How to Tile Your Bathroom Floor Using Peel and Stick Tiles

Replacing your bathroom floor may sound like a difficult project but by using peel and stick tiles most homeowners can do this job themselves. This can be a substantial savings by not having to hire a contractor or flooring company. By following a few simple steps nearly anyone can lay a bathroom sized floor in less than a day.

Preparation

The first thing you need to do is remove the baseboard around the perimeter of the room. If there is a small shoe molding in front of the baseboard you only need to remove that. You can also add a shoe molding later which eliminates removing the baseboard. In some cases you can lay a new floor over an existing floor. You need to be sure the floor your covering has no loose materials. If covering a wood floor be sure that any loose pieces are properly nailed or screwed down. With a tile floor any loose tiles must be glued down. You need a clean flat surface to begin with. If there are too many bad spots stripping the old material will be necessary. If after you've stripped off all the old flooring and the sub floor in uneven it may be necessary to install a new layer of ¼ inch lauan plywood. Be sure to nail or screw the plywood down correctly and fill any gaps with a wood filler. Nails or screws should hit the floor joists below and be no more than 6 inches on center.

Estimating materials

Peel and stick flooring is sold by the square foot which makes figuring easy being each tile is normally 12 inches by 12 inches or 1 square foot each. To figure the square footage of the room simply multiply length times width.

Layout Lines

Before you start laying down tiles you need to chalk a couple lines on the floor to guide you with the installation. Measure the width of the room. If you measure an even amount like 6 feet you can simply divide the room in half and chalk a line down the center of the room. If you measure 6 feet 10 inches you need to divide the 10 inches in half to give you a 5 inch strip on each side. If you measured 6 foot 2 inches we need to take the 2 inch balance and add it to one full tile. We do this because we don't want a 1 inch strip on each side. So, 12 inches (one full tile) plus 2 inches equals 14 inches. We divide this number in half to get the size of the tile on each side which would be 14 divided by 2 or 7 inches. To chalk a line in this situation chalk a parallel line 7 inches off the wall. Measure from this line in multiples of 12 to get a line near the center of the room. Next you need to repeat this process for the length of the room. You may find sketching this out on a piece of graph paper would be easier to understand but the same theory applies.

Tile installation

At this point we have two perpendicular lines on the floor crossing at or near the center of the room. Now it's just a matter of laying the tiles. Look at the bottom of one of the tiles. You will notice that there is an arrow printed on the bottom. All your tiles need to aim in the same direction. Choose a direction and be sure they all aim that way. Take extra time installing the first row of tiles down the middle. These need to be as straight as possible. Even if there is an extremely small deviation from straight the error will increase with each row you put down. Install as many full tiles as you can.

Cutting the perimeter

Once all the full tiles are installed you need to do the cuts around the perimeter. You could just measure them with a ruler but there is a much easier way. While aiming the arrow on the bottom in the correct direction lay the tile bottom up with the edge touching the wall. The tile will be overlapping the inside tile. With a pencil put two marks on the tile where it meets the inside tile. This is the length. Put an x on the wall side of the tile. This when flipped later will be the piece you need. With a straight edge draw a line connecting the two lines. Now using the straight edge and a utility knife make one cut on this line then bend the tile so the cut opens up. The tile will break right on the line. Now finish the cut from the top. It helps to keep the tile slightly folded so the blade follows the break. At this point you will have two pieces. The piece with the x on the bottom is the piece. Save the other piece for the other side of the room. Continue this process all the way around the room and in no time at all you'll be ready to reinstall the baseboard and or shoe molding.

Doing a floor in this fashion is fairly easy to do. You don't need any special abilities to lay a floor of this type. If you take your time you can easily have a professional looking job in a relatively short amount of time.