Riley's Tiling Tips

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Tiling your bathroom

Setting out Equipment

Pencil

Felt pen

Spirit level

Gauge staff (plywood or timber 50mm wide x 1200mm long)

Few of the tiles to be used

Spacers

Method

First you need to draw a level line around the room using the spirit level; the finish point must meet with the start point.

This line is known as a Datum line.

The Datum line can be constructed at any convenient height but preferably avoiding obstructions like toilet cisterns, wash basins etc.

Now we need to find the lowest point of the floor.

This is achieved by placing the plywood gauge staff to the floor and marking your datum point on the staff.

Then moving the staff at all points around the room still marking the datum (level line) as you move around.

If your floor is not level the marks on your plywood should differ, for instance if there is 25mm difference in the marks on your plywood staff then this indicates that the floor is out by this amount.

If there is a deviation in floor level then the mark furthest away on your staff from the end that was used against the floor will mean that this was the lowest point of the floor.

The now lowest point should be marked on the wall and the difference between the marks on the staff the 25mm we suggest should also be indicated on the wall at the place of the lowest point.

Now using the other side of your gauge staff the clean side, the same procedure as before should be carried out by placing the end of the staff at different points of the ceiling and again mark the datum point on the staff.

If there is a variation again, this indicates the ceiling is also un-level.

Again mark the difference at the high point of the ceiling for instance 25mm.

Both the floor and ceiling will be out of level in most cases, so do not think it’s just your room.

The 25mm we used as an example would be typical of most domestic bathrooms.

If your walls are un-even and require preparation see the section (wall preparation).

Now we need a new piece of timber or plywood the same as your staff used earlier to find the high and low points.

Lay the timber on a flat surface or just lay it on the floor, now from the good square end of the gauge rod place one of the tiles to be used for this bathroom square with the end and the long edge, now mark the tile size on the gauge rod using a pencil.

Now place two spacers between the first and the second tile and again mark the second tile position.

Repeat this process until you reach the end of your gauge rod, if there is a gap between the last tile and the end of the gauge rod either saw this off or clearly mark so you do not use the wrong end of the gauge rod when we move on to the next stage.

You are now ready to set out the bathroom.

Let’s first take a step back the marks on the walls indicating the high point of the ceiling and the lowest point of the floor.

Now place your gauge rod, good end on the floor at the lowest point, mark the tile indicator lines one above and one below your datum line.

This is only a starting point and not necessarily a final decider of any set out.

We are just assuming a full tile at the lowest point.

Now raise the gauge rod by one full tile, so there is a full tile gap below your gauge rod, this is done by lifting the gauge rod so the tile lines you marked are now in line with the lines on the gauge rod again.

You now mark the datum line on the gauge rod, this should fall somewhere between the two tile lines.

Take your gauge rod to the highest point of the ceiling and line up the datum mark just found at the low point and all you are doing is transferring the tile joints from the low floor point to the high ceiling point.

The high and low points are known as the furthest extremities, this is the actual jargon used in the standard BS 5385.

Visit this site again soon for more RILEY'S tiling tips.

Wall preparation will be the next Riley's tiling tip

Anyway back to the home bar for a few tipples before I write the next issue.

Tiling Walls

Background Preparation

Walls to be tiled

After many years running tiling training courses “well 22 years as a matter of fact” I have heard many delegates say I am attending a plastering course soon to help out with background preparation when I’m tiling.

This is not a necessary skill for a tile fixer, there is nothing wrong with multi-skilled trade’s people but as I said it is not an “absolute” to your skill base.

The reason plastering is no great benefit to a practising tile fixer is the overall weakness of plaster finishes and slow dry/cure times.

If the wall you are about to tile is both un-even with lumps, bumps and hollows the fastest route would be to make good using a rapid setting tile adhesive, thus allowing tiling to proceed in just a few hours rather than the normal four week wait for plaster to cure and be sufficiently strong enough to carry the weight of the tiles.

Bearing in mind that fully cured plaster will only support 20 kg per square metre in weight where plasterboard will carry 32 kg, however modern building techniques still adopt the dry lining (dot & dab) method using plasterboard then skim finishing the boards with plaster before tiling takes place.

Plaster finish and weight of tiles was never such an issue in this country when your British tile shop stocked 150mm x 150mm tiles in the main as these tiles would only weigh some 15 kg including the weight of adhesive & grout. These days wall & floor tiles are leaving tile shop doors with only four tiles to the box weighing in at 30 kg before we even get them in the car boot “holding on to your aching back” therefore we really do need look hard at how we prepare our bathroom walls before hanging a potential disaster over the family’s naked body soaking in the bath.

Back to the preparation if walls are un-even and assuming the plaster background is a finish plaster and NOT bonding plaster. We can first prime the plaster using a product with properties like BALs (APD prime) but never PVA, “why you may ask” PVA will break down in water and as the tiling products are all water based we do not want a built in disaster.

Once primed and dry after 30 minutes (approx) we can take a suitable length straight edge “ideally an aluminium one” and place it against the wall to be prepared in all directions vertically, horizontally and diagonally you will start to see lumps and hollows that are better corrected at the preparation stage rather than using lashings of adhesive during the tiling project.

I always think that the removal of bumps makes sense rather than building out the rest of the wall to meet the point of the bumps in the wall.

If you choose to remove these humps and bumps by taking your hammer and chisel to the wall think what could be the outcome, the finish plaster and the newly applied primer will be chopped away leaving a dusty un-primed plaster backing maybe even the bonding plaster could present itself to you, and as mentioned earlier this is not a good background for tiles.

That said you may opt for the building out process, bringing the hollows level with the tip of the humps and bumps, if this is the case start by holding the straight edge in all directions and marking the low areas using a pencil draw circles to show where the hollows are, once you have identified these areas it’s now time to mix a small quantity of rapid setting tile adhesive and apply with a flat trowel inside the circles you marked and fill the area out by the depth required.

Once all areas have been filled sufficiently take the straight edge and moving it back and forth across the filled areas you may take some of the filling off if you have applied more than was necessary, don’t worry if this is the case as even a professional would apply more, then allow the straight edge guide the flatness your looking for.

You may need to follow this procedure two or three times to give you a flat background to receive your tiles.

Once you feel happy with your efforts allow the rapid set adhesive to dry (normally two to three hours) now the wall is ready for tiling, trowel adhesive either a dispersion adhesive (ready mixed) or continue using a cement based as the wall was protected with primer allowing you to use the adhesive of your choice without risk of ettringite formation in other words the growth of crystals that occurs when un-primed plaster meets cement cement.

If the tiles to be fixed are large tiles say 300mm x 300mm or greater these fall in to the category of large format tiles and will require a thick bed of adhesive this means that the adhesive choice must only be a cement based adhesive, cement based adhesive can dry and cure even at bed depths of 12 mm in isolated areas where your ready mixed bucket adhesives are restricted to a maximum bad depth of 3mm thus not allowing us this option.

If Riley’s tiling tips service can help your tiling project further please feel free in asking your questions by email

Riley's Tiling Tips

Tiling your bathroom

Tiling Walls

info@bars-by-design.co.uk

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info@bars-by-design.co.uk

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