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yoink

tiling a bathroom

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Has anyone done a bunch of their own tiling?

I'm getting a remodel of our master bath done and the tiling quotes are absolutely killing my budget. Tilers are looking for nearly $10k just for the install for a 250sqft area.

I was thinking that if I get my GC to do the subfloor and waterproofing I might be able to do the shower and wall tiling myself.

Anyone have any experience or advice with tiling?

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It's not that hard, especially if the walls are nice and flat to start with. I just re-did one of my bathrooms. Laid 25mm (I think) structural ply on the floor first and sealed with some rubberised gloop stuff made specifically for the purpose.

Get a decent tile cutter with motorised cutting wheel rather than the score and snap variety - will cut down on wastage significantly and save you from going insane. Basic rule is install the shower tray first then use that to determine the level of your first row of tiles. I use those little cross spacers but stick them in horizontally rather than faff about trying to put them into the intersection between 4 tiles and then yank them all out after the adhesive has fully set before grouting .

Buy grout in powder form and use a fairly wet mix applied liberally and wipe down tiles afterwards as its going off - much quicker than the pre-mixed stuff that you have to manually scrape laboriously into every nook and cranny.

Plenty of advice on youtube I'm sure.

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250 sq ft is a big ass bathroom. They probably think you are made of money!

There are I'm sure others who have done more, but I have 6-7 tiling jobs over the years, usually 60-100 sq ft at a go. The last job was a complete remodel of my master bath, including a full tiled shower with dryset mortar base, electric heat in the floor and waterproofed floor. I used a mix of Kerdi and Kerdi like waterproofing method.

Don't have much advice, but it is pretty easy to do if you are handy,
1. get a good how to tile book, read it several times until you are familiar with all the steps.
2. buy quality tools including a good tile saw. You are saving a lot of $ doing it yourself, put some of that towards good tools.
3. If you have another area to tile it may be good to practice on a less important area first.
4. For me, grouting is always the hardest part to get right.
5. Make sure the base is solid and as flat as possible, especially if you are using larger tiles. Use patching / leveling compounds to get it flat.
It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

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They sell little spacers that really help and who knows what else by now, I did this once in the early 70s.


Here's something that will sound stupid and if it is, fine, but a warning. Grout feels and looks like plaster and after mixing and dealing with it a lot it can be easy to get a little sloppy. Don't. It feels like something that you can wipe up later but it's actually chisel time if it dries somewhere you don't want it.

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yoink

***250 sq ft is a big ass bathroom. They probably think you are made of money!



I wish.

Half of that area is floor to ceiling walls. :)
My master bath is a similar size. Huge. It's what catches people by surprise when they visit. Eventually, I'm going to have to redo it. It's the last space left in the house that hasn't been altered since I bought this house in 2000.

I've done the other two bathrooms. Complete strip-down except the tubs. Here's a pic of the hall bathroom that my girls use. I did all the work. Stripped to the studs and sub-floor and rebuilt. Only thing I wasn't happy about was the wall corners and where the walls meet the floor. Sometimes the walls flex a little over time, so the grout cracked along those 90 degree angles.

As for the master bath, I'm not looking forward to doing it. I'm older now, but it is outdated, and I hate the double size tub and shower stall. Maybe when my wife's mother's estate finally gets settled (probate takes forever in some cases), we'll put some of the money towards that.
"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

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I’ve done a couple of floors and a decent sized backsplash. Tile saw — yeah (tiles come in different hardnesses, which impacts cutting significantly). Use a heavier drill to mix the grout (I burned out the first one). Grout dries pretty quickly — don’t mix too much. Also, don’t use your fingers to smooth the grout in. You end up with raw fingers.

Home Depot offers classes in things like that. Not awesome, but sometimes a class with a demo gives you new questions to ask.

Enjoy — it’s awesome to look at something every day and think to yourself “I did that.”

Wendy P.
There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

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It's not only quite easy. It's rewarding to do it yourself. Not long ago; I re-tiled the S/O's surgery room. Over the years, I found the most important step was to snap that center line properly and then lay out one length & width of tiles on the floor to start, so you can see how it's going to lay against the walls and adjust the snap line to make the walls equal. (How's that for a fookin run on sentence?)

Same on the walls, snap a line where you want to to end and work your way from bottom to top. Adjust the line accordingly. In fact, if you do it right, you'll only have to cut the corner tiles. There's a myriad of youtube videos that will more than prepare you for the job and ease any concerns of doing it yourself. You'll be like... That's all there is to it?

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=tiling+the+bathroom
Nobody has time to listen; because they're desperately chasing the need of being heard.

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Yeah it is important to plan out the whole layout so you know how you will be balancing the tiles at the edges of the wall or floor. I am a big fan of not having less than 1/2 a tile width along an edge.

I find that using a laser to keep a tile line straight is easier than a chalk line, because I am constantly putting mortar over the chalk line.
It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

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yoink

Has anyone done a bunch of their own tiling?

I'm getting a remodel of our master bath done and the tiling quotes are absolutely killing my budget. Tilers are looking for nearly $10k just for the install for a 250sqft area.

I was thinking that if I get my GC to do the subfloor and waterproofing I might be able to do the shower and wall tiling myself.

Anyone have any experience or advice with tiling?



I tiled my bar downstairs having never done it before. It was pretty straight forward. You'll need a tile saw (harbor freight works great), tile spacers, thinset (its the tile adhesive), grout, a level or straight edge, bucket for mixing materials, a mixer attachment for a drill, notched trowel, grout float, and a couple sponges.

All in all I was in to it for less than $1000.00. Just make sure your sub-floor is clean and prepped and mark your starting line exactly how it needs to be. Your start line will determine how the whole project will look when you're finished. Watch youtube vids on how to do it and mix your materials according to the instructions on the packages.

Oh yeah, and knee pads. You'll want those too.
Muff #5048

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One tip I learned from a tiling friend. When you start, square it from the center, start there and work out (Like chalk the middle + then run to a wall and work out with whole pieces, then go back and do the edges (lots of cutting) if the junction with the walls aren't square, it is hard to notice and can be covered with trim, but if they are crooked in the middle of the floor it is hard to miss. i.e. if the wall isn't square you can get the lines and pattern slanted in relation to the room, makes it look weird.

Probably a lot of YouTube videos about it.

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tile layers are getting $10/sq ft around here right now, due to labor shortages.

It is not that difficult to do yourself, but you have to have 'some' level of background of common sense. It s not difficult to make it look good, but it is also pretty easy to make a look amateur.

Buy all your tile and supplies from a private shop, not home depot, they will help you with the tricks of installing and watch lots of videos on youtube for the insider stuff.

borrow a tile saw and make sure you design the layout well ahead of time, scribe it all out and do not be afraid to throw away a piece that got cut 'just a little bit off' because those cuts will show in the final work

i have no formal training at all, did several floors and walls, it was not bad, and yes it is rewarding and really easy to add accents and borders to make it look exceptional. Nothing looks worse than seeing a house with identical tile from one end to the other, without any effort to spice it up.

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tkhayes

tile layers are getting $10/sq ft around here right now, due to labor shortages.




That's what I budgeted for. These guys are looking for about $35/sq ft which just seems ridiculous.

Hell - I could FLY one of the tile guys from your area out here and pay them $10/sq ft and still come in cheaper than San Diego rates! :D

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ouch. DIY. tons of ideas online, tons of patterns and designs. then you go to the store with the ideas and magazine clippings and they help put it all together. Then youtube shows you the techniques

take your time. it is permanent. and a fucker to undo once it is done

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nothing to it if you are handy and patient, it will take you 2x longer than a pro, I've done 3 rooms including the cabinets, granite tops, vessel sinks and faucets

the floor must be solid - no flex - if it has some flex fix that from underneath first, then screw down PermaBase cement board, the GC can do that but the stuff is real cheap, it's the labor that gets you

unless you are using real high end expensive tile a cheap tile saw will work for this job, Harbor Freight or wherever

cleaning up is one of the tricky parts, if you wipe the grout too much you'll pull the color out, use good sponges and keep em clean, you'll need 2-3 and at least 2 buckets, a helper is nice

if you can do this in stages starting in a place that isn't too noticeable you can learn how to do it before you get to the important places, I did a small bath first, then a laundry room, then a master bath, there may be logical places where you can stop and it won't be noticeable

the shower was a kit where the tiles came in 8 panels, the panels were lined up and glued to the wall, there is permabase behind them

Give one city to the thugs so they can all live together. I vote for Chicago where they have strict gun laws.

perma base.jpg

partial tile.jpg

tile.jpg

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