DIY Tiling

Ceramic Wall Tiles

It is common to only part tile walls, such as splashbacks above wash basins or the area surrounding a shower, but more and more people are now choosing to have the whole room tiled from floor to ceiling.

Tiles used for wall decoration are usually fairly thin, normally 4mm to 6mm (3/16" to 1/4") thick. Imported tiles can be slightly thicker especially the larger size tiles.

The most common tiles were 15cm x 15cm (6" x 6") but larger rectangular tiles are becoming very popular. The surface of ceramic wall tiles always used to be highly glazed, but changes in people's aspirations have led to a range of finishes. There are semi-matt finishes often with a surface texture, this helps to lessen the glare from the usual gloss finishes.

The edges of wall tiles have also changed, where once a special round edged tile was used for the exposed edges and unglazed square edges were used for the rest, modern tiles usually have at least two adjacent sides glazed for use on edges.

Ceramic Floor Tiles

Tiling floors is becoming much more popular lately, utility rooms and porches have often been tiled, but now many people are choosing to tile the floors of bathrooms and kitchens, this provides a very simple and easy to clean surface that stands up to spillages and splashes.

Floor tiles are generally thicker and harder than wall tiles, this allows them to be much more robust when been walked on or when things are accidentally dropped on them.

There is a large choice of floor tiles, from textured finishes to elaborate designs, all of which can help produce that unique look.

Before proceeding with floor tiles it is important to consider the following points.

• Ceramic floor tiles are as good as permanent, so if tiling around a built in feature such as a bath, always keep enough extra tiles to match up, in case a different shape bath is fitted in the future.
• Advances in adhesives have made it possible to tile on suspended wooden floors, bear in mind that you will not have access to any services that run under the floor, such as water pipes and electric cables.

DIY Tiling - Browse through the following list of projects.

Cutting floor tiles	Tools for cutting floor tiles.
Cutting wall tiles	Methods for cutting wall tiles including odd shapes.
Drilling tiles	Technique for drilling ceramic tiles.
Grouting floor tiles	How to grout floor tiles.
Grouting quarry tiles	Method for grouting quarry tiles.
Grouting wall tiles	How to grout wall tiles.
Prepare floor surface	Make sure the floor is ready for tiling.
Prepare wall surface	Make sure the wall is ready for tiling.
Quarry tiles	Technique for planning and laying quarry tiles.
Replacing a damaged tile	How to remove and replace a damaged tile.
Setting out floor tiles	Method for working out the centre of a room and setting out floor tiles.
Setting out wall tiles	Method for working out starting points for wall tiles, use of a tile gauge.
Tile calculator	Use our online tile calculator to work out how many square metres you need.
Tile gauge	How to make a tile gauge to help set out wall and floor tiles.
Tile hardness PEI rating	Find out what the symbols and rating of floor tiles means.
Tiling floors	How to set out and lay floor tiles.
Tiling walls	How to set out and tile walls including window, sinks baths, etc.