Flooring is one of the most noticeable areas that builders skimp on with new home construction. If you aren’t willing to spring for an “upgrade” you’ll likely get cheap carpet in most common areas and paper-thin linoleum in your kitchen and bathrooms. Previously, I wrote about removing carpeting and installing hardwood floors. My latest project was laying ceramic tile in a small bathroom.
Types of Stone or Tile Flooring
There are many choices when it comes to tile. You have ceramic tile, porcelain, marble, slate, travertine or granite. There are pros and cons for each as well as a range of prices. Cheap ceramic tile starts at under $1 per square foot with expensive marble or travertine pieces going for ten times as much. Also be prepared to choose from a variety of sizes and shapes. Right now large tiles of over 12″ per side are in style. We went with 1.5″ hexagonal ceramic tiles that were under $2 per sheet. Ceramic was a good choice for us because it is a porous stone and not as slippery as other types.
Overall, the project was not too difficult and was similar to the hardwood floor project. The prep work was almost exactly the same, many of the skills required are complementary and you can use some of the same tools.
Tools and Supplies Required
- Tile Cutting Tool - Either a manual cutter (score then break the tile with a clamp - $20-$50) or a wet saw (diamond-edged 10″ blade that rotates inside a bath of water - $120 and up).
- Notched Trowel - Preferably with 1/4″ notches for even spreading of the adhesive.
- Putty Knife - For spreading grout. Use something with a plastic or rubber edge so you don’t scratch the tile.
- Grout Sponge - Used to wipe grout off the surface of the tile - coarser than typical sponges and
- Tile Adhesive - Also called thin-set. Look at the label to be sure it works with the material you’ve selected.
Unfortunately, I didn’t snap as many photos this time but here’s what our small bathroom looked like before and after:
Before
See the orange tape? We used it to hold together the cheapo linoleum that had bubbled and ripped. There are a couple more bathrooms upstairs with the same linoleum that we will replace eventually. The correct installation would have me removing the toilet and tiling beneath it but I decided not to do this to save some time. In the end, this was a mistake because it took longer to cut tile to fit around the toilet.
After
Our new bathroom floor! I purposely took the photo from a bit far away so you can’t see that some of spacing between the tiles is uneven. Those little tiles were difficult to work with. The surface is nice and smooth but not too slippery when wet. We don’t want our guests falling when they step out of the shower.