Hello and welcome to : How to tile a kitchen splashback using Ceramic tiles.
In this first guide we will cover:
Tools required for job
Initial measuring of project to determine tile amounts
Setting out of tiles
Correct adhesive application
Cutting tiles
Difficult cuts
Grout application.
Finish
Tools required for job.
To tile a kitchen splashback you will need the following.
A sharpened pencil
A tape measure
A calculator
A level (we recomended a Rubi 50cm and a Rubi 70cm) - obviously both of which are available from our shop.
One- 4mm wall trowel (different trowel sizes are used for different jobs wall, floor, mosaic)
One tile cutter - We use Rubi TS tile cutters in our professional fitting and of course we recomend the same, you can buy other tile cutter tools obviously from ebay. which may be cheaper than a Rubi, but for atruly professional cut use Rubi.
1 x tile nippers
One bag of 2mm tile spacers (inc. 500 spacers)
Onegrout float
One tile sponge (excellent for cleaning car once rinsed completly of grout residue)
One plastic spatula
WD40 - or similar
Lint free cloth
Twoclean buckets
Ready Mixed Wall Tile Adhesive
Grout (powder)
A foldable workbench
2 x screwdrivers - 1 x phillips - 1 x straight edge - (really depends on the screws on the plug and fuse sockets).
1 x roll of brown wrapping paper and 1 x duct tape.
latex gloves (adhesive and grout are irritants to the skin)
optional1 x tile wet cutter (for a truly professional finish.)
1 cup of tea / coffee one or two packets of biscuits. We prefer chocolate digestive. I once fitted a job where the customer insisted that I stop work for thirty minutes in the morning and afternoon, so I could take tea and biscuits in her kitchen and we could chat. (I love my job).
onto the next section...
Initial measuring of project to determine tile amounts.
Break the wallinto seperate squares or rectangles.Of course if you are only tiling behind the cooker, then the measurement should be quite straight forward.
An area of a rectangle or square is determined by multiplying two sides, (for the rectangle it will be the lowest side then the shortest), when the full area to be tiled has been calculated, add an extra ten percent. I'm sorry if this feels like a Maths GCSE, but the extra ten percent is necessary for any cuts that may have to be made, or miss cut tiles.
This calculation will know serve three purposes, it will determine the amount of tiles you require, the amount of adhesive and the amount of grout.
One tub of10ltrTile Adhesivewill cover roughly 10m2 on a perfectflat, smooth wall. 1litre = 1 metre (visit- ardex.co.uk -and use the tile adhesive and grout calculator to determine the correct amounts for the job - this is not a link to sell outside ebay)
One bag of 10kg Wall Grout will grout 32m2, based on a 10cm x 10cm tile 6mm thick with a 2mm jon space between tiles. Other tile sizes and joint spaces will differ grout amount, we will of course advise you of the correct amount of adhesive and grout based upon your calculations.
Bearing in mind also that site conditions and wastage will also effect the amount required. (Not to try and deter you,but its not to late to call in the professionals.)
Setting out of tiles.
There are two ways to determine the laying out of tiles: centre tile and tile edge. Using your tape measure find the centre of the wall you are going to tile, mark it with the pencil and then run a plumb line down using your level and pencil, do the same across until the centre of wall is found. Take your tile and determine where you get the least cuts, if any hopefully, by either; placing the tile centre or from thetile edge.
Once this has been completed, place on tile on two 2mm spacers, one on each corner, level on the counter top. mark the top with your pencil. Remove tile, then with your level, draw a line horizontally, left to right, this will insure your row of tiles are level. We recommend you keep doing this step both vertically and horizontally to enable you to have a guidance line, to tile to.
Correct adhesive application.
So you have decided were the tiles are going to go, we are now almost ready to put them on the wall.
This next step is important. before you even open the tub of adhesive, we recomend you unroll the brown paper on the work top and cover cover it, sticking the paper down accordingly using the duct tape. The last thing you need is adhesive on your counter top or oven.
Using the trowel place the adhesive on the wall, when this has been achieved run the notched edge through the adhesive ,holding the trowel at a 45 degree angle and working left to right, to insure nice even tram lines through the adhesive. (remember -always tile from the bottom and work up.)
With this task done, take a tile, placeon the bottom middle, pushand twist lightly into the adhesive to insure full contact and you now have your first tile.Insert your spacers (they look like this ) into each corner and continue tiling, left or right then up, adding more adhesive as you finish one piece. We recommend only tiling 0.5 m at a time, until you get the hang of it. The adhesive will be workable on the wall for about 45 minutes.
So your going along nicely, when you reach a cabinet edge and you only need half a tile, so you take your pencil flip the tile over, with the back facing you and mark of thelength required. Now when you cut the tile, you will be able to place thecut edge against the cabinet, thus insuring you get a professional finish.
Cutting tiles.
This part is made easy, with the use of the tile cutter. Set up the work bench and assemble the tile cutter (tile cutters come in various sizes and various price ranges and without getting into too mush detail, I will assume you are using a TS40 - a tile cutter that will take a tile upto 40cm in length), place the tile at the far end, above the breaker point, take the cutting wheel handle and cut the tile, move the cutting handle back, grab the breaking mechanism handle, pull down and 'snap' a clean cut tile.
Difficult cuts.
For uneven shaped cutsthe use of a wet cutter could be used, a wet cutter consists of a diamond coated blade that is cooled by water. The blade will cut through ceramic, porcelain, slate, stone. However, for a first attempt at tiling I won't go into detail, but if your feeling brave, remember to always follow the manufactures advice, oh and please only use outside, not in the house.
It possible with a bit of practice to cut a tile into an L shap, using only the tile cutter and tile nippers. draw out the shape you need on the tile and then using the tile cutter, scour up and across on the piece you wish to cut, so you are left with a section covered in small squares, take the nippers, hold the tile firmly on a flat surface and nip away at the the cut section. AsI say, a bit of practice may be required, but it is possible.
Grout Application.
Well done, you have reached this far, now stand back and let the tiles sit and the adhesive dry off overnight before attempting the next stage.
Ready to go, then take one bucket, insuring it is clean and fill it to the top with clean cold water, put aside with the sponge.
Take the other bucket and mix the grout as per the manufacturers instructions on the back, the grout should be slump resistant (that is when you pick it up using the rubber grout float, it should stay on the float).
Again, we recommend working only a small piece at a time, the grout will dry quite quickly and it is difficult to removeonce it has dried.
Work the grout into the joints, removing any access grout from the tile surface, leave for a minute for the groat to dry slightly and now take the sponge, soak it in the clean water and thenring out as much water as possible. Now run the sponge over the tiles in a figure eight pattern, firm and slow, and the grout will be removed from the tiles. This step will probably have to be repeated several times butjust change the water regularly to keepitclean and remember tosqueeze the sponge before use.
Again this part can be messy, and we always recommend the use of gloves to protect the skin and any other safety equipment recommended.
So there you are, a nice beautiful tiled wall.
TRADE TIP.
You often find that after all your hard work the tiles will be covered with a dusty grout film, butdon't worry. Take the lint free cloth and spray lightly with WD40 - or similar and thenwipe over the tiles, to achieve a polished finish. It can be quite dusty so a face mask is recommended.
Insure you spray the cloth and not the tiles, we dont want to stain the nice white grout.
Job done (almost). At the bottom edge, where the tiles meet the work top and any corners, you find over time that movement cracks will appear in the grout, sowith thetube of silicon sealant, run a line along the bottom, where the tiles meet the counter top and also any corners.
Job Done. Make tea, sit back, invite your friendsand be proud of your accomplishment.
No comments:
Post a Comment