6. It’s a good idea and never hurts, but it isn’t always necessary. Before We Start. Draw level and plumb tile layout lines on the wall to guide your installation. Instead, you can use a hybrid method. One-inch tiles on walls, floors, shower enclosures, and even ceilings fool the brain into thinking the space is larger just because there are so many round or square tiles lined up. Use the measurement as your tile layout calculator and use it to determine whether you should shift the layout to get a wider tile in the corner, and to determine the tile layout for the end walls of a tub or shower. Otherwise, you won’t get professional looking results once you have finished. Frame the tile shower . Welcome to the great debate. Previous Step Next Step. The tiles come in different sizes, pre-spaced on mats. Use the back of a plastic spoon to smooth the caulk. Always tile the back wall first in a shower/tub so that you can hide the grout joints on the sides. I tell the other installers that I work with that they are to start with a full tile in the doorway or have a good reason why they didn’t. If the room you’re working in is perfectly square, you can start with either set of opposing walls. Measure up 13" – the height of one row of tiles plus the grout line – and draw a level line. On the ceiling and floor of the shower, we used 2" x 2" tiles and on shower walls, 2" x 4" tiles. 8. Then take your first bathroom tile and place it along the batten. By the way, always start your shower tiling project on the main 5 foot wall (if tiling a tub). For a shower enclosure, extend the tile and the backerboard at least 6 inches above the showerhead. Use a wet saw with a diamond blade to cut all the tiles. These two lines will guide the initial tile installation. We’re going to dive into the details. Roll it out over the walls, and use waterproof adhesive to attach it to the walls. Almost to the top . Begin the installation project by starting with the second row of wall tile. I'm about to start tiling my shower walls I just don't know where to start or how, I've never tiled before my shower is 5ft in length 32 inches wide and 80 inches high I have chosen a 12 by 24 inch tile but got 10 by 16 inch tiles I got everything I need for the job just need advice for starting and laying the tiles A client tasked us with turning a tub into a shower, so in the photos you see, we’re not beginning with a blank slate. If the tub is level, set a full tile at its top edge. How To Tile A Shower It’s Not Always a Clean Start. A floor? If you can match the existing tile as I did on this project, you don’t have to demo the whole area. If you are still confused about whether to install tile shower floor or walls first for your do-it-yourself project, the good news is that you do not necessarily need to fully tile the floor or the wall first. Not necessarily. Fur out as needed to avoid cutting. Before you start hanging head-bashers (ceiling tile) you should, as always, have the substrate properly prepared. Determine how much tile you’ll need. Plan height for full field tiles. There are many reasons why you should do one or the other first. However, wall tile installation has its own set of rules that you dare break at your own risk. Before you start setting tile, take some measurements and see how the tiles will all lay out (Image 1). Quick Navigation . Tiling shower walls is really no harder than any form of ceramic tile installation—which is to say that it is a moderately advanced project. Mark the midpoint of each wall. On standard three by five shower the back wall we always start center and bottom to top so we have equal cuts in the corner then side walls we start front to back & bottom to top so you also have equal cut in corner the combined corner cuts are usally just over a full tile looks great… Some times I will modify first row tile height to acomidate nitche or deco band. Before tiling your shower, it’s important to prepare the wall by following the steps below. After all, the penalty for poorly installed wall tile is a lifetime of having to look at the stuff. But, which way is the right way? In which direction should I grout the walls: from a floor up to a ceiling or from a ceiling down to a floor? For our shower, we chose a running bond pattern. In our project, we set the tile for the wall opposite the shower door first. This shower tile is 12 x 24 inches and we decided to have 6 inch pieces on the bottom and top. 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