Planning your Tiling Project

"How hard can it be to stick a few tiles on a wall?" Many first-time D-I-Y tilers are tempted to start at a corner and work their way along. An experienced tiler with pride in his work will plan the job better for a professional finish.

As you can see from the mis-aligned tiles, this job wasn't properly planned!

A few points to consider:

• Don't assume that any wall, floor or ceiling is perfectly straight, vertical, horizontal or flat. 
• Don't assume that a measurement across one area (e.g. left to right at skirting level) will be the same at another level (e.g. worktop height).
• Work out how many spaced tiles (i.e. allowing for grout) will fit across a space, both left to right and top to bottom. To avoid awkward cuts, determine whether it will be better for the centre of the visible area to be the centre of a tile of where the tiles meet.
• Using a spirit level (and, where necessary, a plumb line) mark straight lines on the wall/floor as guides to keep your tile lines consistent as you work.
• Use sufficient adhesive. If there are significant gaps, this can result in tiles cracking under pressure. It is especially important on floors.

Note that, sometimes, you will have to plan for pleasant sightlines when you prepare your project. for example, if wall tiles are at eye-level or above a work top, pay more attention to this area than where they meet the floor or ceiling.

An example of a well planned tiling project.
Note the half-tiles are cut to meet the floor.

One final thing - just because someone says he or she is an experienced, professional tiler does not mean that they are! Ask to see examples of their work and check their proposal for your tiling project before you say yes. If possible, when they start tiling, offer to bring them cups of tea so that you can check their work :)

Best of luck! Feel free to post comments and provide photographs of your projects, good or bad!