Tile Walls Refinishing and Repairing

How To Tile a Wall

There is nothing as beautiful as a well-designed tile wall. These are normally found in bathrooms or the splash guards of kitchen cabinets. However, they can also be used decoratively anywhere. Although the idea of installing a tile wall on your own may be daunting, the process is relatively simple when broken down into steps.

1. Take your measurements. In order to make sure you get the exact number of tiles for your location, you need to take precise measurements of the area of wall you’ll be tiling. To find the area of your wall, multiple the ‘length x width’; divide this number by the size of the tiles you are using in order to determine how many to purchase.

Keep in mind that when you purchase your tile, it is best to buy a bit extra rather than too little.

2. Prepare your walls. Just like tiling the floor, you must prepare your walls to be tiled. Start by washing down the walls with soap and water, and wait for them to air-dry completely. Takedown any wallpaper, sand-down glossy walls, and patch any holes that might be present. If you’re tiling in a bathroom or on a wall that comes into regular contact with water, you’ll need to put a backing of cement fiberboard on the wall to protect it.

3. Select a pattern for your tile. When placing your tile on the wall, you will do so in a pattern. You can test each style of pattern out by laying your tiles out flat on the floor. There are two general patterns that people choose to use for tiling walls:
Jack-on-Jack Pattern: this pattern involves rows of tiles lined up like a checkerboard. Every other tile is the same color, but the rows and columns are aligned. This is the easiest pattern to accomplish.

Running Bond Pattern: this pattern has an imaginary vertical line in the center from which all the other tiles are aligned. The pattern switches between each row so that the vertical line is going between two tiles, or it goes through the center of one tile. Overall, the appearance is that each tile is offset by a few centimeters

4. Find the center of your wall. Because it is unlikely that your walls are perfectly square, you’ll need to start tiling in the center in order to create a pattern that is symmetrical. Determine where the center of your wall is, and mark it with a pencil. You can also use a laser level to mark your vertical/horizontal starting points for the tiles to be placed.
Mark off any areas that you intend to hang cabinets or other wall attachments where you do not need tile.

5. Cut your tiles. You may not actually want to cut all of your tiles till later on in the process, but keep in mind that you will likely have to cut some of your tiles to fit your wall. For large tiles, you’ll need to rent a tile-cutting saw from a local home and garden store. Small tiles (1-inch or so) can be cut with ‘nippers’ – a shears-like tool used for cutting small pieces of glass. Measure all your tiles prior to cutting to make sure you’ve got the precise sizes of everything.

6. Install a support board. Unlike tiling a floor, when tiling a wall, gravity is not working in your favor. In order to prevent your tiles from sliding down the wall, you’ll need to install a temporary board for support. This is just a small strip of wood that goes along your wall horizontally at the center. When you’ve finished the top half of the wall, you’ll remove the support strip and finish the bottom half

Renaissance KBF offers not only utility/functionality but also elegance. Our unequivocal and affordable refinishing, repairing, resurfacing, and replacement options give you the new surfaces for your old bathtub/shower liner and kitchen/bathroom countertops. Give us a call today for a free at-home consultation.