How to Tile a Bathroom Wall

What you need

Tiles, tile adhesive, grout, tile spacers, a notched trowel, a spirit level, a tile cutter, a sponge and bucket, a pencil and a tape measure. Buy the adhesive and grout the tile manufacturer recommends for a bathroom — ordinary adhesive is not made for constant wetting.

Step 1 — Measure the wall and work out the tiles

Measure the wall's length and height, wall to wall and floor to ceiling, and work out the area. Enter the numbers in the tile calculator: it divides the area by the tile size, adds your wastage allowance and rounds up to whole boxes, because you cannot buy part of a box. Allow 10% wastage for a straight lay and 15% for a diagonal pattern, where cuts waste more.

Step 2 — Set out before you stick anything

Mark the centre of the wall, vertically and horizontally, and dry-lay a row of tiles along the centre line with spacers. The aim is balanced cuts at both ends — never a full tile at one end and a sliver at the other. If the end cut would be less than half a tile wide, shift the centre line by half a tile and dry-lay again. Never start tiling from a corner: corners are rarely square, and a corner start guarantees a crooked finish.

Step 3 — Fix the tiles

Spread adhesive with the notched trowel over a small area — about a square metre at a time — and press each tile in with a slight twist. Put spacers between tiles and check the level every few tiles. Work from the centre line outwards, and leave the cut tiles at the edges until last. Let the adhesive set for the time the manufacturer states before you touch the tiles again.

Step 4 — Grout and seal

Once the adhesive has set, push grout into the joints with a rubber float, holding it at an angle, and wipe the excess off with a damp sponge before it dries. In a shower area, seal the grout when it has cured — grout is not waterproof on its own, and sealed grout stays clean far longer.

Worked example

A wall 8 ft × 8 ft is 64 ft² (5.95 m²). With 12 × 12 in tiles (1 ft² each) that is 64 tiles before wastage. Add 10% wastage and round up: 71 tiles. At 10 tiles per box, that is 8 boxes. The grout for the same wall — 3 mm joints, 6 mm deep — is 1.22 kg, so one 5 kg bag is enough. Those are exactly the numbers the tile calculator and the grout calculator give you.

Common mistakes

• Starting in a corner. Corners are rarely square. Start from the centre lines and the finish looks planned.
• Skipping the dry-lay. Setting out on the wall takes ten minutes and saves a wall of slivers.
• Tiling over a bad surface. Loose paint, wallpaper or crumbling plaster will take the tiles off with it. Fix the surface first — in a shower area use a waterproof board or tanking.

Safety

Tiling is low-risk work, but check the wall is sound and dry before you start, and wear gloves and eye protection when cutting tiles — cut edges are sharp and chips fly. If the substrate is damaged, the shower leaks, or the wall is structural, get a professional in rather than tiling over the problem.

Try these calculators

• Tile Calculator — tiles and boxes for any wall or floor.
• Grout Calculator — grout weight and bags from tile size and joint width.
• Tile Square Foot Calculator — area, tiles and cost per square foot.