If you are looking at getting a great new style in your home and wanted some floor tiles to finish the look off, you start to get worried about the expensive cost of having an expert coming in to fit them. However, you do not actually need an expert to come and do this for you; it is possible for you to do it yourself.
Whatever room you are looking at placing floor tiles down in, it is possible. To make this process easy for you I have created a 6 step guide to help you complete laying floor tiles in your home.
The first thing you will need to consider is all the equipment you are going to need.
- Notched trowel
- Grout float
- Tile spacers
- Floor tiles
- Thin Set
- Stanley knife
- Tile cutter
- Grout
- Marker pen
Once you have all your equipment ready to use, you will have to make sure that the entire floor surface is clean and dust free. You will need to make sure there is no grub or marks left on the floor or this may lead to further problems when it comes to laying the floor tiles. Most people will say that laying floor tiles is quite similar to fitting wall tiles, if not easier, so if you have fitted wall tiles in the past, you should be fine.
6 Steps
1) You will need to lay floor tiles from the centre of the room; this is because if there is an imbalance it will distract the eye. This means you are going to have to prepare all the tiles before you start tiling them to the floor.
You should use a single tile as a stencil for the floor. Start in the middle and mark around the tile, you should then continue to measure where each tile will go and mark each tile on the floor. Once you have done this and covered the floor, you should have a grid like image on the floor.
2) You should then apply a section of thin set; you should apply this using the notched trowel. You have to make sure that the thin set has a text of ridges.
3) You should place the first tile in the top corner. When you place the tile down you should twist the tile slightly so that it attaches to the thin set properly.
4) You should continue laying tiles in their reference lines. In between each tile you should use tile spacers; this is so each of the tiles will be equally spaced.
5) If you come close to a wall and a whole tile will not fit in, you are going to have to measure the space which you do have. You will then have to measure and mark the tile to the appropriate size then use a tile cutter to cut down the tile to size.
6) You should avoid standing on the tiles for 24 hours until they have set in place. The next day you should use a grout float to spread grout over the tiles. If there is any excess grout you should then use a damp cloth to wipe the excess.
Katie is a home designer and loves sharing hints and tips from what she does in the home. She loves getting fabulous tiles for her home from http://www.fitcreative.co.uk