Have you tiled before?! Halps?

Starmusica · January 2012

Any big DIY'ers out there? H and I have a really nice townhouse.. that is so "builder's perfect" that it is making us crazy. We've decided that we want to start making nice but affordable changes that will put our stamp on the place and differentiate it when we eventually sell it.

Our first attack will be on our half bath. We would LOVE to tile it and put in a new vanity and some new lighting.

Has anyone tiled before? Any good sites to read up on this? We are trying to get a timeline for how long a project like this would take us. A weekend? a Week? Forevers?

Any help would be awesome!

Wiscisbliss · January 2012

DH has experience with this, but I do not.

You will need a tile saw/wet saw... Which might be expensive. That is about all I know.

Starmusica · January 2012

I believe we have a tile saw we can borrow.....so that may help us there:)

Bkseller13 · January 2012

You'll probably need more than a weekend. Once you put the mastic down (the stuff that the tile sticks to) and put the tiles on, you need to let it dry for 24-36 hours. We got by with a little less because a) it was a backsplash and b) we're in CO where there's no moisture in the air and stuff dries in about half the time it says on the container. When you grout, it takes, again about 24 hours to dry before you can walk on it.
As for where to go for help.. maybe just you tube it. As long as you don't have many odd corners or shapes, it's pretty straightforward. Make sure you use spacers, don't try to "eyeball" your spacing. And, now that I think about it, check with your local Home Depot, the ones around here do free workshops on tiling and painting every month.

Blueyed228 · January 2012

We did our kitchen. I also have a wet saw if you want to borrow it

Starmusica · January 2012

I am a tad nervous but the bathroom is a tiny little rectangular space. No weird corners or anything funky. It currently has really boring linoleum and a nice maple cabinet and granite top. The thing is.. we hate it. It's boring. It's not our style. We have been looking at replacement vanities that would run us between $300-$500. Then we realizecd if we are pulling out the vanity..we may as well pull out the linoleum. It has spiraled from there...

If we do this I will be sure to document the mayhem.

Starmusica · January 2012

BLUE- ahh you are awesome. For some reason we think my dad has one. I am going to talk to him tonight. If he doesn't- I may want to take you up on that!

Blueyed228 · January 2012

The trick is to start from the middle and work your way out.

Starmusica · January 2012

We are thinking individual, but large, square tiles. It's such a small space that anything too busy would overwhelm it.

Bkseller13 · January 2012

And make sure you measure and draw a line straight down the middle of your bathroom as to where the center is so that you don't start tiling crooked. And, if you're tearing up the lineoleum, it'd be the perfect time to add in a floor heating system. The pads (especially for a small bathroom) aren't very expensive and it uses about as much power as a 60 watt bulb. Just giving you ideas.

allisong23 · January 2012

We did our (small) bathroom with large tiles. You can do it in a weekend, but a lot of the time will be spent waiting for it to dry. Start it Friday and yoi can use itMonday.

Do you know what is under the lineoleum?

Starmusica · January 2012

BKseller- I want to do that! I am trying to convince H.

Alli- Not 100% sure. I think H knows. We were there for a lot of the construction.....and I believe we specifically had it installed so that tiling later would be easier.

NJhousewife22 · January 2012

Home Depot often has free workshops on that kind of stuff in their stores. May be a good idea to take one of their classes first or at least watch videos like PP said.

BecW2be · January 2012

You can put mastic right over the linoleum. There are special screws that you use for the matic. I did a bathroom by myself in a weekend. Just run a chalkline down the center of your floor, parallel to the walls or exactly perpendicular to the backwall (I did an old house and the walls had shifted, so I wanted the lines to be at a right angle off the cast iron tub, which meant they were slightly off on the side walls, but trim molding hid that).

Good luck! We want pics when it's done!

Starmusica · January 2012

ooo cool idea Bec!! We were trying to look through everything we have on the house tonight to figure out what the heck is under the lineoleum but we can't tell. blah. I think we may have to pull it up simply because the tile over the lineoleum may not work with our baseboard. It's already looking a tad short.. we shall see

raynes · January 2012

Other than what the others have already mentioned, just make sure you plan it out first. You want to try and minimize really thin pieces around the perimeter.

This post on Young House Love was really helpful for us when we did our bathroom floor.

When we did our bathroom floor, tiling took probably half a day (marble with a lot of weird angle cuts), then a good 12-24 hours to let the thinset dry, then grouting. We had fairly thin grout spacings, so that was pretty quick.

Starmusica · January 2012

Thanks Raynes!

Have you tiled before?! Halps?

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