Ceramic floor tiles installation tips

Remember, this other floor must be square to the tile layout! Adjust your lines until you are satisfied with your layout. The adhesive that you choose depends on several things. If you use a plywood subfloor, an organic or epoxy adhesive is recommended. If you are setting your tile on cementitious board or concrete, a cement based thinset works well. The thickness of the adhesive is a function of the type of tile you are using. Tiles often have different bottom surfaces.

Some are smooth, some have lines and some have lugs. If you put on too little adhesive, void spaces will be present under the tile. This can cause tiles to crack under concentrated loads. Too much adhesive will cause the grout lines to fill up with adhesive. This is a mess! The tile manufacturer will always tell you how much adhesive and which type trowel to use. There are several ways to cut tiles. Many glazed tiles can be scored with a tile cutter and snapped successfully.

You can also use a diamond wet or dry saw. You then pour it and it levels itself. It's magic. Cracks in a concrete slab can, and often do, telegraph through the floor tile. If your slab has cracks, consider using special injectable concrete epoxies to repair the cracks so the concrete doesn't move. Here's one great concrete epoxy you can squirt down into wider cracks. Professionals often install crack-isolation membranes between the tile and concrete slabs.

These help keep ceramic tile crack-free for the life of the floor. These membranes are mission critical and do whatever is necessary to make sure you install one. There are several great crack isolation membranes you can use. This patterned ceramic tile floor is well on it's way to completion. The plastic spacers could cause problems. Copyright Tim Carter. I discovered long ago the plastic spacers used to keep grout lines straight don't always work as intended.

It's not because the spacers are defective. Realize the spacers are probably manufactured with very tight tolerances, but the ceramic tile may be off slightly. Pretty soon the grout lines will look more like a sinuous stream channel if you use the plastic spacers. My preferred method of installing floor tile is to create a grid on the floor using a chalkline. I calculate the exact distance, based on the width of the tile and the grout line spacing I want for either a 3 x 3 tile grid or possibly a 4 x 4 tile grid.

I snap the lines making sure they're accurate and lay the tile to the edges of the grid lines. The center tile are just installed by sight making sure the grout lines are consistent and straight. Realize that prior to the grout being installed the lines between the tiles may appear slightly less than perfect. Grout has a magical quality to mask these very slight imperfections. Twisted or crooked tiles will still look twisted and crooked with grout.

Watch these four videos that show you step-by-step how to grout floor tile. Holding the flat side of your notched tile trowel at a degree angle, spread the mortar across the surface until it covers an area extending beyond the perimeter of a tile. Switch to the notched side of the same trowel and, again holding it at a degree angle and pressing firmly to the cement board, comb the thinset by pulling the trowel in straight lines.

The notches in the trowel automatically regulate the amount of thinset deposited on the surface. Gently press the tile into the wet thinset, twisting the tile back and forth to press it deeper into the thinset.

Your aim is to collapse any ridges in the mortar and fill in gaps. Occasionally lift a tile and check the back to ensure full coverage. As you progress from one tile to the next, place tile spacers at the corners to maintain consistent spacing. Do not add mortar to these gaps. Lay the bubble level across multiple tiles to check for both level and to eliminate lippage from one tile to the next. Lightly tap the tiles with the rubber mallet to level them.

For cutting only a few tiles, a rail tile cutter can inexpensively and effectively snap apart tiles. Place the uneven, snapped sides against the wall, where baseboards will cover them. Buy or rent a wet tile saw for perfectly straight cuts. Use the tile nipper only for cutting around pipes, toilet bases, and for other non-linear cuts. Always wear safety glasses with any mode of tile cutting to protect your eyes against flying shards.

After removing the tile spacers, use the rubber float to press the grout into the tile seams. Work in small sections. Then, holding the float at a degree angle, firmly draw the long edge of the float across the tile seam. Move diagonally to avoid pulling grout out of the seam.

Deposit excess grout back in the grout bucket. After a section has cured for about an hour, follow up by soaking a sponge in clean water in a bucket and lightly wiping the grout lines in a circular motion to remove excess grout.

A milky-white grout haze will remain on the tile surface. Remove the grout haze after the tile has fully cured by first wiping it down with a sponge and clean water. Next, add 3 ounces of haze cleaner per gallon of water, or as directed by the product instructions, and soak the sponge in this solution.