How to Lay Floor Tiles

Tiling a floor in 6 steps

1. 1

   Measure the floor and buy the right number of tiles

   Measure the room, or draw it in the free planner, and let it count the tiles for your layout instead of area × 10 %. A centred floor is cut on every side, so order the count it gives you plus a spare box – for breakages now and for repairs years later, when the same batch may be gone.

2. 2

   Prepare and prime the subfloor

   The subfloor must be clean, flat, sound and load-bearing – brush off the dust and check it carries weight without flexing. Prime it so the adhesive bonds, and if it dips more than a few millimetres, pour a levelling compound and let it cure. Tiles laid on a hollow or dusty base come loose again.

3. 3

   Set out from the centre of the room

   Find the room's centre lines, dry-lay a row of tiles out towards the walls, then snap chalk lines to fix the grid. Shift it until the edge cuts come out even on opposite sides and no thin sliver lands at the main wall or in the doorway, where it would show most.

4. 4

   Mix and comb the adhesive

   Mix the adhesive to a firm, lump-free paste and spread only as much as you can tile before it skins over – a few square metres at a time. Comb it out with a notched trowel held at a steady angle; for large-format tiles, back-butter the tile as well so the bed underneath is full.

5. 5

   Lay the tiles with spacers

   Bed each tile with a slight twist, push it up to the spacers and check the level and lippage against its neighbours as you go – it is far easier to correct now than once the adhesive sets. Cut the edge tiles and the cut-outs for pipes to size, keeping the offcuts for the opposite side.

6. 6

   Let the adhesive cure, then grout

   Leave the adhesive to cure fully before you walk on the tiles or grout – check the bag for the time. Then remove the spacers and grout the joints (a separate step, covered in its own guide), and finish the edges and movement joints with a flexible sealant.