Laying Tile

[engteach64]

I want to lay tile in my bedrooms. With dogs, carpet just is not good, and I really don't like wood floors. I have wood in the dining room and living room and hall, but kitchen entry and bathrooms are tile. I want to tile the bedrooms, but do not know how to do this. Are there any tips out there for doing it yourself, or is this just something I should hire out? I would really like to do this with my son again, we feel such a sense of accomplishment when we do these things.

[CenTexDave]

If you have never done it before, get a contractor or someone who knows how to do it.
It's not real complicated, but if you do it wrong you'll just have to re-do it later.

[Ludwig]

Vinyl or ceramic. Big difference in prep and procedure. Vinyl is definitely a DIY project.

[siamcat]

My hubby and me tiled our kitchen with ceramic tile. It looks nice, but was a pain to get right.

When we tiled one of our bathrooms he hired somebody to lay the tile and he's a do it your selfer.

The process of laying tiles is not that hard, the part of figuring out where to start to make it look even and cutting the tile to make it fit at various angles is a pain if you never did it before.

[cnjbond]

Not sure if you have the time or not, but Home Depot and I think Lowe's both offer classes for DIY projects.

[CenTexDave]

Learn how to pop a chalk line and that's where you start.

[Night Owl]

There are many sites on line. Laying tile is simple but simple can bite you in the butt. On a scale of 1-10 I would say tile laying is a 5. My best advice is use a tile cutter to ensure the cut lines are smooth and straight.

Give it a try in a smaller area first and don't try to tackle a bedroom as your first project.

The first thing to get is a good pair of knee pads.

[TheOldProgrammer]

Check some of the DIY sites online like Ron Hazelton, This Old House and Hometime... Then decide for yourself whether or not to tackle this project...

[sojourner truth]

After having it done twice in my home, I have come to the conclusion that as simple as it seems, it isn't. It's a lot of hard work, and getting it right makes all the difference. For one thing, a good tile job means pulling off all the baseboards so you don't have edge grout showing. My advice, hire someone. Someone who has all the tile cutting equipment. If you do it yourself you will have to buy a cutter. Don't use some fly by night crew either. If they won't remove the baseboards, find someone else.

[Ang]

It's a big job. If you have the $...hire it out. In the long run, you'll be glad you did.

[kantwin]

IMHO, smaller areas are actually harder - more cuts, fewer full tiles.
Getting the first tile in the right spot makes all the difference. Everything will go from that first tile. Proper layout is crucial. Don't want a sliver of a tile on one wall, with a full tile on the opposite wall - split the difference.
It is a lot of work.

[engteach64]

Okay, it is looking like I will be hiring it out. If anyone has someone they can recommend I would apprecaiate it. We will probably take the carpet out ourselves, and paint the walls, then have it done, so I need to get some quotes. Thanks again everyone.

[Rick]

Our first tile job was the patio of our old house. We had primarily white tiles and got some reddish tiles that matched our house's brick to add some contrast with diamond shapes. It was challenging, but everyone who saw it thought it set the tone for the patio. A little creativity went a long way.

We watched a demo at Home Depot, then went to work. The key was identifying the center of the patio and starting there. That way, all of the edge pieces that had to be cut were the same size. You have to do that so that it looks right.

Cutting tiles is the difficult part. Scoring them and breaking them is easy and I can let you use my cutter. But that is only good for straight cuts. If you need to make more precise and curved cuts, you need a tile cutter that allows that. I am not sure if you can rent one, or even borrow one.

Another difficulty is mixing the adhesive. It is a fine concrete and you can only mix what you can work with as it will set in the bucket and be hard to work with.

Then there's the grout. It gets all over the tiles and you have to use muriatic acid to remove the haze. That was a lot of work as well.

When we do our current patio, I am paying someone to do it.

[siamcat]

http://www.ddresurfacing.com/

They did our bathroom and worked with us.

We told them what we would do (rip out the vinyl, buy the tile, cabinets, paint, etc) and they did the other things for a reasonable price. They did good work and worked clean.

I would recommend them and they have no complaints on BBB since they opened in 2000.

http://www.bbb.org/central-texas/business-reviews/bathtubs-and-sinks-repair-and-refinish/d-and-d-resurfacing-company-in-kempner-tx-50039

I know it says kitchen and bathrooms, but they tile too.

[engteach64]

I wrote, they called, they said they don't do jobs like mine. Thanks anyhow. Oh, they were very nice about it though, and gave me the name of someone else. :)

[siamcat]

I wrote, they called, they said they don't do jobs like mine. Thanks anyhow. Oh, they were very nice about it though, and gave me the name of someone else. :)

You're welcome. They tiled my bathroom so maybe they just do it in kitchens and bathrooms, but I'm sure the company they recommended will be good.
You can always check them out on the BBB website.