Help!: Newbie questions, tiling up to door frame

[meclive]

Hi guys, looking for a bit of advice. I'm a total tiling novice about to embark on my first go at tiling, so please bear with me if these are stupid questions!!

Firstly when tiling up to a door frame, should I just grout up to the frame or do I need to use sealer (I've read you need to do this with the wall corners otherwise the grout would crack when the walls move)?

Secondly, I can't seem to find the right point to start tiling. Wherever I seem to choose it leaves a small gap (of between 5 - 15mm) either above the window or over the door that would need to be filled with a tiny cut of tile. It's an odd shaped room with two windows 9of different sizes and one slightly lower than the other!), an air vent and sloped roof so not the easiest to start with on my first go but what the hell I might as well try! Any advice other than run a mile??

Thanks.

Edit: will try and get a picture up if it helps?

[Dave]

The door frame.. some use silicone and others use flexible caulk..


The room, then a pic would deffo help us see what you have.

[mikethetile]

[Rich]

Id use a silicone that is a colour match to the grout, dont buy any old rubbish as it wont last very long. Pics would be very helpful. Also would be a help if you could let us know what size/type tiles you will be using and any adhesives/grouts/primers you have.

[CJ CERAMICS]

i tend to use silicone

[david campbell]

i also use silicone
can you introduce a border/listello to change your heights?

[CJ CERAMICS]

sorry missed the second part of the post....lol i think pictures of the areas would give us more to work with

[whitebeam]

Hi and welcome

[Phil Hobson]

Hi mate and as above pics would help, keep asking, you are in the best place

[Ken Bruty]

Matching silicone is the one for me for door frames/architraves and any other movement joints. Trade Tiler do coloured silicone for £1.77 per tube, the best price around imo, and 1 day delivery to me, also got a text from them at 11.58pm!! (woke me up ) to let me know that delivery was coming the following day excellent service guys.

[Polishtradesman]

Find the middle of the wall and start tiling from middle you will have two same cuts both sides.

[CDS]

Silicone for me too!

For setting out - Borders were suggested in an earlier post, if you went for say a mosaic you could choose your border thickness to suit...?

If you're tiling the floor how about running floor tiles up the wall as a kind of skirting board - Have done this a couple of times and think it looks really effective.

Or could you dot n dab some plasterboard onto the window sill to give yourself another inch or so to play with - Will depend on how much widow frame you have showing?

[Nkayjay]

Hi, welcome. Def use a caulk or silicone incase of movement around the frame.

[diamondtiling]

Silicone for me
to the forum

[mikethetile]

a few pics of thisbathroom will help us advvise

setting out can sometimes work easily and other times be a right pain to get right

sometimes you need to compromise some where and get a slither cut where you dont want it in order to make the rest work

it doesnt help when you have windows at different heights

it will also help if you let us know the size of tile

when im setting out I use a rod, which is a length of 2x1 marked with the width of the tiles plus joint, this helps me to visualise the cuts

as floors ,ceilings and walls are rarely perfect I never start with a full tile anywhere, I always try to get a cut at the floor and an equell cut at the ceiling, these cuts ideally should be at least a 3/4 cut, the same on edges to the walls but this gets complicated when windows are involved as the widows are focal points, so I try to equelise a cut either side of the widow and see how it works into the corners of the room

if you can get it even either side of the window but end up with unequell cuts to the wall ends try and get the narrow cut behind the door or somewhere else not so obvious, sometimes works other times you end up with unequel cuts and have to live with it

if I have a narrow cut (less than half a tile ) going into the corner I try to get a wder cut going out so it looks like the tile is following the corner as two narrow cuts or a narrow cut and a full tile dont look so good in a corner

take your time and make a rod

you can then play about with your setting out till you can get it best you can