How difficult is Tile work???

DH wants to tile our guest bathroom by himself......He has never tiled anything before but want to do it......Has anyone done this before? Is it hard? Any tips? TIA

Re: How difficult is Tile work???

DH did our bathroom with his friend. I don't believe it was too difficult. It was messy.


Good Luck!

Re: How difficult is Tile work???

DH did the bathroom in our old house ( pics of the bathroom in our old house are in my album) and is about to start on the bathroom in our new house (no new house pics on here, yet).... from what i could tell, its not too hard. i think the hardest part is getting started and making sure they're lined up correctly from row to row. also, depending on how much you have to do, its probably a good idea to invest in a tile saw instead of renting one.. you'll probably end up paying just as much ( at least thats what DH told me- lol its probably so i wuol let him buy another tool )

Re: How difficult is Tile work???

Use a tile wet saw, that will help a tremendous amount with the cutting and give nice clean easy cuts. If is interested in doing it, he will probably do a nice job. Also make sure he reads about it online or buy a book as a reference.

Message edited 10/30/2007 12:45:46 PM.

Re: How difficult is Tile work???

DH and I did our guest bathroom floor, and it wasn't that hard. Read up on it first, rent a wet saw from Home Depot or somewhere, and make sure you get the grout nice and even (that was, IMO, the hardest part). Also, if you have a tricky corner and can't cut it right on your own, Lowe's and Home Depot usually offer tile cutting services for like, 50 cents a cut.

Re: How difficult is Tile work???

I just did my bathroom a month or so ago. First time tiling. It wasn't too bad. I actually bought a dry tile saw. It was like $20, instead of $100+ for a wet saw. If you are DIY, you won't be cutting that many tiles that fast, so the blade has plenty of time to cool down between cuts.

I put the dry blade on my circular saw. What's nice about that, is that you can also cut sideways, so all of the notches I cut to fit around the pipes are rounded and smooth. Just cut the bulk of it out, then sweep sideways to smooth it out.

Make sure you dry-fit everything first. It's much easier to shift things around when it's not cemented down! Tile spacers are really cheap, and make for consistent grout lines. If you just put one leg of the spacer in the tile, and the other legs are sticking straight up, it still gives you the proper spacing, but it's much easier to pull out.

Re: How difficult is Tile work???

Tiling is definitely not too difficult. I did most of our guest bath with some help from DH. We had to level the floor first with self leveler and we tiled 3/4 of the walls too.

Home depot offers demos on doing tiling - I would definitely check it out if you are thinking about DIY. We used a wet saw for cutting as mentioned in previous posts.

Re: How difficult is Tile work???

Home Depot offers free classes on Saturday for installing tile. Your DH might want to check it out before starting.

Re: How difficult is Tile work???

It just takes time and patientce... Just make sure you lay it all out first. I don't reccomend the tile spacers because very very few tiles are square, it's better to line it up with your best eye. You will also need chalk lines for a reference point to help keep you straight.

Re: How difficult is Tile work???

Thanks for all the great advice I'm alot less nervous now.......

Re: How difficult is Tile work???

DH is doing our kitchen as we speak.
He also did our bathroom with a friend.

I don't think he thought it was too hard.