Floor tile layout and cutting

[Nigel Watts]

After much prevarication and procrastination I have promised my wife that I will lay the floor tiles in our small downstairs shower room tomorrow.

I have two questions. The first is how to lay the tiles out. The length of the room just happens to be an almost exact multiple of the 102mm inter-tile distance (including 3mm spacer). On the width I will need to cut the edge tiles on both sides down to about 80% of their width for symmetry. I am inclined to lay the tiles so that there are no cut ones at the end walls and there are even sized pieces at each side wall but if I do this they will not be symmetrical about the centre line of the door to the room, although the cut pieces at each door jamb will both be a reasonable width. This layout will also mean that there will be a part tile width against the threshold. The tiles are square and have no pattern. The other option is to base the layout on having a full tile width at the threshold and having the tiles centred on the door, but this will mean different widths of tile around the sides and ends of the room.

The second question is how the cut the tiles. Screwfix has some electric table-saw style tile cutters on their website at a lower cost than a day's rental from our local hire shop so I am inclined to buy one. Any suggestions/tips? I have never used one of these things before.

 

[plasticpigeon]

It is hard to visualise. All I can say is that after seeing your magnificent hallway and drawing room, I am no better qualified to comment that you on style! I think full tiles at the threshold would be a good idea. How thick are the tiles and what are they made of? I like tiles with very small gaps and I have now decided that for wall tiles I shall no longer use spacers any larger than 1mm as the 2mm gaps in my bathroom look unsightly and modern, and for quarry or geometric tiles on the floor I lay with no spacers at all. For the quarries in my kitchen I used a fine lime grout with some kind of dust aggregate, and for the geometric tiles in my front hall which were much more precisely shaped with very close joints I grouted with pure cement slurry, no aggregate, as it needs to be fine to fill the tiny joints, and it is also what is recommended in an old construction book I have from circa 1900. I have had no problems thus far, so if you like that look, you could think about using smaller or even no spacers.

 

[MikeG]

DON'T use a wall as a starting point for tiling. They are never square, straight, and at right angles to their neighbours. A 2mm issue with the wall will wreck your entire floor layout. Rather than have a whole tile against each opposite wall, I would set it out to have approx a half tile, so each perimeter tile is a cut. This means finding the centre of the room and pinging your base line from there. In other words, shuffle your setting out half a tile along from that which you described. Pro tilers would do it this way.

Cutting tiles is dead easy, and a powered tile saw is unnecessary unless you need to cut a right angle out of a tile (ie end up with an L shaped tile). Buy yourself a tile cutter from any tiling shop or DIY shed. They have an arm with a little cutting wheel, and you score the tile, then snap it with the same device. Quick, simple, accurate. Try to score only once, don't press toooooo hard, and make sure the score goes from edge to edge (ie don't stop short).

 

[JoceAndChris]

Totally agree that the edges of walls do not require whole tiles and the eye likes to find a centre. We don't notice edges so much!
Good luck Nigel, don't forget to post pics!

 

[noj]

Agree on planning to cut every edge tile - and make sure you plan it out so that there isn't a really skinny tile on on side - to me that's more important than having an exact centre line (so long as the line is straight/perpendicular to the door opening)

And previously I've had great success with the electric water bath type tile cutting machines - both a small one for wall tiles and a butch one for garnite floor floor tiles. The big one was pretty awful for small tiles though...

 

[Nigel Watts]

Thanks for the advice. The tiles are quite thick and the advice I was given by the supplier was that they should be cut with a saw. I will also need to do some jiggery pokery around the door jambs. Just off to Screwfix now to buy the saw.

 

[TheRoost]

I'd recommend spending the time to lay out a line of randomly picked tiles dry first, as tile dimensions can vary slightly, it's a double check to your calculations and ensures you won't end up with any unexpected narrow strips. It gives you an idea of how it will look finished and you might find yourself moving it over slightly to get the best overall.

My cheap diy shed diamond wheel cutting table is still going strong after 10 years.

 

[Nigel Watts]

After a nightmarish day of tile laying I have concluded that I am too old for this kind of thing. I got about 90% of the tiles down (I have left the complicated pieces around the door jambs and the tiling of the step to the shower for another day) and they are probably OK, although they could be flatter. The main problems were the speed of set of my tile cement (so fast I had to throw away a large quantity including the bucket in which I mixed it), the failure on my part to buy the correct kind of trowel (the one with the teeth), the headache from the deafening noise of the tile cutter, the leg aches from squatting in a small confined space and the inability to see though my steamed up glasses which also kept sliding off my nose. The only consolation is the saving on the extortionate quote we were given. The sooner I can get back to tailoring and clock repair the happier I will be.