The Final Word on Ceramic Tile Flooring: Read the Others, but Follow These Directions

Tile, Tile, Tile, the thought of it is maddening, especially after reading over a hundred articles on the subject over the last three hours. I was considering writing an article on making concrete tiles using local soils for tint so that your floor would have that earthy look of home. Before writing anything on here though, I always do a search and read what everyone else has written on the subject. This takes a considerable amount of time, but I figure it's worth it to keep from repeating a subject that has just been beat to death. This is one of those subjects. So, why did I decide to write an article on the installation of ceramic tile? The answer is an easy one, out of all of the articles on this site, not one is correct or complete. With that being said, there were certainly some good tips and some useful information, but nothing that could be depended on for professional results. So, lets get to it.

When buying a ceramic tile for the home, you really don't have to worry about durability as you are not going to wear it out. The only real concern for the homeowner is if you like it or not and does it have a reasonable slip coefficient for the area it is being installed in. The best method for choosing a tile is your common sense, obviously you are not going to use the slickest tile made outside your shower door. If you have any questions concerning this, your salesman will be more than happy to point you in the right direction. Now that you have chosen a tile, let's get to the meat of the subject.

Surface preparation. Yes, concrete should be sanded if it has been sealed off or if the surface is really slick. When placing tile over concrete, they are all correct in saying that (minor) cracks should be filled with epoxy, unless that crack is an expansion joint. If you have to go over an expansion joint purchase a fiberglass slip membrane to keep the tile from cracking over the joint. In case of a crack that isn't an expansion joint, but it exceeds one eighth of an inch, you should use a membrane there as well because your concrete has created it's own expansion joint.

In almost every article, they uniformly said that you should level your floor. Now this isn't necessarily true, in most basements or anywhere else you might install tile over concrete, there are drains for excess water or for shower overflow and that sort of thing. If you have a drain, tile up to it until your tile wobbles then cut your tiles on an angle from corner to corner to keep the tile flat as possible to the slab. For a cleaner looking job around drains, the smaller the tiles the better they will sit and the less cross cuts you will need. You will also find that when tiling down a slope to a drain those little spacers are almost useless because you will have to cheat the joints to get the tile to lay right. Experiment with this process before you begin laying the tile permanently.

Back to surface preparation. When laying tile over a plywood sub-floor, hardi-backer board or a similar concrete fiber board is necessary for getting a solid enough surface for your tile. Out of all of the articles I read, only one of them had this step included. Before laying your concrete fiber board, you must figure out how the height of it plus the thickness of your tile to see if it will work with the flooring adjacent to the tile. For example, if your laying three eighths inch fiber board along with three eighths inch tile, the total height is three quarters of an inch. This is fine unless your planning on putting carpet in the next room and it is going directly on the sub-floor. This can leave a trip edge of over a half inch or more at the transition. You can use a transition strip or you can add a half inch under-layment under your carpet to keep your floors level. This is just another thing to consider before you start.

There are different thicknesses of concrete fiber board and tile so that you can adjust one or the other to suit your needs. Now, back to our fiber board installation. If you look closely at a piece of fiber board which usually comes in 3' x 5' and 4' x 8' sizes, you will find dots where you need to fasten it to the sub-floor. Before you fasten it however, using a notched trial with quarter inch notches, spread a layer of thinset mortar with a full quarter inch by quarter inch ridges consistently over the area for each board as you go. Place the board into the thinset and fasten securely with inch and a quarter long corrosion resistant screws. Screw the boards every eight inches on center both ways keeping them at least three eighths of an inch from the edges and at least two inches away from the corners to keep from breaking the board.

Leave a one eighth inch gap between each board and around the edges where it meets walls or other objects in the room. Stagger the boards so that no four corners meet at any one spot. Remember that when cutting fiber board it creates allot of dust containing all kinds of nasty crap that you don't want to breath, use a dust mask. Once all of your fiber board is in place, fill all of the eighth inch gaps with thinset including filling in over the screws. Make sure that none of the screws stick up above the surface of the board. If it does or a screw spins out and doesn't pull down flush and tight, take it out and install another one right beside it. You should allow at least forty eight hours for this to cure, you can start installation of the tile after twenty four hours, but I prefer to play it safe on this one.

No, we are not ready to install the tile. Every other article I read on here says that you should find the center of the room and chalk a line half the distance from the tile away from the center to keep tile centered to the room. O.K, I lied, not one of them said to hold it half the distance of a tile away, they left that part out. Well, this is good and bad advice. What you really need to consider is this, is your tile going from one room into a hallway or from the kitchen into the den and stopping at the edge of the living room? Are you installing tile in single rooms away from each other so that the tile doesn't join anywhere?

Let me help you with this simple piece of advice. If your placing tile in a single room such as a bathroom, then typically you will want a full tile centered in the middle of the entrance which usually means the center of a door. Now you also want to consider where the tile is going to hit against the tub or whatever else may be opposite the door. Lay it out with pencil on the fiber board and see how it comes out. If you end up with an piece of tile only a quarter inch wide at the edge of the tub, you want to know that in advance so you can adjust back toward the door to prevent that. In a case where you are starting in the living room and going down a hallway and into another room, the best place to start is to pull a line half the width of the tile from center of the hallway and extent the line through the hall and into both rooms. Then you can play with the other guide line that intersects the starting line to make sure that you don't have a three inch piece of tile where it meets the carpet. Whenever you meet carpet with tile you want to have a whole tile if possible. This is how to lay out your starting lines, it really has very little to do with the center of a room. Think about it before you commit, you can save yourself an eyesore.

Now we are ready to consider laying some tile, but before we do, we need to know what size tile so that we can decide what size notched trail to use. If you are laying tile eight inches square or larger, you will use a quarter inch notch. If your tile is six inches or smaller, you will want to use an eighth inch notched trial. We have crossed another bridge so I can say this, unless you are installing tile on a wall in a shower or a kitchen then you don't want to use tile adhesive on any flooring at any time. When installing floor tile use thinset mortar and use the appropriate trial to lay down a full quarter inch or eighth inch square ridged layer of thinset consistently across your work area. Keep the area of thinset to a manageable area so that you can lay tile in a fairly decent time frame. If you get too far ahead of your tile with your thinset it could start to dry reducing the bond that you need for a durable finish.

Working from the edges of your layout, wherever that might work out, run a straight line down the room and then work out from your intersecting line and back at the same time. Seat the tile firmly into the thinset, this is why you used a notched trial, so that you get the best bond possible. Do not walk over tile you have just installed, if you cannot get to an area because you have boxed that area out, wait at least twenty four hours before you cross it. Even then be careful and step lightly as you can knock a tile out by putting sideways pressure on it. If you have scanned the other articles on tile, you are probably wondering why I haven't said much concerning spacers. Well I will say something about them now, they are almost useless.

When laying twelve or eight inch square tiles it is best to leave a three eighths inch grout joint and as your tile sizes get smaller so does your grout joint. If you will be patient and use your chalk lines you can get better results without those rubber spacers. When using spacers they lock all of your tiles together so that if you hit one and knock it out of square they all move. If you think that you cannot get the joints spaced out right without them, do not use them at the corners. Instead stand them up using only one edge of the spacer about an inch away from the corner, then remove them from every other tile as you go so that if you do hit a tile you don't have to fix them all. This makes them easier to use and even easier to get out once the thinset has cured.

Back to laying our tile, work out all of the full pieces skipping cuts until your done with the center of the room. Let your tile sit for a minimum of twenty four hours and come back and make your cuts. This time make your cuts and set the tiles in place without setting them in thinset. Once you have all of your cuts made come back and seat the tiles in place. After waiting and waiting some more, come back and clean all of the excess thinset off of the tiles and remove any high ridges in the grout joints so that you get a solid consistent grout joint. Now that you have this step done and trust me it takes allot longer to do than to say, it is wise to use a tile sealer on your tiles now before you grout.

Why? Why? Why? You ask... The reason for using a tile sealer before you grout is because this will keep the grout out of the pours in your tile. Even if your tile is slick and doesn't have a porous surface, this step will make cleaning the grout so much easier. Follow the manufactures instructions and allow the sealer to cure the appropriate amount of time before you go to grouting. I know, I know, I know, your wife wants her kitchen/bathroom back and is threatening to divorce you because it isn't done yet. Well, all I have to say is this, a professional company could probably do the same project in two or three days that will take you a week or longer. However, the pros are going to throw allot of labor at the project and your wife wont get that new washer and dryer she really wants so badly.... enough said.

Time to grout? No, we must discuss grouts first. There are two basic types of grout. Sanded and non-sanded portland cement grouts and epoxy grouts. Typically sanded grout is used in quarter inch or larger joints while non-sanded grouts are used in eighth inch or smaller joints. Epoxy grouts are used in operating rooms or areas which have high standards for water tightness or they want to complete the job even faster as epoxy grout can be used almost immediately after installation. I have a friend who owns the largest tile company in our area, he only uses epoxy when he absolutely, positively has to. The reason is that it has to be worked fast and cleaned up even faster. I do not recommend any homeowner using epoxy grouts unless he/she spends their working hours with a tile company.

Now that we have chosen our grout and our tile has been sealed, start in the furthest corner away from your exit. Using a grout sponge work the grout at an angle across the tile, do not go parallel to the tiles. Running with the direction of the joints will pull the grout out instead of leaving it flush. Also, running at an angle while applying moderate pressure keeps voids from forming inside the joint which will cause grout failure in due time. This is one step where you will need help. Work an area about ten to twelve square feet at a time and then clean if you don't have any help. Do not try and hold the grout below the top of the tile because you will get a proper recess while cleaning. Keep your sponges as clean as possible at all times and run at an angle, never parallel. Rinse and repeat until you have it looking clean, clean, clean even though it wont be. Use caution not to pull the grout out of the joints while cleaning.

Now that we are finally finished with the grouting, let it dry, let it dry and wait some more. Once you are sure it has cured, which should be within twenty four to thirty six hours. Mop the floor to remove the fine film which will be there. This is the final step, are you ready? Seal the grout, if the manufacture says you can now. They make hundreds of products for this, from pens that you have to pull down each and every joint to sealers that seal the grout and the tile at the same time. If you have done your homework, you will have sealed the tile before grouting with a sealer that can be used again to seal the grout. Did I say that right? If you have paid attention and taken notes, you have the real story behind laying ceramic tile floors. However, I have a few more tips for you just in case.

One word on tile and grout. When purchasing any finishing materials make sure that they all have the same lot numbers. You cannot tell a subtle difference in shade until the job is finished and that isn't the time to find out. While laying the tile look for fish-eyes and warping. Set those pieces aside for cutting and using around the edges to where you can cut out imperfections. Where I live there are two huge tile manufactures which sell seconds in wholesale lots. This can be a great thing if your trying to save money, even if you have to buy fifty percent more tile you can come out cheaper than buying a number one tile at retail. This is entirely up to you because you might not be able to find what your looking for in a second. If I have left anything out or you have any questions, feel free to contact me. Once again, do your homework and good luck.