How best to Tile a room?

widler · Jan 20, 2017

No internet where Ive been setting out my room wrong, so i couldn't post.
Right. The amount of times Ive read on here about setting out ,"centre your room" " centre the window" etc etc etc .
So what you all are saying is what mr wizard is proposing is right and look the dogs

it doesn't , and if you lot think you are right, your not, it's wrong, it's the wrong way to set out and you know it .
You have all said (trusted advises) to centre your room and work from there , all of you have, if it does not work, yes you move to make it work ,if your main point is not centred, then work from that , but usually windows, does etc are centred , so you work from your centre, if you say you don't you are talking balls .
You work from you main point, these being his bifolds , if he doesn't it will look pants, as in the picture .
Tom, you don't just throw them down, and you know it, you are being pendantic ,you would measure your centre and work from there, if it doesn't work, you move it, but you have worked from your centre , and yes I think you deserve a badge as well

Marc, I'm not wrong , is tiling a floor different from tiling a wall , in most cases when you tile a wall you centre the window wall ( if possible) if you don't it looks pants , its what you all say and what you all still say.
In mr wizards case , if I came on here and put pictures up of that floor set out like that , it would be ridiculed, you know it I know it .
You start at you centre point and work it from there , if it does not work , you move it to work .
Most of my clients ask for my advice as to setting out, only engineers think they know best , well and about 5 or 6 on here

have a good weekend , I'm going out on the **** on my mates head wetting , so I won't be on from now

Tile Shop · Jan 20, 2017

widler said:
No internet where Ive been setting out my room wrong, so i couldn't post.
Right. The amount of times Ive read on here about setting out ,"centre your room" " centre the window" etc etc etc .
So what you all are saying is what mr wizard is proposing is right and look the dogs it doesn't , and if you lot think you are right, your not, it's wrong, it's the wrong way to set out and you know it .
You have all said (trusted advises) to centre your room and work from there , all of you have, if it does not work, yes you move to make it work ,if your main point is not centred, then work from that , but usually windows, does etc are centred , so you work from your centre, if you say you don't you are talking balls .
You work from you main point, these being his bifolds , if he doesn't it will look pants, as in the picture .
Tom, you don't just throw them down, and you know it, you are being pendantic ,you would measure your centre and work from there, if it doesn't work, you move it, but you have worked from your centre , and yes I think you deserve a badge as well
Marc, I'm not wrong , is tiling a floor different from tiling a wall , in most cases when you tile a wall you centre the window wall ( if possible) if you don't it looks pants , its what you all say and what you all still say.
In mr wizards case , if I came on here and put pictures up of that floor set out like that , it would be ridiculed, you know it I know it .
You start at you centre point and work it from there , if it does not work , you move it to work .
Most of my clients ask for my advice as to setting out, only engineers think they know best , well and about 5 or 6 on here

have a good weekend , I'm going out on the **** on my mates head wetting , so I won't be on from now

Hang on.... I'm confused..... please step in and correct me if I have read this wrong.....

@3_fall said do not to centre the room...... You have also just said, do not centre the room..... You said to go from the centre of a focal point, the bifold doors, which if you look at the plan is not completely central with the room. its offset to the left.

So for arguments sake, starting from the centre of the bifold leaves a nasty cut down the left wall.... furniture is not going there, so not going to be seen. Would you still keep it central to the door? Fine if you do, but if not, you shift over by half a tile to keep the symmetry to the door. Now your crappy little cut, is down the right hand side. No furniture going there, and immediately visible. which is more acceptable?

In either case, you are still not central to the room. you're central to something that is already offset, so something is going to be off somewhere, its just how you can disguise it better for a more aesthetically pleasing look. What wizard is proposing may not be technically correct, as it doesn't appear he's working from the centre of anything.

So what do you work from? Option 1, centre of the bifold door? Option 2, centre of the room, or Option 3, mark out where the furniture is going and work from the centre of the left over open area?

Good education this thread. Love it

Andy Allen · Jan 20, 2017

Old Mod · Jan 20, 2017

Haha well Craig actually yes, a wall is different to a floor, completely.
A window wall is a window wall Craig, and yes more often than not centering it frames it, and it looks right.
When you're doing any large floor area like a family room/kitchen, there's no way you can view the whole floor when you're stood in the room, so you set it out for the best visual effect.
And taking this case in particular, bearing in mind we're only looking at a sketch, 3 full tiles across the entrance and running down and out to the back of the property doesn't look wrong.
When you enter the room you won't be able to see it all in its entirety unless you do a Tom cruise mission impossible and suspend yourself from the ceiling on a rope haha so what the hell does it matter.
And who's to say his i folds are even the main focal point?
Not everyone positions their furniture so that they look out the bifold/patio doors, I see plenty of room set ups that have the doors to the side or back, so making that the set out point would not give the best effect.
Our job is all about assessing and adapting to the situation we're presented with, I won't deny a centre line is often the start point, we may even strike a line, but for me at least I'll only use it as a reference point and I will parallel from that when I decide where to start. You did say yourself if it doesn't work you move it!

On the subject of our dear friend Tom, he's definitely not playing up to you! Hahaha

Being immovable on the subject of setting a room out is short sighted mate, and I'm not digging you out Craig, but you're coming periously close to making this personal, and it's not!! I can assure you.

Oh one last thing Craig, I'm an ex engineer!

mma · Jan 20, 2017

Well, that escalated quickly

Old Mod · Jan 20, 2017

mma said:
Well, that escalated quickly

I'm as bemused as you Mark.

Flintstone · Jan 20, 2017

Poor MP3 wizard, his thread's been trashed

Edit, I forgot the smilie for wilder

Old Mod · Jan 20, 2017

Localtiler said:
Poor MP3 wizard, his thread's been trashed

Not really Andy, it's on the subject of setting out, so he's able to read both sides and make an informed decision.

Bill · Jan 20, 2017

You are right Widler, I don't just throw them down but I don't use a centre point either unless I have to. There is a difference.

If we centred every floor, more than likely the customer would have to fork out much more money than necessary for extra tiles, due to more cuts and wastage and possibly more in labour costs due to the extra cutting.

Like I say, I use my noggin to do what is best for the floor, especially now we have 1200mm+ size tiles. Can you imagine telling the customer they need another 20 1200mm tiles just because you want to centre a room with equal 2/3rds cuts at each end? Not every customer is a millionaire.

mp3wizard · Jan 24, 2017

Just a quick note to say that I did put some tiles down last week, it was pretty much as you said, I used the slow set stuff, definitely would have been in trouble if I used the quickset, 1 25kg bag is used for 2-3 tiles, the levelling system does aid, but like you said you have to be pretty spot on as it can't perform miracles on it's own. We took things slow and steady, using chalk lines, cleaning grout lines as we go, marking out the spaces etc, very hard work to pull up a tile with adhesive if it isn't level, definitely using a lot of adhesive in different areas to try and keep each tile next to each other level. Another issue we had was cracking of tiles when using the manual 800mm tile cutter, we have had 2 tiles crack so far, it's taken upto 15 runs over the tile for it to crack in the correct place.

I see why i got all of the concerns and warnings from people, I am happy with what has been done so far, I have worked extremely hard to get things right, and now I will only be able to do a bit each Friday and Saturday afternoons so to be honest it is going to take a long time, it's obviously a project that I have invested a lot of time in so I am thinking it takes as long as it takes aslong as I'm happy with the end result.

I am thinking that it's best not to upload photos until I'm further along for now.

Old Mod · Jan 24, 2017

If you can only work a couple days of the week now, it maybe worth yourwhile to use a grinder and good cutting disc instead of your mechanical cutter. You shouldn't be scoring 15 times to make a cut.
Glad you appreciate the difficulties that you are facing, it'll make for a better end result.
Good luck.

mp3wizard · Jan 24, 2017

thanks, yeh it's a brand new cutter, seemed like it should of been ok, it was specifically for tiles upto 800mm, the tile is 10mm thick, would you know what cutting disc would be the best to use?

Old Mod · Jan 24, 2017

ATS Diamond tools do a grinder blade
called Turbo X it's about £12 they're based in Surrey, call Alan this morning, you'll have it tomorrow.
It'll cope with those easily, just takes a steady hand.
Wear dust mask!!

average · Jan 29, 2017

widler said:
No internet where Ive been setting out my room wrong, so i couldn't post.
Right. The amount of times Ive read on here about setting out ,"centre your room" " centre the window" etc etc etc .
So what you all are saying is what mr wizard is proposing is right and look the dogs it doesn't , and if you lot think you are right, your not, it's wrong, it's the wrong way to set out and you know it .
You have all said (trusted advises) to centre your room and work from there , all of you have, if it does not work, yes you move to make it work ,if your main point is not centred, then work from that , but usually windows, does etc are centred , so you work from your centre, if you say you don't you are talking balls .
You work from you main point, these being his bifolds , if he doesn't it will look pants, as in the picture .
Tom, you don't just throw them down, and you know it, you are being pendantic ,you would measure your centre and work from there, if it doesn't work, you move it, but you have worked from your centre , and yes I think you deserve a badge as well
Marc, I'm not wrong , is tiling a floor different from tiling a wall , in most cases when you tile a wall you centre the window wall ( if possible) if you don't it looks pants , its what you all say and what you all still say.
In mr wizards case , if I came on here and put pictures up of that floor set out like that , it would be ridiculed, you know it I know it .
You start at you centre point and work it from there , if it does not work , you move it to work .
Most of my clients ask for my advice as to setting out, only engineers think they know best , well and about 5 or 6 on here

have a good weekend , I'm going out on the **** on my mates head wetting , so I won't be on from now

Setting out from centre isnt as important as people think it is! What i aim for, is to try and never have any slither cuts. If that means not being centre then so be it! Each room is different and theres not a chance in helll that if one sticks to setting out from centre, they wont have slithers. Tiles are all different shapes and sizes as we all well know and tbh, the only ones who know tiles arent centred is tilers. As long as the clients are happy with the final outcome and its safe, then thats all that matters. Its not like its one big competition were all in to see whos the best tiler. As long as the OP and his wife are happy with his effort, thats all that matters here.

Op, please post more pics of where your at now. I know it wont be much but id like to see how your gettingon. Dont worry if youve not did it exactly how these pros do it because thats not what we expect. I hve confidence in you that this will be a decent enough finish.

mp3wizard · Jan 30, 2017

Hi Average,

Here's where I am at, I started from the third row on the right working my way to the bifolds, then moved along to the wall, on the left are the cuts, and the 4th row that's due to go on the right will be full sized tile.

TF

Tile Shop

TF

Old Mod

TF

Old Mod

Flintstone

Old Mod

Bill

mp3wizard

Old Mod

mp3wizard

Old Mod

TF

mp3wizard

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