Tiling in the bathroom, the advantages and choice of material, work planning, surface preparation, wall marking, the necessary tools and cladding technology. When choosing a tile, you need to pay attention to its size. Packaging should contain the same piece materials, not differing in thickness from each other. The surface of high-quality tiles is always a flat plane that does not have chips or cracks.
In addition, the packaging of the material has conventional icons that determine the purpose and some of its other characteristics, for example:
- The image of a hand means wall tiles.
- Black feet on a light background - floor tiles.
- The same on the shaded background - tiles with increased wear resistance.
- Duplicate same icons - high quality.
Planning the installation of tiles on the wall in the bathroom
Before gluing the tiles to the bathroom wall, it is necessary to draw up a plan for future work. If it includes the dismantling of old and the installation of new partitions, their dimensions should be clarified, as well as the dimensions of future door or window openings. The plan should contain a diagram of open and closed communications, for example, sewerage and water supply, and also take into account easy access to them for the production of facing work.
In addition, you need to draw up a diagram of the future tiled coating, which should include the following:
- Adjoining tiles to plumbing and electrical appliances, trimming and joining in the corners of the bathroom, the width of tile joints;
- Cladding design: the height of the tile levels, the order of cladding it with various types, including inserts, friezes, borders and other decor;
- Options for the layout of the material, the choice of its color and sizes of piece products.
When planning the work, you should calculate the number of tiles required by the piece and based on the entire area in m2… To the resulting figure, add 5-10% as a margin for trimming the material in the corners and other junctions.
It is also necessary to calculate the required amount of primer for walls, tile glue, fugue and other consumables. On average, for every 4 m2 lining requires 30 kg of glue and 1 kg of grout for joints.
Before putting tiles on the walls in the bathroom, you need to decide on the design of the corners, the thickness of the seam between the cladding elements and stock up on the right tool. Its kit should include a notched trowel, an electric drill with a set of crowns, a tile cutter or grinder, a building level, a marker, a pencil and a tape measure.
In addition to all this, you will need special crosses made of plastic. They are designed to fix the thickness of the joints between tiles during the tiling process. The most commonly used crosses are 2-3 mm.
To facilitate the laying of tiles at the junctions, you can buy a special plastic profile - molding. He often helps budding tilers when decorating corners. The use of such a profile masks small discrepancies at the wall joints (1-2 mm).
Preparing the walls in the bathroom for tiling
This work is not difficult, but dusty and laborious. It consists in cleaning the surface from the old finish and then leveling them. In order not to injure yourself at this stage of work, you must use protective equipment: wear special gloves and glasses that will protect your eyes from debris and dust.
The preparatory process should begin with freeing the bathroom from everything that may interfere with the wall cladding: plumbing fixtures, household appliances, furniture, accessories and unauthorized persons.
Old tiles and remnants of tile glue or mortar can be knocked down with a hammer and chisel. Whole tiles that have fallen off during this procedure should not be thrown away, since they may well be useful on the farm. Exfoliated plaster must also be removed to obtain a solid, durable base for tiling the walls in the bathroom.
If the walls of the bathroom are painted, they should be prepared for cladding with equal care. And although there are glue mixtures on sale that are specially designed for laying tiles directly on a layer of paint, you should not pay attention to them: high-quality adhesion of a painted surface with an adhesive base is a very rare phenomenon. This is evidenced by the experience of professional tilers.
It is convenient to knock down the paint with a perforator, using a special nozzle-spatula for it. At the same time, work is progressing quickly, but it creates a lot of noise. In the absence of the possibility of mechanizing the process, you can use a hatchet, and those sections of the walls on which the paint does not adhere well should be removed with cycles or a metal spatula.
After cleaning the walls, they must be leveled; 80% of the quality result of all work depends on this procedure. The conformity of the walls to the vertical should be checked using a plumb line. Unwind its cord to a length corresponding to the height of the room, and fix the upper end on the wall under the ceiling.
The line of the cord will show a strict vertical, with which you can determine the amount of deflection of the wall from it. The error is eliminated by applying a leveling layer of plaster to the structure. Such an event is obligatory, since the "heaped" corners of the walls after facing will nullify the result of the work.
After cleaning and leveling, the preparation of the walls in the bathroom for tiles can be considered complete.
Wall markings in the bathroom for fixing tiles
The layout of the wall should begin by determining the number of vertical rows in which the tile will be located in its entirety. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the compilation of the selected drawing. Trimming piece products will still have to be done, since in very rare cases all whole tiles can be positioned along the full height of the wall. It is performed in the last bottom row and in the future will be invisible behind furniture and plumbing fixtures.
At the level of the second row from the bottom, an even wooden beam or rail should be attached to the wall, which will serve as a support and guide for the cladding. Its strictly horizontal arrangement must be controlled during installation with a building level.
The same elements should be fixed on the remaining walls around the perimeter of the room. Instead of rails, you can take a metal profile PP 60x27. It is very convenient to use it, since it is always even, it has longitudinal grooves on its side edges, along the lines of which you can control the parallelism of the facing to the wall.
After installing the guides near the corners, vertical stripes can be applied to the walls with a pencil for additional orientation during the tiling process.
Important: correctly installed guides are also a guarantee of high-quality facing work.
Installation of tiles on the wall in the bathroom
Before starting work, cleaned and even walls of the bathroom should be covered with a primer in 2-3 layers. This will increase the adhesion of the substrate to the tile adhesive. The primer must be chosen taking into account the specifics of the room, that is, working in conditions of high humidity.
Tile adhesive is prepared from a dry mix, which is sold in bags, packaged in 30-50 kg. The package indicates its consumption per 1 m2 tiling and cooking rules, taking into account the required proportions. The dry mixture is poured into water in small portions and gradually mixed with a mixer. As a result, a homogeneous mass of medium consistency should be obtained, which will not allow the solution to drain from the walls and make it difficult to stretch it over the surface.
Before laying tiles on the walls in the bathroom, the material must be moistened. This will increase its adhesion to the adhesive mixture. You can soak the tile in water for a few minutes until air is forced out of its pores. At the same time, you need to know that such a procedure is harmful for some types of tiles, since watery spots may appear under their enamel. Such materials can simply be smeared from the inside with a wet brush.
Tile cutting can be done using a glass cutter or a special portable machine. In the first case, a cut line must be drawn on the front side of the tile, align it with the edge of the table and press on the free part of the tile. It will break off exactly along the line. Unlike a glass cutter, the machine has a larger cutting roller and its own breaking mechanism. This thing is very practical, it should be purchased if there is a large amount of facing work.
The process of laying tiles on the bathroom walls with your own hands is as follows:
- The cladding is made from the bottom up, starting with the laying of the first row, which is supported by a guide profile installed horizontally along the level.
- The adhesive is applied with a notched trowel to the back of the tile and to the wall. The tool, thanks to its protrusions located on the working edge, creates an even layer of bonding material on both surfaces.
- After that, the tile is lightly pressed against the wall to distribute the adhesive mixture evenly. The next tile is subjected to the same procedure. Crosses are installed between them to fix the gap.
- Trimming tiles to the wall is carried out with a glass cutter. In the process of work, the horizontal and vertical level of the cladding must be controlled.
- After completing the laying of the first row, the whole procedure is simplified: the levels of the horizon and vertical are determined, it remains only to smear and glue the tiles.
- After finishing the cladding of the first wall, you can proceed to the second. When using molding to decorate corners, do not forget to install it.
- The bottom first row is the last to fit. This work can be done before or after installation of the floor covering, whichever is more convenient.
- After finishing the wall tiling of the bathroom with tiles, grouting is performed. For this, all the gaps between the tiles are filled with a special mixture, which can be of any color. The work is done with a rubber spatula.
- After its completion, the surface of the coating must be wiped with a sponge, often wetting it in water. The result of the work should be smooth, evenly defined seams and a clean cladding surface.
When laying tiles on the wall in the bathroom, you often have to face various obstacles: door frames, thresholds, rosettes or pipe outlets. In order for the cladding, if available, to have a decent appearance, there are several tips:
- Tile around a switch or socket … You need to attach it to the switch and mark the excess parts of the material with a felt-tip pen, then cut the tile along the lines and cut a hole in it.
- Cladding around the pipe … If the tile touches it with only one corner, its curvilinear cut is made. You need to attach a sheet of thick paper to the place of the proposed installation. After that, everything unnecessary is folded on the sheet, the paper is cut along the folds. The result is a tile cutting template.
- Difficult obstacle … In this case, the hole can span multiple tiles. Here, each sector needs to be marked in a specific place. The same is required to do with the tiles that fall on such a hole.
Important! The gaps between the tiles are not only decorative. Their absence can cause destruction of the lining during thermal expansion of the cladding. How to lay tiles on the bathroom wall - watch the video:
If you want to bring the coating to an ideal state, the tiles can be coated with a special compound. In this case, the cladding will receive not only shine, but also additional protective properties.
