The Simplicity Of Laying Out And Installing Floor Tile
Beautiful decorative floor tiles, whether made out of porcelain or ceramic, offer an exciting investment to the equity of the home. Not only are they attractive, but they hold up well over decades with little to no maintenance. The additional bonus of installing decorative floor tiles is that anyone can install them with just a little simple help. The basic tools that are required during the installation process can easily be rented from the local home improvement center. All that is required of the homeowner is just a little patience, and backbreaking labor.
To begin the process, it is important to remove any moldings and baseboards where the walls meet the floor. Any existing flooring material should also be removed including loose vinyl or linoleum. It is imperative that the flooring substrate does not have the ability to flex. It must remain stable, especially with the addition of heavy tile.
Even though floor tiles are designed to be extremely durable and strong, they can be brittle if the flooring substrate bends any time heavy weight moves across it. Therefore, it is important to make sure that the substrate is a solid as possible before laying even the first tile.
There are different ways of stabilizing the floor underneath. Adding an additional layer of backer board is a common solution that many tile setters use to help bolster the substrate and minimize its flexibility.
It is important to accurately measure out the room before starting the layout. This can be done by pulling a chalk line down the center of the room that is equally divided from left to right. Lay down a line of roof tiles on the dry floor to see exactly how the layout works from side to side. Due to the dimensions of the room, it might be required to move the layout over a few inches to the right or left to avoid any tiny cuts made along the baseboards.
Once that line is set, the intersecting line should also be set. Intersect the room at the center, and layout tiles on a dry floor top to bottom to see exactly how they will go down. A dry fit in both north to south and east to west will also help calculate the number of tiles required to ensure that you have enough to complete the project. Make sure that all tiles that are laid out accommodate the grout that will be installed between each tile.
The process of setting the tile is simple. Most tile setters use thinset, a durable and long-lasting cement like product, to tear the tile to the floor. They use a notch trowel as a way to evenly spread out the thin set before laying down the first tiles. The amount of thin set that is used is applied to an area where the tile setter can easily reach on their knees.
Once the entire floor is been laid, it needs to be grouted. This usually takes at least one day for the thin set to completely dry.
