DIY tips from Chris Farr: No. 1 Tiling a bathroom

As with all DIY jobs, planning is everything. Before embarking on tiling a bathroom or kitchen, the most important thing is measuring and marking.

Measure the walls you are going to tile and mark off the centre and with a long spirit level draw a vertical line. Its also important to mark off a horizontal line. Make sure you follow horizontal lines of sight such as a worktop or top of the bath tub so that you place complete tiles above it. There’s nothing worse than small pieces of tile just above the worktop.

The first row should be from the bottom complete tile. Start from the centre of the wall and work outwards, and you will have even tiles in both left and right corners. Use tile spacers to ensure even spacing and use generous amounts of paste. This will help to even out imperfections in the walls.

Use a Diamond tile cutter to get straight cuts with sharp edges. Finish off window frames with an edging strip – this should be cut with mitred corners.    

Grouting should be done in one go, best done with a rubber squeegee as this will give better coverage and avoids scratching the tiles.

Finally, wipe down the tiles with a damp cloth to remove any grout off the surface. Now stand back and admire. 

Chris Farr is manager at the Maidenhead Tool Hire Shop

Tel: 01628 638242, email chris@ultraquickhire.co.uk

If you need any more information about this or any other DIY project, come and talk to us.