How to Lay Tile: A Beginner's Guide

Homeowners are continuously looking for easy ways to grow their home's worth and attractiveness. Among the simplest and fastest ways to do this is to put in tile floors in kitchens or bathrooms. Many homeowners see installing vinyl flooring for a job which is too complex for them. Generally this is simply not correct. Laying tile is fairly straightforward and you can maximize your return on investment if you do the job yourself. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is something extremely difficult for example constructing an addition and 1 is something easy like hanging a picture, laying tile is about a 3 or 4. It's a rather straightforward project and this manual will provide you a much better comprehension of how to lay tile.

The first step of how to lay tile is to gauge the area where the tile will be installed. As soon as you know how much tile you'll need, you're prepared to buy it. You may check online and in local home improvement stores to locate the best prices. You'll also need to purchase some sort of backer board (usually cement), a trowel, grout, spacers, and mortar.

The next thing to do, especially when you're only learning how to lay tile, is to measure and cut a piece of backer board to fit in the area and examine the match before mixing any mortar. This is crucial since you do not need any mortar to dry if the backer board does not fit.

Next, you will want to put a thin layer of mortar over the area to be tiled and allow it to dry. Then, put a layer of mortar and use the notched side of the trowel to make ridges and put the backer board over the ridged mortar and put on it to press it into position. Now use some roofing nails or cement-board screws to affix the backer board.

How to Lay Tile

The next step of the way to lay tile is to produce straight reference lines with a square or other straight edge. Then put a thin layer of mortar on a section of the backer board, be certain to not cover up reference lines. Use the notched side of the trowel to make ridges so that you can press the tile down to the mortar later. Lay tiles onto the mortar with spacers. The spacers will make space between the tiles at which you'll later place grout.

As soon as you've got all tiles placed, await the mortar to dry, around 1 hour depending on how much mortar you employed. You can use a screwdriver or razor blade to scrape away mortar which creeps up over the tiles as it dries.

After the mortar has dried and surplus has been scraped off, you are ready to apply grout into the tiles. Once the grout was applied and extra grout removed, you are done. Now you know how to lay tile.