We are remodeling an older house, is it hard to learn how to put tile flooring in the kitchen?
Question:If you've done this, what do you wish you'd known, that you know now? Will taking a class at Home Depot do it for me, teach me everything I need to know?Did your floor turn out pretty good? Thanks for your time.
Answers:
I did mine myself and it looks great, I used the Reader's Digest Do-it-yourself Manual.
- if you have older plastic/vinyl tile, do not remove it,as the old glue may contain highly-toxic chemicals (which are now prohibited). Lay a Hardibacker (ceramic board) on top of it and screw it in place (drill the hole first).
- Buy the little spacers for separating the tiles, they work wonders at aligning the tiles
- Measure where the tiles will go so that you minimize the number of tiles you'll have to cut.
- For cutting tiles, buy a tile scorer. You have to use a firm grip and be fast and strong at the scoring (scoring=cutting). A lot of times you can have your tiles cut at Home Depot (or others) for little money, but you need to know exactly what dimensions you need.
Good luck!
Yeah, Home Depot will do it but this is this is what they'll tell you. Measure the length of the room. If you're using 12 by 12 tiles and your length after the even feet is more than 6 inches, mark a chalk line. If it's less than 6 inches, move your chalk line over 6 inches. That way you won't have a tile smaller than 6 inches wide at a wall that may show uneven walls. Do the same thing the opposite way. Start laying your tiles from the center of the room. Make sure you look at the arrows on the back of the tiles and point them all the same way. If not , the light will reflect off them differently and they won't look right.
I always point them at the window, or the biggest window, so I don't forget where they're pointing.
Do any cutting in a different room, you don't want sticky pieces of tile making a mess of your job.
Make sure your surface is clean and good luck.
you say older house. If its floors are in good shape; level, not sagging, and don't need to have the sub-floor replaced; well and good. if you are thinking.. Well,... Then the home depot class will teach you enough to get yourself in trouble and maybe on a " home rescue" show. But as most of us know, your money is hard earned! Tiling can be relatively challenging to do well. but if you ask friends, some one has done it or knows some one, the 6 degree thing. Ask some one who has done this over for supper and then.. oh by the way....
its easier than you think. start at a long straight wall or flooring change. use stringlines to get your 1st rows straight. spacers keep you in line. check every other row with stringline. try to keep your cuts under the cabinets. either keep a space from the baseboards to grout in or pull base and put it over the finished floor. get all the full tiles set then go rent a tile saw and cut all the final pieces last.
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