What is your floor tiling approach?

[MdeB]

When I did my (2 week) tiling course, we were taught to:

• dry-lay  the entire floor with spacers and all the cut edge tiles (working toward the door).
• remove some tiles to provide access to the other side.
• Remove a row or two of tiles, then apply adhesive and lay them, using the dry-laid tiles for alignment.
• Work backwards towards the door.

 

I have found when using this approach that the tiles don't seem to go down with adhesive exactly where they were dry-laid, meaning that some cut tile no longer fit.

 

For my conservatory (600x300mm porcelain tiles, staggered pattern) I'm thinking of cutting edge tiles for a couple of rows, laying those rows, then moving on to the next couple of rows (5.8m rows).

 

With this approach, I could start along one long wall (lay a full row to get the alignment then the cut row), then work my way across the floor, Or I could lay a couple of rows across the middle of the room and work out from either side toward the two long walls.

 

How do you experienced guys approach laying a floor?

[nod]

The dry laying is nonsense 

An easy way for a novice is to fix a Baton to the floor Say half a tile away from the wall Then fix anther baton 90 degrees to the first you will be able to mark where your tiles are going in pencil on the two batons 

Leave these in till the tiles are solid enough to walk on Then do your edge cuts 

Your adhesive need to be the thickness of the tile Put a 3 mil coat of adhesive on the back of each tile (Back Butter)

Dont use rapid set adhesive 

[ProDave]

For my hall and utility that had 4 different sized tiles and laid to a repeating pattern, I did a scale drawing of it on the computer, then jiggled it around to best fit.  I put it so all the cuts were under the utility units and thus hidden with full tiles meeting the other wall.

 

The en-suite and bathroom were completely different.  Both wet rooms, so for those start at the shower tray with the cuts to form the slope down to the drain, and everything works off that, and you will get cuts at all the other edges.

 

Don't cut the cuts until you have laid all the whole tiles and got to the edges.

 

Lay whole tiles one day, cut and lay cuts next day after main area is set.

[Temp]

+1

 

I've only done two floors but would never dry lay the whole thing. Just plan one row in each direction, (eg to decide if a whole tile or a join should be on the centre line to avoid thin cut edges). 

 

 

[ProDave]

Also fit your skirting AFTER tiling. this gives you room to be a bit less accurate with cuts as the end gets hidden under the skirting. 

 

As @Temp says you do NOT want to end up with just a thin sliver of a cut, so if that is going to happen, start at a wall with a half tile rather than a full tile to move it all over by half a tile.

[MdeB]

 

 

16 hours ago, nod said:

The dry laying is nonsense 

 

 

Thank you..

 

I suppose the idea is that you get all the cutting done and then just blatt through the fixing.

 

16 hours ago, nod said:

An easy way for a novice is to fix a Baton to the floor Say half a tile away from the wall Then fix anther baton 90 degrees to the first you will be able to mark where your tiles are going in pencil on the two batons 

Leave these in till the tiles are solid enough to walk on Then do your edge cuts 

 

 

 

The second batten doesn't work for a "brick-work" pattern.

I think I will go with a straight edge held down with boxes of tiles to guide the first row.

 

It is because of the brick-work pattern that I was thinking of doing the "end" cuts and laying a couple of rows at a time.

 

 

 

16 hours ago, nod said:

Your adhesive need to be the thickness of the tile Put a 3 mil coat of adhesive on the back of each tile (Back Butter)

Dont use rapid set adhesive 

 

 

Definitely going to back-butter.

 

Definitely not using rapid set as I am not fast enough for it.

But rapid set has been recommended for fixing the decoupling mat, and I think I should be OK with that, as long as I mix just enough for one length of matting at a time.

 

 

[Vijay]

17 hours ago, nod said:

The dry laying is nonsense 

An easy way for a novice is to fix a Baton to the floor Say half a tile away from the wall Then fix anther baton 90 degrees to the first you will be able to mark where your tiles are going in pencil on the two batons 

Leave these in till the tiles are solid enough to walk on Then do your edge cuts 

Your adhesive need to be the thickness of the tile Put a 3 mil coat of adhesive on the back of each tile (Back Butter)

Dont use rapid set adhesive 

 

@nod  I haven't done any tiling for years and never "back buttered" tiles before but always happy to learn new ways of doing things. What's the logic behind it as surely when you press the tiles down, the notched adhesive spreads to fill gaps?

 

 

[MdeB]

8 hours ago, ProDave said:

 I did a scale drawing of it on the computer, then jiggled it around to best fit.  I put it so all the cuts were under the utility units and thus hidden with full tiles meeting the other wall.

Thank you for replying.

 

I have done a scale drawing on the computer and determined that the centre line needs to be through the centre of a row of tiles.

 

I will also have to do a bit of jiggling because that is showing a 5cm "prong" going into one of the doorways and I am a bit worried that it might snap off.

But getting rid of that gives a 24cm cut on one edge and a 14cm cut on the opposite edge (and I do like symmetry)

 

  

8 hours ago, ProDave said:

Don't cut the cuts until you have laid all the whole tiles and got to the edges.

 

Lay whole tiles one day, cut and lay cuts next day after main area is set.

That is what I was taught for walls.

 

My worry is that the space left will make it difficult to spread he adhesive and I won't get full coverage, or it will be too deep and fill the grout lines.

 

Some of the "edges" (end of rows of 60x30 tiles) will be almost full tiles (because of the brick pattern) and getting those in properly (adhesive coverage and level tiles) after the whole ties have set seems like quite a challenge.  It wouldn't be such a problem if I were laying with four tiles meeting at corners.

 

 

 

[MdeB]

9 hours ago, Temp said:

+1

 

I've only done two floors but would never dry lay the whole thing. Just plan one row in each direction, (eg to decide if a whole tile or a join should be on the centre line to avoid thin cut edges). 

 

 

Thank you.

 

I plan on making a "tiling stick" to get the layout right (I have done a theoretical layout using the nominal tile and spacer dimensions, but they may not fit together in practice as they do in theory").

 

I was hoping some experienced tilers might say "I tile a floor like this".

Edited July 28, 2021 by MdeB

[MdeB]

8 hours ago, ProDave said:

Also fit your skirting AFTER tiling. this gives you room to be a bit less accurate with cuts as the end gets hidden under the skirting. 

Except for the 3 doorways, but that is my plan.

 

My wife thinks we might not need skirting, by I know that I am not that good.

  

8 hours ago, ProDave said:

As @Temp says you do NOT want to end up with just a thin sliver of a cut, so if that is going to happen, start at a wall with a half tile rather than a full tile to move it all over by half a tile.

 

I managed to do that on a wall in a property I let when trying to be clever, so I have learned my lesson.

 

Edited July 28, 2021 by MdeB

[nod]

2 hours ago, MdeB said:

 

 

 

Thank you..

 

I suppose the idea is that you get all the cutting done and then just blatt through the fixing.

 

 

 

The second batten doesn't work for a "brick-work" pattern.

I think I will go with a straight edge held down with boxes of tiles to guide the first row.

 

It is because of the brick-work pattern that I was thinking of doing the "end" cuts and laying a couple of rows at a time.

 

 

 

 

 

Definitely going to back-butter.

 

Definitely not using rapid set as I am not fast enough for it.

But rapid set has been recommended for fixing the decoupling mat, and I think I should be OK with that, as long as I mix just enough for one length of matting at a time.

 

 

The  second baton is fine with a brickwork pattern Just remove the excess adhesive 

[nod]

2 hours ago, Vijay said:

 

@nod  I haven't done any tiling for years and never "back buttered" tiles before but always happy to learn new ways of doing things. What's the logic behind it as surely when you press the tiles down, the notched adhesive spreads to fill gaps?

 

 

Just more contact with the floor 

Best way is to put a tile down that isn’t buttered Pull it up and see how much area of the tile is left clean of adhesive 
Most of the floor tiling we do is car showrooms and hotels 

A lot of heavy traffic 

[Onoff]

As an rank amateur I'd use a levelling clip system next time without a doubt. @pocster used them recently on here for his walls and floor and it all came out lovely and straight and level.

[Ronan 1]

3 minutes ago, Onoff said:

As an rank amateur I'd use a levelling clip system next time without a doubt. @pocster used them recently on here for his walls and floor and it all came out lovely and straight and level.

I had looked at them and always wondered were they any use or just a gimmick. 

I might try them on mine next year

Edited July 28, 2021 by Ronan 1

[Pocster]

24 minutes ago, Ronan 1 said:

I had looked at them and always wondered were they any use or just a gimmick. 

I might try them on mine next year

You NEED to use them - trust me ; 100% recommended ?

[Vijay]

1 hour ago, nod said:

Just more contact with the floor 

Best way is to put a tile down that isn’t buttered Pull it up and see how much area of the tile is left clean of adhesive 
Most of the floor tiling we do is car showrooms and hotels 

A lot of heavy traffic 

 

Cheers bud

[Vijay]

34 minutes ago, Onoff said:

As an rank amateur I'd use a levelling clip system next time without a doubt. @pocster used them recently on here for his walls and floor and it all came out lovely and straight and level.

 

Are any some systems better than others?

[Pocster]

5 minutes ago, Vijay said:

 

Are any some systems better than others?

I tried a few systems 

The Rubi ( or similar ) wedge system was easily the best .

 

for example 

 

https://www.buybrandtools.com/acatalog/rubi-tile-levelling-system.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwgISIBhBfEiwALE19SXecPd1Ah15pf7mX3wOswODxrL5S8tg6pCmnAVxuvPr4Y1-N_w4jwxoCRxUQAvD_BwE

[MdeB]

All done now (except for skirting); thanks for your input.

And here's what it looks like.

 

 

In the end I started in the middle of the floor, so it was centered on the double doors and almost centered on the single door (to the right in picture); If I had centered on the door, then I would have had about 5cm cuts at the end of rows.

As you can see, there is less than half a tile width by the house-wall and more than half by the outside wall so not symmetrical, but far less noticeable (and permanently annoying to my wife) than a center-line offset by about 20mm from the center of the main double-doors.