Most wall tiles are ceramic and are assumed to be suitable for fixing onto plastered walls or plasterboard. If fixing floor tiles onto the wall, make sure the walls are solid and suitable to take the extra weight involved. Unless we are told otherwise we will assume your walls are solid. Unplastered plasterboard will take approximately 50% more weight compared to plaster - once primed or "tanked" it is very good to use for tiling.
Preparation: Remove old tiles, loose plaster and any emulsion paint or wallpaper. If you have trouple removing emulsion paint then score the area with a screwdriver to give provide a loose guide. If the walls are very uneven it might be worth considering having them skimmed with plaster or overboarded to get a nice finish prior to tiling. Plast and plasterboard will usually require priming first with an acrylic primer diluted to a ratio of either 1:3 or 1:4 with clean water (PVA is not suitable and should not be used). If tiling onto existing tiles, make sure they are solid, clean and dry, then prime using a primer and adhesive powder. If tiling with class tiles, it is always recommended that you use a white or light coloured polymer modified adhesive. Some of our wall tile adhesives are self priming.
Tiling: Before starting to tile, use 2 tiles and trace across the wall to see where they may fall to work out cuts and positioning for features like windows and any other obstructions. You are looking to make sure that for whatever starting point, left or right, you do not end up with very slim cuts. These are hard to make and can result in chipping and using more tiles than necessary and don't look too nice. Decide on the best starting point and mark the wall, do the same for the vertical start point. Starting off the bath if level is ideal but not always necessarily best. If possible, centre the window from left to right and think where borders or vertical strips need to be.
Although most adhesives grip tiles well, it can help to nail a wooden batten to the wall and tile up from that. Tile the walls spreading the adhesive on the wall with a notched trowel spacing the tiles with the appropriate sized spacers. Some modern tiles look better with a tighter joint, some need a wide joint, especially if you have to accommodate the variation in size some tiles have. Large tiles can bow - bear this in mind if you intend to brick-bond the tiles. If fixing tiles that are larger than 50x25cm, it is always advisable to use a powdered cement-based adhesive rather than a ready-mixed bucketed adhesive. We keep a wide range of tiling tools and drills if you need them.
Clean off excess adhesive and keep the joints between tiles free of adhesive as you go to ensure a clean finish. Most wall tiles will cut with a hand operated bar cutter but electric water cooled cutters can be hired at a daily rate. When all walls are tiles and dry, mix the grout to a thick consistency (a little thicker than sand and cement mortar) and grout using a squeegee or grout float, pushing the grout into the joints. When you have grouted several square metres, clean off any grout from the tiles face before it dries using a damp sponge. Once dry, you can polish the face of the tiles using a soft, clean cloth.
Most man-made floor tiles we sell are now made of porcelain so the tiles we are describing will be the same. The guide still applies for ceramic tiles, however for other materials it may be different.
Perparation: Concrete floors need to be swept clean first and any loose concrete removed. if the surface is uneven, higher patches will need lowering to the same level as the rest of the floor using a hammer and bolster chisel, while lower patches can be filled in with adhesive if necesasry. If the holes are too large or deep, it is better to use a mixture of sand and cement for a stronger result. We supply fibre reinforced self levelling compount that will level from 3-50mm too which can also be used. If the floor to be tiles is freshly laid concrete, the general rule of thumb is to allow at least a week per inch of depth before tiling, for example, if your floor is 4 inches deep, it is best to allow at least 4 weeks for the concrete to dry before tiling. Primer the concrete with primer diluted to a ratio of 1:3 with clean water - do not use PVA.
Existing tiled floors need to be swept clean, mopped and allowed to dry. They then require priming with a specially formulated primer which is designed to be used neat and painted or rollered over the existing tiles and allowed to dry. In some circumstances it is advisable to prime the floor with neat primer mixed with adhesive powder to make a slurry coat (2 parts adhesive and 1 part neat primer) and paint this on. Be sure to remove any loose tiles and fill the holes with adhesive.
Tiling: Before mixing up any adhesive, always loose lay a large area of tiles to familiarise yourself with the tiles, the width of the grout joint and the pattern you are laying them in. Shaded tiles are best mixed as you lay them to give a good blend across the floor. Make sure that your tiles fit across the room nicely without any very small cuts at one sider and perpendicular to the main walls or walkway into the room. Many tiles vary in size between eachother so it is normal to have to use a larger grout joint, or compromise the widths to make the floor look even.
Use a good quality polymer modified floor adhesive (sometimes referred to as a single-part flexible adhesive) with 2 good clean buckets, a trowel and sponge to clean off the excess adhesive from the tile faces. Mix the adhesive with water as per the manufacturers instructions, spread an area of about a square metre at a time onto the floor with the trowel leaving a "combed" bed of adhesive over the entire area where the tiles are to be laid. Place the tiles down and apply firm pressure to them to ensure that they are correctly bedded into the adhesive. It is important to strive for 100% coverage of adhesive under the tiles so as to not leave areas where the tiles do not have proper support. Continue to lay the tiles and space them accordingly. Tilers will often do the cuts before mixing the adhesive so they can continue laying the tiles uninterrupted however some people prefer to cut the tiles as they go along. Clean the tiles surface as you go along with a clean, damp spongeand make sure the grout joints do not have adhesive in them otherwise it can show through the grout once finished. Work as cleanly as you can. Once the tiles have been set, it should only take 4 hours before the floor can be gently walked upon, and approximately 24 hours before the floor can be used as normal.
Most man-made floor tiles we sell are now made of porcelain so the tiles we are describing will be the same. The guide still applies for ceramic tiles, however for other materials it may be different.
The timber floor needs to be swept clean first and any loose or damaged boards removed. The floor should then be screwed down firmly using brass screws and noggins put in place between joists to provide extra strengthening if required. The idea is to make the floor smooth and rigid so it is ready to tile.
Exterior grade (or marine) plywood (~18mm thick) was always used for many years but it is cumbersome and the major problem with plywood is being too thick and only being able to handle it in big sheet form. If you use plywood, it needs to have the edges primed first and then laid onto the timber floor and screwed down every 6-12" using brass screws. Then once fixed, prime prior to tiling with a single part flexible adhesive and grout.
An excellent alternative to exterior plywood is cement based backer boards. These boards are rigid, waterproof and just 6mm thick so are ideal when you do not want to raise the floor too much but want a smooth surface. These are quickly laid using floor tile adhesive, joints taped and then screwed down. These should be laid at right angles to the way existing boards go and staggered in a brick-bond fashion for extra strength. Any tiny gaps should be filled using the adhesive. Floors are very strong and rigid once these boards are laid. Once laid these are primed with a suitable primer and then tiled using a polymer modified cement based floor tile adhesive and with an additive in with the grout or the flexible grout we stock. These boards are always in stock and are inexpensive. Typically 25mm screws are required.
Tiling: Once your floor is primed and ready, loose-lay an area of tiles to familiarise yourself with the tiles, the width of the grout joint and the pattern you are laying them in. Tiles do vary in size sometimes so you may need to adjust the grout widths to accomated this. Shaded tiles are best mixed to give a good blend across the floor. Make sure that your tiles fit across the room nicely without very small cuts at one side and perpendicular to the main walls or walkway into the room.
Use a good quality polymer modified floor adhesive (sometimes referred to as a single-part flexible adhesive) with 2 good clean buckets, a trowel and sponge to clean off the excess adhesive from the tile faces. Mix the adhesive with water as per the manufacturers instructions, spread an area of about a square metre at a time onto the floor with the trowel leaving a "combed" bed of adhesive over the entire area where the tiles are to be laid. Place the tiles down and apply firm pressure to them to ensure that they are correctly bedded into the adhesive. It is important to strive for 100% coverage of adhesive under the tiles so as to not leave areas where the tiles do not have proper support. Continue to lay the tiles and space them accordingly. Tilers will often do the cuts before mixing the adhesive so they can continue laying the tiles uninterrupted however some people prefer to cut the tiles as they go along. Clean the tiles surface as you go along with a clean, damp spongeand make sure the grout joints do not have adhesive in them otherwise it can show through the grout once finished. Work as cleanly as you can. Once the tiles have been set, it should only take 4 hours before the floor can be gently walked upon, and approximately 24 hours before the floor can be used as normal.
Grouting: Once dry, grout with a cement based floor tile grout with an added flexible additive. Mix with water/additive to a thick consistency, the grout needs to be mixed thicker than a mortar mix that you would use for bricklaying. Excessive water can encourage efflorescence (crystal-like effect causing patchy and uneven grout) Using a grout float or squeegee, force the grout into the joints, taking care to smooth off excess grout. When the joints start to dry (usually after 20 minutes or so), clean the tile surface and and smooth the tops of the joints with a damp sponge. Once dry, polish the face of the tiles using a soft clean cloth. Grout is very difficult to remove once it has set in so be sure to keep the area clean and clean off any excess grout from the joints or tile faces.
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