How to Lay Floor Tile Part 1

This is the first time I’ve ever laid floor tile.  I was quite nervous about it, and put the job off for about five months.  I like the end results, but maybe this blog should be called how NOT to lay floor tile.Also, because I was the one doing the work and taking the pictures, I didn’t get any nice shots of the actual process.  Something about not wanting to wreck my camera held me back.

Anyway, here’s what I did.

I read a bunch of books.  I was going to list them all here, but have already packed them all away and can’t remember the titles.

Apparently what you are supposed to do is lay down a level, strong sub-floor.  The books go into some detail about this.  I didn’t because the surface I was working with was a level concrete.

I decided to use a decorative boarder rather than trust my ability to cut tile just right.  That turned out to be a good decision for other reasons, too.  I’ll say more about that next week.To get the pieces for the decorative boarder I went out to the back stoop and flung around a few tiles.  They broke fairly nicely, but later I found it was possible to get a similar effect by abusing a tile cutter, and the tile cutter didn’t cause chipping.

Like a good cook, I laid out all the things I would need and double checked my list:

*  Tile
*  Mortar
*  Water
*  A bucket to mix the mortar in
*  A trowel to mix and lay the mortar
*  Another to smooth out then make the little ridges in the mortar
*  Little blue thingies to keep the tile separated just right.  (They looked so cute in the store I had to get them.)
*  Grout
*  Sponge
*  Tile cutter

I’m wishing I had gone with the latex.  It’s supposed to make the grout stronger.  Again, I’ll tell you more about that later.

I laid the tile out in a rough pattern first to see how it would look.  In the process I discovered the room is not perfectly square.  I also discovered a decorative boarder doesn’t necessarily take care of the problem.

Afraid it would set me back another 6 months if I thought about it, I went ahead and mixed up the mortar.

How to Lay Floor Tile, Part 1
How to Lay Floor Tile Part 2: Mortar
How to Lay Floor Tile Part 3: Tilus Interuptus