Laying tile....Can I do it?

[Lauri]

We are prepping our house for sale and have decided to update the bathroom.

The Labor costs for applying tile on the floor, and around the shower/tub, is way more than I want to pay.

My husband and I have put steel on the barn, built stalls, shelves in the garage, rehabed a chicken barn.............is the tile something you think we could handle?


ANY adviesc apreciated.

Thank You

[BobDFL]

If I could do it you can do it.

The 2 hardest parts of laying tile are cutting the tile (you can rent a wet saw that makes it a lot easier), and keeping it straight (if you use bigger tiles it's a lot easier especialy on the floor).

I was intimidated also but needed to get a house sold and re-did some tile in the Master Bath as well, and afterward I sat there wondering why I hadn't done it earlier.

[chickenista]

Yep.. you can do it. And what might be much easier to use are the sheets of tiles. They are individual times that have been glued to a mesh at the proper distances etc.. those you just lay down on the mastic and then grout like regular tile.
Good luck.

[mtnest]

Tile is pretty basic so it shouldn't be a problem for most folks. The main thing to keep in mind if you're putting it on the walls is to make sure you start with a level line. Don't just go with the line of the floor or it could end up a big mess by the time you get to the top. Also, it is important and lots of people think they can bypass the concrete board application and just apply the tiles to the sheetrock... don't do that. The concrete board is necessary to hold the tiles permanently, the sheetrock will get damp and crumble underneath if it is not used. I would reccomend removing the sheetrock and put up the concrete board in it's place so that you don't end up with a thicker section and have to worry about using trim to cover the edges. Another useful tip is to put the adhesive on the tile itself instead of smearing it on the wall...it's better controlled that way.

[TedH71]

Buy knee pads for floor work. You'll need it.

[texican]

It's indeed doable... the question is, do you want to do this in a home your selling? Make a mistake, and you'll have to redo it, or get someone else. If you were living in it, a 'mistake' would just add to the homey charm.

I did my first tile work at home, before doing it in others homes, for cash. They didn't want to pay for charming, they wanted perfect.

[Nevada]

Originally Posted by BobDFL

cutting the tile (you can rent a wet saw that makes it a lot easier)

I cut the tile with a diamond blade for my 7" skillsaw that I bought at Home Depot. It did a great job, the blade only cost $18, and the blade is still in great shape. It came out looking pretty good.

[VOR.]

^^^^You usually want to avoid a bunch of little cuts when laying tile.

The main thing to do when setting tile is to layout the entire job before you start setting any tile. As said above, you need to get square lines to start from. Don't count on the room to be square. You also need to take measurements, do a little math and determine the best starting point so cuts are minimized and hidden as much as possible.

[hotzcatz]

Tile ain't rocket science but it does take a bit of skill. Not a whole lot, but a little. Get a book or two from the library and read up on how to put the tile down and it shouldn't be too difficult. I've been putting slate tiles down in the bath house and it was easier than I thought. Borrowed a tile saw from a neighbor and it cuts tile about like cutting plywood. Tiles do break much easier than plywood, though, when they get knocked over so keeping them flat is a good thing.

[Jalopy]

If it is floor tile I am sure you realize to start in the center of the room so that if you have cut tile on the edges that all edges are equal and look balanced. It looks unprofessional to have one edge of the floor that has a four inch tile and the opposite side have a twelve inch tile. Also it is wise to buy the spacers for when you are applying the tile so your grout lines will be even. Good luck. It is a fun project.

[KatSpradley]

I am going to say that doing it in small tiles on the 12 x12 sheets was the easiest because there wasn't much cutting to be done...just pick off /cut off the tiles that you don't need. Now y ou can take it one step further in the fashion and buy coordinating bigger tiles and from there pic a few of the others off randomly and put on the bigger ones for a nice upscale random look. I personally like the premixed adhesive and grout since I don't want to fool with having to mix up the items. Yeah its a bit more expensive but if you are just doing a bathroom, it will only be about 20 bucks more. Figure up how much tile you need and make sure you buy extra...you could cut wrong, drop a pc, etc and you don't want to have to try and find more of the same tile. Check restore, salvage stores, etc for great deals...you may be suprised with what you find. I found 12 x 12 slate tiles for 74 cent (not ceramic-slate)...so look around...you never know what you might see. Don't be afraid of pattern. If you can't find all of the exact shade, vary a bit...mine were two different lots of slate therefore the color was a bit different, but mixed up in a random pattern, it looks like it was meant to be that way. Good luck! Yeah and if I can do it so can you!

[plowjockey]

If your house has market appeal, I would question wether is would be worth the time and expense, to install any tile at all.

Pretty sells and buyers usually want to do or change decors anyway.

We redone a bath with the cheap adhesive tiles - looked great. The kitchen was redone with cheap laminate wood-looking floor and new cheap carpet, replacing all of the old.

It was "pretty" enough to sell our house in two days, but then this was 2003.

You can do it.

[pheasantplucker]

My wife and I have tiled two bathrooms and one floor. It's doable and enjoyable. Get good advice from the folks where you buy your tile (hopefully a place specializing in tile, not a place that sells everything like Lowe's or HD...not knocking those places, but a real tile store will have people who can guide you in helping you make smart decisions. There are many varieties of tile and they require different kinds of grout, sealer, etc. They can guide you through the process. We tiled a tub surround. I didn't feel like forming my own pan for a shower stall...that seemed over my head. Good luck.

[shelljo]

Originally Posted by TedH71

Buy knee pads for floor work. You'll need it.

AMEN. We just tiled our bathroom. I laid the tile and grouted. DH cut the tile. My knees haven't forgiven me yet. They were sore and red for 3 days. I spent 8 hours total on my knees. Get those knee pads. Wear them.

[Willowdale]

Yes, you can. My daughter and I just tiled a bathroom floor and shower surround. Used 1" glass mosaic tiles on a mesh backing, and used a contrasting color to inlay an orientalish graphic pattern of my own design on the back of the shower and on the floor. It looks absolutely beautiful. The labor would have been several thousand dollars. It took me most of four days, and was hard work but fun.

There's a Black and Decker book at Lowes called "Decorating With Tile" that I used as a reference.

If you're putting up a shower surround, *don't* back it with greenboard. Use concrete board over a moisture barrier.

Also, the prep work is key. Use the right backer board on the floor, mortared in place if that's what you're supposed to do, and screwed in at the recommended intervals.

ANY irregularity on the substrate will show up under the finished tile MUCH more than you think. Just like with everything else, most of the job lies in getting the prep work done right.

Also, yes, lay out the pattern before you start to minimize cuts and to make sure you like how it looks.

I also agree that a poor job would be worse than leaving it as is. But if you are careful you can really make a nice improvement.

[Curtis B]

It is very doable for most anyone. My advice is take your time, mistakes when tileing are much easier to fix before the mastic/thinset sets. I will disagree about puting the adheasive on the tile rather that the substrate. The only time that you would back butter a tile is when you are using a non-gauged nartual stone or for small fill in pieces. Asking questions from where you get the tile is best, as the mastic or thinset and grout is different for different kinds of tile. I would suggest that you get ceramic tile, porcalin (sp) tile and stone are much harder to deal with. One last mistake that I have seen MANY times over the years is do not mix more adheasive or grout than you can use within 30 min.

[Maria]

Laying the tile is relatively easy- it's grouting that really gets the back...

It really helps to have someone constantly changing the rinse water when sponging off the grout afterwards. The last floor we did, we had two people grouting, and one person rinsing sponges and one person trotting in and out with fresh buckets of water. It went fairly quickly with that amount of help- it was a pretty big room but we got it done in good time.

If you try to rinse with dirty sponges and or water, it'll drive you crazy.

[Drizler]

Originally Posted by Nevada

I cut the tile with a diamond blade for my 7" skillsaw that I bought at Home Depot. It did a great job, the blade only cost $18, and the blade is still in great shape. It came out looking pretty good.

Don't bother buying a tile cutter, just get a 7" masonery disk and put it on your 10" table saw. All you do is score and snap whatever needs cutting. I managed to make those less than 1" cuts they say you can't do and did it easily. I just used a magic marker and scored both sides, snapped them and used the spinning blade to round and smooth the edges. It won't do much more than burn your fingers slightly if you rub up against the blade.

[Curtis B]

The thing to remember about cutting dry is the dust is brutal. Use a dust mask and blow out your tools as often as posible, the dust is detrimental to a motor and if you get too much in you might as well dump a handfull of sand in them.

[Drizler]

Originally Posted by Curtis B

The thing to remember about cutting dry is the dust is brutal. Use a dust mask and blow out your tools as often as posible, the dust is detrimental to a motor and if you get too much in you might as well dump a handfull of sand in them.

I should have mentioned that I put an old nylon over the motors intake when I cut with it. That seemed to protect the motor well enough. It was an old Harbor freight 100 buck special and lasted fine and dandy until the leg rusted completely off one side years later. It is the sort of thing that you can set up the saw in the garage or on the deck and go out there to cut. I suppose you could wear a mask but really outside there isn't enough dust to mention compared to cutting wood ect.