Your floor is the first thing that welcomes your guest when they step behind your gate. And if you believe the saying that first impressions last longer, you will consider it a great necessity o make your floor look its best. The floor of space speaks much of its value. Whether in the interior or exterior space, you can never deny the beauty an attractive flooring brings to every given space.
A well-tiled, stunning-looking room is comfortable to stay for you to stay for as long as you want. But, before the room space turns into a mini paradise, there are a few things you need to do. It all starts with installing high-quality floor tiles that are pleasant to the feet and enticing to the eyes.
Meanwhile, you don’t just put your floor tiles on the ground and start matching them. The process requires a lot of preparation, techniques, and hard work, starting from getting your room floor ready.
For most simple applications, lay your floor tiles in a grid pattern that begins at the middle of the floor so that cuts at the edges will be consistent at opposite walls. One method is to split the floor into four quadrants that intersect in the middle while keeping your floor tiles aside. These quadrants must be perfectly square to each other. But, this may be an issue in older homes where the room is unlikely to be truly square. It is not ideal to rely on your wall positions to set up the grid, but instead, square it yourself at the center.
- Measure one part of the floor, find the center, and mark it with a well-sharpened pencil. Duplicate the exact process on the other side of the floor and note both sides of the floor.
- Mark a chalk line across the floor, from one mark to another. Spray with hairspray to keep the pipe from distorting.
- Measure and mark the center for the two sides of the floor. Then, lay the snap line from one mark to the other, intersecting the first line in the middle of the room. Do not snap the line.
- Lay a square at one of the four corners of the intersection created by the chalk line you laid and the string. Now, if the string and the line are truly perpendicular, each will run right along one edge of the already laid carpenter’s square.
- Correct the string so it is square against the marked chalk line. Once you are sure that the string is square to the line, you can snap the string. Then, spray the floor to keep the line from smudging.
- Start laying your floor tiles, using the center + as your starting point. If you’re laying floor tiles, you don’t have to leave any buffer space around the edges, as tile does not expand or contract as other floor tiles materials would.
When Not To Begin in The Center of The Room
At times, centering a room space is not essentially the best layout for your floor tiles application. You would begin from the center of the room if you discover the space is rectangular or square, and the only room is tiled. For example, a wide-open square or rectangular room could be a living room or a bedroom. Click here for more basic flooring techniques.
In a kitchen, you wouldn’t just center the room. You would lay your floor tiles at the transition to the larger adjacent room, typically the living room. Then the cut floor tiles would not agree with the walls and cabinets.
In a hall bath or laundry room, you would start with whole floor tiles on the ground and the most expansive floor in most cases. That is the floor where people walk in and out regularly. If you also want to include wall tiles, you can plan your room preparation. That would put your cuts against your cabinets and behind your commode and against the tub/shower, or under your appliances in the laundry room. In those areas, the entry and main walls are the focal points.
In a master bathroom, you would start a whole floor tile. It is more advisable to use full floor tiles to beautify your bathroom floor. If you are using wall tiles in your master bath according to the newest trends, you will have to focus on the most strategic areas to start your tiling. You can also read about Wall mounted taps by visiting https://interior.tn/furniture/wall-mounted-taps/
Unlike a typical hall bath, a master bath’s focal point is the bathroom’s shower and hot tub side, so put your full tiles against the tub and shower and enable the cuts to land at the cabinets. That does depend on the room’s layout.
Whether you resolve to begin in the center or at a focal point, chalk guidelines are still a significant first step, as they can ensure your final layout is straight and parallel. Practicing a dry layout of your floor tiles can help you determine the central pivotal point in the space and the best place to begin.
Final Words
The guide above aims to give you the right direction to create a perfect layout and prepare your room space before installing your floor tiles (and wall tiles if you like it that way). I padded the write-up with the necessary information to smooth the tiling process.
Are you nodding yes already? Or do you still have some further questions you want to ask? If you do, no one will blame you for that. But don’t fret; you can advance now to your tiling project and do it like a pro.
As mentioned earlier, the proper preparation of your floor is the most critical part of this job. It is not ideal for building a house on a shaking foundation of sand; you shouldn’t start laying floor tiles with a poorly prepared substrate. Also check: 10 Best unique pool tiles that you need to know