Tiling a Floor

Source: BBC Homes, Lifestyle

Skill Level: Basic

Duration: 1 day

The big advantage of floor tiles is that they’re small, manageable and easier to fit round obstacles than any sheet floor covering. That’s why cork, vinyl and lino tiles are so popular for rooms, such as bathrooms, which are full of obstacles.

There is nothing to stop them being used anywhere in the house where you want a floor covering that is good-looking, hard-wearing and easy to keep clean.

Tools you will need:

coppered hardboard pins

hammer

handsaw or jigsaw

hardboard

nail punch

paper

pencil

string and drawing pins

tape measure

tiles

trimming knife

 Choosing your tiles
Most ‘soft’ floor tiles are sold with a self-adhesive backing, which makes laying them quick and simple; the only tool you need is a sharp knife for cutting and trimming them to fit around the edge of the room.

 Self adhesive
With self-adhesive tiles, you can use the floor as soon as you’ve finished laying it. Cork tiles are available in two versions - PVC-coated with self-adhesive backing, or plain.

 Plain tiles
If you want to save money, buy plain tiles (which you have to stick down with flooring adhesive) and seal them yourself with three or four coats of varnish. Of course, this takes time, and you can’t use the floor until you’ve finished the job.

Under floor surfaces
You can tile straight onto chipboard or smooth concrete floors. If your floor is boarded, however, the board edges will show through the tiles.

 Hardboard overlay
The solution is to cover the boards with a hardboard overlay, pinned to them with special coppered hardboard pins which don’t rust. Drive them in at 150 mm (6 in) intervals right across each board to ensure that it can’t lift.

Find the mid points
Next, find the mid-points of the walls and pin lengths of string between opposite walls. They will cross at the centre of the room, which is where you start tiling.

Mark out the tile pattern
If you start at one edge of the room, you will have some very awkward pieces to cut at the other edges because rooms are seldom truly square. Mark pencil guidelines on the floor and remove the strings.

 Position the first tile
Peel off the backing paper from the first tile and position it in the right angle where the lines meet. Continue laying tiles out from the centre towards the walls, working on one quarter of the floor at a time.

Edge tiles
When you’ve laid all the whole tiles, cut the edge tiles with your knife. To do this place a tile on top of the last whole tile near the skirting board, and put another one on top of this with its edge pressed against the skirting board.

Mark out and cut to size
Mark a line on the middle tile along the outer edge of the top tile, and cut the middle tile along this line. The part of the middle tile that was exposed in the three-tile ‘sandwich’ will fit the edge gap exactly

 Doorways
At doorways, use a pencil and a piece of paper the same size as the tiles to trace off the profile of the door architrave.

 Profiles
Cut along the pencil line with your trimming knife; then use the shaped edge of the paper to transfer the profile on to the tile.

Finish off
Use the same technique to take the profile of any other obstacles you come up against. Then cut the tile carefully to shape with your knife, peel off the backing paper and stick the tile into place.

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