said she had tiled all her bathrooms, and you just mixed the grout until it looked right. It is very cracked-looking now. So don't trust a family "expert!":lol:

 

Michele

[Ferdie]

Home Depot has a free, 3 hour DIY tile class, so you might want to check with your local hardware store to see if they offer something similar. Their suggestions were to lay the tile out dry first to find the right spacer size. Also our instructor said to use the smallest spacers possible for the smallest grout lines, (easier to maintain).

 

Our bathroom was small so I didn't rent a wet saw. I used a grease pen to mark the tiles that needed intricate cuts and took them to our local hardware store. They made the cuts with their wet saw - very inexpensive. I bought in inexpensive cutter for straight lines which worked great.

 

Also our bathroom was on the second floor so we had to put down a special board over the plywood. It was really hard to get the screws flat, but not a good idea to tile over an uneven floor. So if you have that situation make sure you allow extra time to set the subfloor right.

 

Can't wait to see you pics.

[praisefor3]

My one tip: Whatever you do...no matter what...make sure...DON'T LET THE GROUT DRY TOO LONG BEFORE WIPING OFF THE EXCESS! On my first bathroom tile project I thought it would be easy to just overdo the grout and then go back and clean it up. Oh my what a mistake. HOURS of trying to saw off the excess, clean the tile, etc. NEVER NEVER AGAIN.

[Harry Nelson in Charlotte]

after I had tiled my den and hall (about 500 sq. ft.). Without batting an eye, I said "you can have them."

 

The smaller scale of a bathroom would be much more bearable.

 

Some key things to remember:

1) Make sure you use the little spacers at every single joint. That will really matter. You might think you can eye that one on the very end, but you can't.

 

2) Make sure you have a smooth under surface, especially if you're putting concrete backer board on top of plywood subfloor.

 

3) The HD class was excellent. Don't be shy about wanting to get the feel of the trowel and grout float with their materials. Don't just watch them do it. Hang out and try and do as much of it yourself as you can. You can mess up on their stuff rather than theirs.

 

4) I would just use grout sealer along all grout lines, and then you shouldn't have to do anything special against the tub.

 

5) Buy extra tile. If one cracks in two years, you won't be able to find the exact same kind again.

 

6) Worth it to buy the right tools to make the job look more professional.

 

7) Good advice from Ferdie regarding getting more intricate cuts done by someone else.

 

Good luck - you're going to need it. :)

[hornblower]

We tiled our kitchen backsplash a couple years ago, one bathroom (shower enclosure & floor) last fall & just did the bath surround on bathroom #2 last week. Haven't grouted that one yet & the floor is still waiting....either this weekend or next.

 

Where tile meets the tub you should leave an 1/8 space & caulk. Do not grout up to solid surfaces because it will crack. The two inside vertical corners where the side walls meet the back wall should also be caulked rather than grouted.

 

Choice of tile is important.

 

The larger the tile, the harder the job.

 

Also, the new modern tiles have a perfectly square edge, not a slight gentle curved lip. Lining these suckers up is TOUGH unless your walls are perfectly done. The hardibacker board helps here if you've installed it well.

 

Otherwise, you get what's called 'lippage' where one tile is a bit more sticking out than the one beside it. If you push that edge down, the edge on the other side of the tile pops up & now you have lippage on that side.

 

If it sounds like I've BTDT, you're right :lol: We've got 12x18 square edge tiles on the walls with 1 mm grout lines. That's a tough job apparently. I read on tiling forums that pros were moaning about HO's (home owners LOL) requesting this type of tile job. Large tiles with small grout lines means there's little room for errors & if the walls are not perfectly square, things go wonky fast.

 

If you're working with the big tiles, you'll need a tile suction cup like this

http://www.sears.ca/product/brutus-tile-suction-cup-with-12lb-rating/09997120?ptag=1 to maneuver the tiles & get them set right.

 

If you want to make it easier on yourself, pick a smaller tile & one with a gentle curve on the edges. Unfortunately, I don't like the look of that so I gritted my teeth & persevered.

 

On a first job, I'd pick a grout color that is very close to the tile color. Contrasting grout will magnify any errors in your tile laying.

 

Our library has a bunch of dvd's and videos from home reno shows & we watched those a few years ago when we were getting started.

 

Oh & one last thing - make sure the tile saw you get (buy or rent) will handle the size of your tile. Our second bathroom floor tile is 12x24 & not all saws can do a 24in cut.

[In The Great White North]

The larger the tile, the harder the job.

 

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

 

The 2 x 2 tiles, dd(then 11) did with little to no "lippage," the 6 x 6 I did with little to no "lippage," the 12 x 12 took hours to get close to right, with lines drawn on the cement board and everything. Still got "lippage."

 

We also used this stuff under the tile to waterproof everything:

 

http://www.johnbridge.com/articles/showers/kerdi-showers/

 

We did do a shower, but it is good for any area that might get wet. A friend put it just inside his sliding glass doors. I think Home Depot has it.