Tile: How To (Warning - Lots of Pictures)

Back in October of 2010, my husband and I had so much fun tiling the nursery in our new home. To be able to be on your hands and knees, killing your back putting labor into a room you owned (well, will own in 30 years), made the entire experience a boxing match bonding one. When we tiled the nursery, I told you there was no way I could ever explain how to DIY. However, I am nuts really wanted to share with everyone that DIY Tiling is not as intimidating as it looks.

I have tried my best to capture the tiling experience in photos. I couldn't take a picture of everything (hubby would strangle me if I got grout on my new camera), so I will try to explain as best I can. There are far better tutorials out there (even video), so please use this as a "general explanation" of what to do. ;)

Here goes...

I showed you how we removed carpet in our garage. In fact, it was my very first post! I can't believe everything we have done since then. Basically, there isn't any technical way to explain it, carpet is not that difficult to remove.

Once the carpet and tack boards are removed, you will want to remove your baseboards (floorboards? Which is the correct name?) Now, the way you remove them depends on what you plan on doing with them. We are broke wanted to be eco-friendly and decided to reuse our boards. So, I had to remove them very carefully using this tool:

You have to crank the board at the top and bottom, very gently, and the boards SHOULD pop right off.

The boards in our hallway were aged significantly and snapped in half when I tried to remove them. Now I need new boards for the hallway.... darn. ;)

If you will be reusing the boards, like we did, mark on the back of them which wall they belong to.

Tap the nails out of them from the back with a hammer and they should slide right out.

Dispose of these nails. A box of new ones are super cheap at Home Depot. Ask an employee for a box of nails for floorboards (or baseboards?) because if you get too thick of a nail, the wood will split.

Once this is done, you need to scrape off any gunk from your cement. You don't have to scrape off every tiny little drop of paint (courtesy of your builder), but globs of goop need to come off or your tile will be uneven.

For this job, a simple putty knife works wonderfully. Basically, I ran my hands all over the cement. If I found a bump, I scraped it off.

Next, sweep the room really well until it's free of any nails. Go over the floor with a vacuum to suck up any dirt. At this point, there should be a cloud of dust in the room. Haha. There will be things under your carpet you never knew were there.

Disgusting. Once the floor is completely clear of nails, dirt, and debris, mop it with vinegar.

I pour the gallon directly onto the floor and mop away. The vinegar will make a funny "hissing" sound as it makes contact with your concrete. Once the floor is dry, you are ready to begin tiling. Half the battle is already over. No, I'm serious. The prep work sucks.


Now, I live in the desert, so I can put my tile directly onto the concrete without having to worry about moisture. In some areas, depending on where you live, you will need to create a sub-flooring. Sorry, I can't help you there.

The room we tiled was a tiny bedroom so I needed two bags of thin-set (adhesive, mortar). With the thin-set, you don't want to go cheap. The cheap stuff is made of mainly concrete and will break apart in a few years, meaning you will need to re-tile. The bags I bought are highly recommended for tiling.


Also, for about $15 per bag, not as expensive as you would think. The color of adhesive doesn't matter because this stuff won't even be seen. I grabbed two bags of Home Depot's gray thin-set. Follow the mixing directions on the bag. You'll need a 5 gallon bucket, a drill, a mixer, and water.

Here, I have my bucket, my mixer that attaches to hubby's drill, a bag of spacers, and a notched trowel. You will need the spacers and the notched trowel!

Once the thin-set is mixed, you are ready to start laying it on the concrete. We had a three man team doing the tile. One person would lay the thin-set, another person would lay the tile, and the last person would measure corners, closets and do the cutting.

When you lay your thin-set, you will want to use the notched trowel. Use the flat side to push the thin-set into the area you want, and the rigged side to create grooves into your thin-set.

The grooves will help the tile adhere to the thinset. You create the groove by holding the trowel at a 90 degree angle and do a one handed "Wax on, wax off motion." Sorry, that's the best way I could describe it.

The adhesive dries pretty quickly and this is why you will want help. When a small area is ready, your helper can lay the tile while you lay the thinset on the next area. Basically, lay down enough thinset for maybe 3 tiles at once.

This is tile that has set and ready for grout.

Typically, you want to wait 24 hours before laying the grout. If it's humid, then you might want to wait 48 hours. For grouting, I only needed one bag and the color is a personal preferance. I have seen grout in many colors. My in-laws have a near-black grout, my kitchen has a pink grout (we bought the house like that and it's going... trust me), but I prefer my grout to blend in with my tile. So, I like a color called "canvas."


Mixing the grout is much like mixing the thin-set. Follow the directions on the bag. With grout, the mixture will dry out your hands like OMG! Use heavy-duty rubber gloves when working with this stuff. Don't touch it! Mix it in your 5 gallon bucket.

Grouting doesn't take nearly as long as laying the tile, but it's still a bit tedious. Using a grouting tool (I believe it's called a rubber float), scoop a pile and start doing a sweeping motion over the gaps in your tile. Go back and forth and diagonolly. The grout should start filling up in between the gaps. Work one gap at a time and work yourself out of the room. The grout should not be stepped on for 24 hours. Once a gap is filled, put the tool at a 90 degree angle and move and excess grout to the next gap. Continue doing this all throughout the room. My husband helps me with this because it's a bit exhausting. If you have three rubber floaters and two extra friends, you can finish a room in a couple of hours.

After you have waited 24 hours, you will want to seal your grout. First, sweep your floor of any debris or gunk. You will want to apply two coats of a sealer to protect your grout. Just read the instructions on the bottle to find out the waiting time.

Your floor might look a bit gross for a couple of days. After all that grout and sealer, it will look as if your floor was sprinkled with flour!

However, after sealing the grout with two coats and waiting for it to dry, you are all set to mop away. It might take about three or four tries, but eventually your newly tiled floor will look fantastic! Congratulations!

TIPS: Don't step on your tile once you have laid it on the thin-set. You might shift the tile and your grout line will be crooked! Wait 24 hours before stepping on it. So, when you start laying the tile, work your way OUT of the room.

We worked with tile that was 12 X 12. Any bigger tile than this and the job is a bit harder.

When buying tile, buy an extra 30%. You will be doing A LOT of cutting, some tiles are chipped, some may break, and it's always wise to store at least 4 boxes for future emergencies (a tile that has cracked or chipped).

You want to make sure the tile you buy is stone throughout. A lot of tile has the stone at the very surface and then has red underneath. You can see this by holding your tile and looking at the edge. If you get the tile that has red underneath the surface, then be aware that if you drop something heavy on your tile, and it chips, the red will show through. Your call. Budget wise, we bought the red tile for the bedrooms because nothing heavy SHOULD be falling on them. However, when we do the kitchen and bathroom, we're getting the "stone throughout" tile ($$$).