DIY Related: Setting out floor tiles

[EwanR]

Morning All

Looking for some advice on setting out my floor tiles. I am laying the ubiquotous 600 x 600 porcelain tiles on my L-shaped kitchen / breakfast area, right through to utility room and WC - about 24m2!

I have marked out the centre line between the two sets of kitchen units which allows 3 full tiles leaving about 5cm border under the kick plate at each side. I have extended this line to intersect with the centre of the bay window to mark my start point. Having laid out 4 tiles with the intention of laying them as shown I am now wondering if it would look better with a grout line down the centre of the bay? I intend using Mapei black grout.

The door into the kitchen from the hall is at an angle on the opposite wall to the bay.

Unfortunately there is not an even return on either side of the bay. The peninsula unit starts at the return on the wall to the left while there is a rightangle and recess of about 10cm on the right.

We have a glass topped table that sits in this area.

Your thoughts?

EwanR

[bigandy]

hi ewanr is there any chance of a sketch? its a bit easier to follow than written words and so we can see it in our minds.

[alex1963]

with out a scetch its a bit hard to tell but usually i would start by centering the focal point of the room ,middle of the kitchen,with either a grout joint or the tile center at the middle and then consider the other variables-bay windows,doorways,walls etc to make sure there are no silly cut anywhere.plus keep in the the initial impression you get when you first walk into the room. hope that helps!!!!!

[EwanR]

Sketch added

Door bottom right is from hall which runs in line with the right hand wall (if you get my drift). Door bottom centre is to garage. The door to the utility is offset and is nearer kitchen sink units than cooker. The position of the centre line in sketch is almost correct.

Hope this helps you visualise the space.

Ewan

[bigandy]

thanks for the sketch that makes more sense to me now looking at your center line that looks good just walk your tiles out so you can see what your cuts are gonna be like all over if you get bad ones then try half tile from center and see what that looks like. hope you can follow this and more questions please just ask.

[alex1963]

looks fine to me too ,just make sure the floor is perfectly level ,especially on that heating mat as those 600 s are unforgiving if its not

[EwanR]

Thank Andy

I follow what you are saying.

I've had another look and if I run the join down the bay window centre line I'll have a bigger border tile between units and the right hand wall and avoid a nasty thin L cut near the right hand side of the bay!

I'll run the tile down the centre line for the kitchen area as I think that will make the off centre door a little less obvious

Alex - Yup the levelling compound I laid (following advice here) is level to within a mm or 2. I can null that out with the adhesive.


One final question (I think!). In order to keep Mrs R happy I want to get the washing machine back in. I take it the correct way in any case is to run a line of tiles down the centre line? I can then work away in the utility room and then move back into the kitchen??

EwanR

[bigandy]

yeah once you have your lines sorted you can preity much work how you want too. why not look at tiling area under washing machine first?so your not dragging it in and out risking chipping the edge of the tiles.just make sure you carry the straight tiles down the entire line as it can wander out very easily and you wont notice till your putting the surrounding tiles in!!!

just reread this it makes sense in my head but not necessarily in text hope you can follow

[EwanR]

Yup - your post makes sense!

I know what you mean about lines and drifting - thats what I'm worried about as distance from start point to Utility is over 6 metres so 1mm out at start would end up nearly 1cm out at the other end.

I can bring the machine in via back door once I have the utility done so chipping shouldn't be an issue. Thanks for the "heads up" though.