1) Planning



Like most home improvement tasks – planning is the key. Fail to plan and you plan to fail. Thinking long and hard about the best approach, how to achieve a satisfactory job with the least amount of cuts will save countless tile breaks not to mention hours of stress.

2) Calculating the area to cover

It's always a good idea to spend some time properly calculating the surface area and checking your calculating several times. Once you've settled on the number of tiles needed add another 5 – 10% as you'll nearly always crack some, plus you'll have a few spares if damage happens at a later date.

3) Prepare the surface

One of the most important issues is to clean and smooth the surface to which the tiles will be applied. Loose or flaky walls should be sorted before tiling. Also any evidence of wallpaper should be removed. Check surfaces are reasonably level…unevenness will show more when tiled and lead to irregular gaps between.

4) Levelling with battens

One great tip is to use battens to help get tiles straight, especially the first row – horizontally or vertically. As a minimum a straight pencil line will help but the batten will do the job much better especially if the area that you are covering is fairly large.

5) Adhesive

Adhesive the key component to good and long lasting tiles. If water or humidity is likely, such as kitchens and bathrooms etc, waterproof adhesive should be an obvious consideration

6) Check your work as you go

One great tip is to regularly stand back from your work and to get a fresh set of eyes to look over it. Once the adhesive and / or grout has set you'll find that fixing mistakes can take an age. If spotted early enough it should be possible to re-jig tiles or remove and re-fix in order to make good.

7) Grouting

Grout should be applied over small areas at a time so as to avoid the grout drying too quickly over areas you've not yet smoothed or cleaned. Applied with a squeegee type spreader it should be possible to move swiftly but spending time cleaning as you go will save you hours, rather than leaving it until the grout is dry.

Making certain excess grout is removed will give an overall better looking finished to the tiled surface. The opposite is always a dead giveaway of an amateur job.

8) Sealing around baths and sinks

Good silicone based sealant should be applied to the necessary areas. Don't relay on the grout to produce a watertight seal, as its only really good were water runs quickly off.