First time tiling, any tips/advice???

[Bibio]

get a professional to do it. you can waste a lot of money DIY'ing. they get adhesive/grout at trade flexy floor adhesive is not cheep. they also have all the tools and can do the job in a 1/4 of the time it would take mortals.

[timwilky]

do it the easy way

Have a parasite who should do it for a living.

Can you adam and eve it. My lad wanted to invoice me for a bit of tiling.


OK he is a professional, but the sod even used my kit.

Originally Posted by speedplay

+1 if its on floorboards the ply will give better stability and exterior ply is a minimum (unless you want to sod the expence and go for marine just for the hell of it lol )

Marine and exterior are the pretty much the same thing except for standards. Exterior is allowed a higher void content and a greater variation in materials and strengths. The adhesives used in the ply which acts as a moisture barrier (external surfaces need sealing on both) are the same. Marine would be a waste of money.

FWIW, I got to do all of the research back in the '90s while building my home and shed which are rated cyclone shelters (category 5 = no evac). All exterior walls and roof are lined with 19mm exterior ply directly under the external cladding as a penetration barrier to limit the depth of penetration of airborne objects such as roofing iron. The floors (house is elevated) are built the same.

Cheers

I don't know about professionals.

My mother had a so called professional do the walls and floors of her bathroom done. The tiler failed to set a level for the walls so there is a 2" offset between the first and last tiles going around the bathroom and the floor tiles (same tiles) do not line up with the wall tiles. It was the same story in the laundry and second bathroom. $8000 in tiles down the gurgler. The tiler didn't get paid.

My GF recently had her bathroom done and after purposely buying tiles that will match between wall and floor the tiler managed to stuff it up. $2000 in tiles + labour wasted.

Tiling is not hard to do right. It just requires a little patience and forethought and a little research into correct materials.

Cheers

Originally Posted by speedplay

(unless you want to sod the expence and go for marine just for the hell of it lol )

Originally Posted by MattCo

Marine and exterior are the pretty much the same thing except for standards. Exterior is allowed a higher void content and a greater variation in materials and strengths. The adhesives used in the ply which acts as a moisture barrier (external surfaces need sealing on both) are the same. Marine would be a waste of money.

Hence the comment I made above

I was agreeing with you.

[timwilky]

Ok, wet areas when I did mine, I lined with cement panels, so shower walls and the floor.


Do your floors first, that way the edges will go under the wall tiles and look far neater. you can be a little generous with the sticky to take out a small slope. Otherwise level your floor first.


walls, establish the lowest point on your floor and fasten a batten 1 tile up from that point. That is the level you work from. When you have finished remove the batten and fit bottom row of tiles, you will of course probably have to trim most of these for a perfect fit it you have failed to level it.

Use mould resistant grouts and be consistent which way up you put the tile.