Lay wall tiles in the kitchen and bathroom - instructions

• The step-by-step guide
  • 1) Requirements
  • 2) Preparations before laying
  • 3) preparing the wall tiles
  • 4) Laying your wall tiles
  • 5) grouting the wall tiles

Handicrafts in your own household always have a boom - and not only for reasons of pure cost savings. Rather, do-it-yourself work is fun. Provided you do not have two left hands, you will enjoy the result. As for other works, this also applies to tiling.

Special features when laying wall tiles in kitchen and bathroom

For tiling, precise preparation and testing of the substrate is particularly important. All surfaces must be dry, clean, even, load-bearing and dust-free. In principle, lay the wall and floor tiles. Walls in the kitchen and bathroom are usually tiled where external influences, such as moisture, are particularly extreme. These circumstances should therefore be included in the preparations. In order to get a very good overall picture later, you have to start with the first row of tiles differently. Why "> The step-by-step guide

First, they should create a bill of material that contains the most important things to start with:

• Primer or barrier primer (for damp backgrounds)
• Spacer wedges for expansion joints
• tile spacers
• tiling
• tile glue
• grout
• Silicone for hand cartridges

There are also tools that should at least be available for good processing:

• a drill (with stirring stirrer)
• tile cutter
• Mix the bucket with the mortar
• Tile tongs (so-called parrot tongs)
• Ceramic or glass drill
• pointing trowel
• Fug board with hard rubber
• notched trowel

In addition there are a few items that are important for aligning and grouting:

• spirit level
• ruler
• Maurer pencil
• a lot
• a chalk line
• a quast
• a sponge or sponge board
• a rubber mallet
• Rubber gloves for grouting

Now it starts - with the instructions for laying professional tiles

1) Requirements

The substrate for the tiles to be processed must be clean, even and, above all, dry. To smooth out any unevenness, you should level with either a putty or, alternatively, a tile adhesive. Larger bumps can also be ground flat with a concrete grinder.

Define a baseline: Wall tiles can be laid on many different surfaces. These include, for example, tiles on tiles, plasterboard panels, fiber cement panels, aerated concrete masonry or moisture-resistant chipboard. Draw first a vertical and then a horizontal baseline. At these markings, you finally start with the first row of tiles. This means: above the lines horizontally, then vertically (in T-shape or head standing). Tools for this are the solder, the spirit level, the ruler and the chalk line.

2) Preparations before laying

It may be useful to apply a primer to the kitchen or bathroom wall. If the surface of the wall is very absorbent, there are primers for it as well as for weakly or not at all absorbent surfaces. In bathrooms, ie rooms with a usually high humidity, it may also be useful to apply an additional barrier layer. Following this, according to the manufacturer's instructions for the primer and barrier primer, you must allow the walls to dry well.

3) preparing the wall tiles

(previously create installation plan - depending on the desired tile height and shape)

a) Walls are completely tiled:
If the walls are to be completely tiled, always start with the top tile row! The last, lower tile row is no longer enough for a complete tile; The then cut tiles are not so much on.

b) Tile walls partially and to an indefinite height:
For example, do you want to tile walls at half or three quarters high without having to meet certain dimensional specifications? start at the bottom with the first row of tiles, and then finish the last row with complete (whole) tiles.

c) Tile walls partly to a certain height:
If you lay your tiles at a previously defined height, always start with the top row. As with the complete laying of wall tiles up to the ceiling, here the last cut tile row falls less on!

d) Lay tile mirror:
Tile mirrors are usually installed in kitchens. As a top and bottom measure, take the respective installation height of the worktop and the lower end edge of the wall cabinets. If necessary, consider tiling in the area of ​​an existing cooker hood. You do not have to work perfectly to measure, because the worktop comes with an additional end strip - while the wall tiles should reach up to something under the wall cupboards. The wall cabinets are finally balanced at the wall distance above at the attachment.

e) The symmetrically tiled surface:
Tip: Do not start with whole tiles on the wall! First determine the center of the room and then calculate the need for tiles that extend side by side to the wall. In order to be able to lay as full a tile row as possible, you can either start with one tile left and right of the middle - or lay the first tile in the middle, ie half on both halves of the wall! This is how you work continuously towards a symmetrical surface.

4) Laying your wall tiles

Now you can start with the concrete laying of wall tiles in the kitchen or bathroom. First apply the tile adhesive with the tooth trowel to the wall, and comb emerging webs in the tile adhesive. Only use enough adhesive to cover a maximum of four tiles - so you have the option of always aligning tiles if necessary. Now press the tiles into the adhesive with circular floating movements without pushing them to the bottom.

Always follow the attached chalk line and the attached plumb line. To ensure that the tile itself is in plumb, check the position with a spirit level and correct if necessary with a rubber mallet. Also pay attention to the expansion and the tile joints. For the right distance of the tile rows, it is best to use joint crosses and spacer wedges!

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5) grouting the wall tiles

When you finish laying tiles, the glue is usually sufficiently hardened; so that you can start with the next step - grouting. To do this, apply the adhesive with the trowel or a trowel. Then spread the glue with the Fug rubber bed. After a short time, the grout used is hardened; however, it can still be edited. Then wash the excess grout off the joints and tiles with a sponge board or a sponge. Then grout the expansion joints with the silicone compound. With a hand-held cartridge this is done quickly and accurately. In addition, you can easily remove excess silicone later with a cutter knife.

Especially in damp rooms such as bathrooms and kitchens, you should preferably use a so-called flex adhesive. This compensates in contrast to other adhesives, the occurring thermal stresses better. Likewise, a Flex adhesive is much better suited for stoneware tiles. This type of tile is still very popular in kitchens, for example (and works well with rustic kitchen equipment).

Tip: a tile adhesive for porcelain stoneware tiles is basically nothing more than a flexible adhesive.

In bathrooms and kitchens, it is best to use a special grout. Take another remedy, such as normal mortar, to dirty the tile joints very much. In addition, they tend to later crumble - which will of course greatly affect the durability of the tile joints.

If you follow these points in a continuous order, you will certainly achieve a respectable result after a short time with a little practice.

Tips for quick readers:

• first switch off the circuit at the fuse box
• Keyword: open high voltage kitchen (stove connection)
• Level the ground - otherwise sand flat
• Apply high-moisture barrier
• use a tiler to cut tiles in an arc shape or in a round shape
• Tiles should be symmetrical on both sides
• Use tiles cut to match each other
• Note the expansion joints - the distance of the adjoining rows of tiles from each other
• Use only enough glue to cover at most four tiles
• Alignment of tiles with solder and spirit level
• Joint crosses and spacer wedges for the correct distance
• Apply expansion joints with silicone compound
• Use Flex glue for stoneware tiles
• Cutter knife for removing excess grout
• after curing, wipe tiles with a damp sponge