Are you thinking about your kitchen tiling requirement? No need to be frightened to start this procedure. Tiling to your kitchen floor has some secret strategies. In this post, we are going to share those tips with you. Just study this content carefully to learn the easy & important steps for tiling your kitchen floor.
A medium skill or basic skill person is able to apply these steps on his kitchen floor for tiling successfully. When you are going to lay all the tiles according to your size & layout it may hurt your back & knees also. To save your mechanical cost you have to tolerate this suffering for a while.
It may take $4 – $8 cost for per square foot tiles. A 10 by 8 feet room can take 6 to 10 hours to complete this tiling task. So you can understand that by spending a day or the portion of a day you can finish your kitchen tiling task. If you have a wide area kitchen floor then it can take some extra hours. But the interesting thing is that you can do this task very easily on your own without any help from a bricklayer.
Tools you Need
Don’t be in a hurry before starting any artistic work. Though it is not an artistic task but a type of this category. So take some preparation first like manage all required tools or other things which will need to complete this method. Think about from the starting to the end. What are the things you exactly need? Here we have created a list for the convenience of your tiling work.
- Pointing trowel
- Margin trowel
- Flush cut saw
- Rubbing brick
- Drill/driver
- straight edge – 10-foot
- Rubber grout float
- Notched trowel
- Carbide-tipped scorer
- Folding layout a-square
- Wet saw with a diamond blade
- 30-foot tape measure
- score-and-snap tile cutter
- Tile cutter
- Nippers
Tiling procedure for your kitchen
Before starting this type of construction-related task you should wear eye protection glass, face mask, aprons & others. Test the asbestos when you are removing the old tiles. It can be dangerous when it is airborne. If you think that the place is affected by asbestos then you can cover the whole floor with a backer board. As this type of reason tiling is the best option to remove that asbestos problem permanently. Let’s talk about the steps of tiling your kitchen floor.
Floor Overview
This is very important to check the surface or the kitchen ground. Is it ready to install the files or not? Creating a subfloor will help to support your tiles & work across it. Tiles should not be flexible under the additional range of weight. This can be responsible for ground damage with water damage possibility. Backer boards will make your floor strengthen. After completing this step you can start your tiles installation.
Dry layout
Find out the center point by using chalk by snapping from the halfway of the room. Start from that center point to lay down the 1st row of tiles. Use a straightedge to get a straight tiles line & cover the room. Don’t forget to make a little space while setting all the tiles one by one. It will help you to maintain better accuracy. Keep this process continued until you reach near to the wall. You may need to adjust the row if the last row becomes shorter than the others. Do the same process for other walls also.
Mix Mortar
From the package, you will get the idea of mixing the mortar. To apply this thin-set mortar you should make the amount only you can do within 30 minutes. Use a mixing drill to make the procedure easy & comfortable. Make the consistency like mayonnaise before 10 minutes starting from.
Apply Mortar
Apply the mixture with a very thinner level. From the centerline, you should not apply more than two square feet. Do not spread a large area with this mortar mixture. To cover this large area it will take more time till then the mixture will be dry. So the tiles will not be well fitted with this mixture. The better way will be to apply the mortar in a curved pattern with a trowel.
Setting Tile
Be Careful while you are setting the tiles according to the centerline. Push them by using a little twist until each of them comes in a firm position. This is really very important to make all of the tiles in the same deep range based on the martyr mixture. If you miss any reason to make them in the same height as the neighbor tiles then it will be a great massacre.
To make all the lines in the same quality deepness or line accuracy you can use a scale. Measuring tape & rope. To have a perfect level of each tile’s placing keep eyes on every line carefully. To cut the final piece you can use the scrolling knife & clean the edge of the floor.
Cutting Tile
After finishing the tile setting step maximum tiles will be laid with extra edges. Take a hand tile cutter or you can use a wet saw to cut all of the edges of the extra tile. Make sure first you are taking the exact measurement of every tile. Do not cut a single edge until you confirm that the measurement is accurate because this step is a little bit more critical than other steps. You can also score them one by one & store all the cutting pieces in a place. Or the cutting pieces can make any certain accident by their sharpened sides.
Grouting
The final step is grounding where you need to place grout. To do this step make sure that there are no extra or excess mortar mixtures. Apply this grout floating along then use a sponge to remove extra grout. A damp or wet type of sponge will make it easy. After passing 30 minutes or more the left mortar mixture will be dried.
Instantly you can’t remove this thinner paste. So completing all the steps you will take a damp sponge another day while you want to clean your kitchen surface. Then try to remove this typically. It may take three to four days to remove properly.
Tips: You should not be too aggressive while you are whipping the grout haze up. But you can pull out the grout from all joints as you want.