POSTED: June 3, 2005 by Viola
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by tiling our kitchen countertops - we have miles of counter. It was his first job and it turned out really well. Since then he's gone on to tiling floors, bathrooms - you name it.
The tiling itself is not rocket science - it's quite simple, actually. Like others have said - planning is important. Preparing your surfaces - whether they be counters, walls or floors, using the right adhesives and grouts etc. are they keys to success. You'll get plenty of good advice from the home centres or tile stores.
The width of the grout lines are an aesthetic thing really, depends more on the size of your tiles - but for a kitchen counter I'd tend to go for a narrower grout line for practicality's sake. Definitely use a grout sealer for kitchen counters.
One thing - you'll find that your glassware will get worn on the bottom from rubbing on the tiles - I try to keep my good wineglasses off the counter, but since we have a large island that everyone gathers around it just doesn't happen. I've learned to live with it. Hey, it just means I can go out and get new wine glasses periodically - that can't be a bad thing - can it? I've been looking at some from IKEA for ages.
I'd never heard of grout sealer!
I took down the tiles over my bathroom sink and put up new ones a while back. Because they weren't wall to wall I used something I got at Home depot that served as an "edger"--it was plastic and an absolute pain but it finished the edges very nicely. It's in the same section as the tile.
I also bought a hand held tile cutter for another project I did at my Mom's house. That was tough. If you'll be cutting a lot, then see if you can get someone to demo it for you--and buy extra! Cutting tile is an art!
Good luck!
Definitely have to use grout sealer - husband says it's essential.
Good luck, Viola!
I had never tiled and did our shower which is about 5 feet x 3 feet and we tiled to the 8foot ceiling, too; planning is HUGE ! so that you don't have awkward-looking bits in the corners. I went to a Home Depot seminar and learned a lot, and also bought a tile cutter - at about $25 it was a very small portion of the total cost and saved major aggravation !
Yes, it will take WAY longer than planned!
We used a grout sealer after it was done and it apparently seals grout (imagin that lol) so no water and therefore no germs etc. get into the grout
pics are posted in the album site.
Thanks for all the encouraging words and hints! My hubby is getting pumped up to do this...I'm feeding his ego with lots of "you can do it's" and "just plan it out right!" I love the look of tile floors and backsplash but I'm just not that into tile countertops. I have that now and I look at the grout and I can almost hear the germs calling my name!!!! I clean it all the time and have even used one of those Shark Steamers from Canadian Tire. Am I being paranoid!?
I haven't done the tiling myself, but my husband has done loads of tiling around our house. He's tiled floors and he just doing the countertop in the kitchen. It looks amazing! Instead of a tiled backsplash, we're going with beadboard, and he says he finds that almost more work than the tiling. But he's 2/3's finished and it looks terrific. We have an old house, with an exposed brick wall in the kitchen, so the tile and backsplash really suits it. We also have a lot of Mexican influences in the house, so his first tiling was some Mexican accent tiles.
A friend of ours even hired him to do her backsplash. She was thrilled with it.
I think a key factor is planning. I don't think I'd be good at it, but my husband does a fabulous job.
I could be completely wrong but I always thought that the grout size was supposed to be equal to the "thickness" of a tile.
I don't know if you have removed your old tile from the walls but when we did, our walls were left badly damaged and we really tried to be careful. We will have to replace the drywall now before retiling.
the smallest spacer size will be your best bet....especially on the counter...just thinking about the cleaning aspect of it
for our kitchen backsplash. In addition to what has been recommended already, I would suggest taking the time to do a layout to figure out the best tile size for your space. When I see those tiny chunks of tile in the corners it drives me nuts.
Wow, thanks for the great advice, I think we just might tackle it ourselves. I was wondering about cutting the tiles, thanks for the Home Depot hints. On the same subject, what do you think would be a nice grout size? The size of we have now is insanely large and ugly and chipping out chunks everywhere!
Spend a bit of time on google, speak to the people at a home depot, find the expert in that department. You can rent the tile saw or use the manual cutter, depends on the type of tile. We just did our own backsplash a couple of weeks ago and the tiles were marble so needed special treatment. But, we researched and tackled the project, and went for it. If you are using a tile saw from home depot (rent for $40/day), a good tip is to tape the spot you want to cut, do your markings on the tape and cut through the tape, much less chips that way. Oh, and another thing, it'll take you much longer than you expect it to, but you'll be soo satisfied when you're done. Here's some photos from our project: http://forums.houseandhome.com/forumMain.php?threadid=11304&forumid=10
you are not nuts....it doesn't hurt to try...and you can save a bundle doing it yourself...and just the feeling you will get when you can say that you did it yourself...nothing beats that....i didn't have tiling experience either...but i managed to lay tumbled marble on my fireplace hearth...i used floor glue...which i think you should used...i don't have a tile cutter...so i layed all the tiles out...then i marked the ones that needed to be cut...took them to Home Depot and for like $1/cut...they cut them for me....then i spread the glue..laid the tiles and used spacers...i used the biggest ones...can't remember the size...and the next day when the glue was dry i did the grout....if you are doing a counter top...i would recommend that you use the smallest or close to smallest tile spacers...just a maintenance thing....less grout to scrub...and if you use the smallest spacer you can almost achieve the ''one piece'' look...hope i was of some help...:D...good luck with your DIY...be sure to post pics for us...we love pictures here