- 1). Prepare your floor. Your floor should be smooth and level, so this will mean cleaning concrete floors and smoothing any imperfections with concrete filler. Remove any old vinyl flooring and clean off any old adhesive.
- 2). Chalk a straight line perpendicular to the main entrance. Use a square to ensure the line is exactly perpendicular. This is to achieve the best visuals on entering the room.
- 3). Lay tiles along the line, inserting tile spacers and continuing until you can no longer put down a full tile.
- 4). Take a long, 1-inch thick piece of plywood and lay this perpendicular to the last tile. Screw gun it in place.
- 5). Lay tiles next to this board, using tile spacers, and going in both directions across the room. You will almost certainly be left with a different amount of space between tile and wall at either side of the room.
- 6). Use a ruler to calculate how much you need to shift the tiles to create an equal gap between tiles and wall on either side of the room. Chalk a new line on one side of the room to represent this. The intersection between your plywood and this line will be where you start tiling.
- 7). Use a notched trowel to put down approximately 2 square feet of tiling adhesive at the starting point. Use the notched edge of the trowel to form bumps, or ridges on the adhesive. This will increase sticking.
- 8). Start laying the tiles, pressing down firmly into the adhesive. Use a spirit level to ensure tiles are flush to one another and the floor. Continue laying down adhesive and tiles until the room is complete. Leave overnight to dry.
- 9). Remove the plywood, and use a ruler to measure up how much space remains between the tiles and the walls. It is best to measure the gap between wall and tile for each tile as walls may be irregular on some houses. Remember to use your tile spacers to leave space for grouting. Cut the border tiles appropriately using a glass cutter or tile cutter.
- 10
Put down adhesive and lay your border tiles as you did the other tiles. - 11
Remove the tile spacers, and grab a golf-ball-sized lump of grout. Spread the grout over about a meter square of tile surface using a groat float at a 45-degree angle. Work the grout carefully into the spaces between tiles. Wipe off excess grout and repeat until you have completed all the tile surface.
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