How to Tile a Backsplash - DIY Network

adding a tile backsplash to your kitchen or bath is a great way to amp up a room and between stone glass ceramic porcelain there are thousands of styles to choose from now if you're new to tiling working in a small area like a backsplash is a great way to get some experience under your tool belt before you go on and tackle a larger area like a shower stall when it comes to choosing your tile style you can pretty much put anything on the wall that you want to but keep in mind you want to work with a tile that fits in your space nicely the less cuts you have to make the easier your job is going to be now some ceramic and porcelain tiles like this one come with built-in spacers or lugs on the edge they work in place of a plastic spacer and they're going to make your tiling job go a little bit faster and help keep your grout joints a little bit straighter if you're working with a natural stone like this it's a beautiful material but keep in mind that it's a little more imperfect in its shape and you're going to need to purchase a spacer such as this or maybe a wedge like this to help keep those grout joints even make sure before you leave the tile store that you check with your salesperson may give you the right spacer for the tile that you're using in your job another thing to keep in mind wall tiles are typically thinner and lighter in weight than floor tiles make sure you choose a product that's appropriate for your application today I'm going to be installing a glass mosaic tile it comes on a mesh backing so that should make quick work of the tile job and because it has nice texture in color it's going to add a splash of attitude to this otherwise kind of bland kitchen once the old laminate backsplash was removed no additional prep work was necessary for this wall the other surface will be tiling in this kitchen is just painted drywall here's a tip to give your adhesive the best hold on painted walls hand sand the wall with a coarse grit sanding sponge to roughen the surface then wipe off the dust with a damp rag the most important part of your tile job is going to be your layout you may spend more time working on your layout than you actually do tiling but if you do it right it's going to give you the most professional look in the end now we're gonna be using these mosaic tiles but it's easier for you to be able to see some of the challenges of getting the right layout with a little bit larger tile so I'm going to show you on this subway tile no the first thing is making sure you're starting with a level surface don't ever assume that your existing countertop or backsplash that you're tiling on top of is a level this doesn't look too bad but it definitely does slope of it down to the right we want to start tiling from the highest point and let our grout joint or the Kolbe joint that we put up when the tile is done make up for that little variation in being level you also want to start with a full tile at the bottom and then have your cuts die into the cabinet that's a hidden spot no one's gonna see that this is visible you want it to look as good as possible you don't want tile sitting directly on another hard surface so set a couple of spacers down to allow room for clog place a tile on top of the spacers mark the top of the tile and then draw a level line off of that mark the tops of all the tiles in the bottom row need to meet this line now the easiest way to keep this line visible when you start tiling is to back butter each one of the individual tiles with your adhesive and place it that way you make sure that your first row is totally straight if you want to butter the whole wall and start going to town on your tiling you're going to need a laser level to make sure this line stays visible the second part of determining your layout is making sure you have even cuts on either side the area that you're working in a good rule of thumb is to measure the space find Center and work out from there that ensures a balanced cut on each end the last thing you want to do is start with a full tile at one end but by the time you get all the way to the other you end up with a little tiny sliver over there but even if you balance out the cuts on each end you're still going to have obstructions like a window that's not really centered in the space to deal with the point is the more things you can take into consideration and plan a good tile layout around them the better it's going to look in the end for our purposes we're going to take our mesh back tiles and lay them out side-by-side working from the edge in unless you're tiling up to a wall or cabinet you'll need to mark a plumb line on the wall to ensure the edges of your tiles will be perfectly aligned our homeowner wants to use some of the actual tile as an edging here it'll give a nice border a good finished look kind of hide any of the cuts that we have to make at the end and it's also a lot less expensive to use your general field tile that you already bought rather than buying a pencil tile or something that's made to be used as an edger they usually charge a lot more for those pieces than they do for the field pile once your layout is planned if you have several end cuts of the same size you can make them ahead of time to speed up the installation process tiles that will have to fit under the cabinets or around electrical outlets will be better cut and measured when you're ready to install them to make straight cuts on porcelain or ceramic tiles a manual snap cutter will do the trick just score the tile once and press the lever to snap along the scored line a slope cutter will leave the edges rough so smooth them over with a sanding stone for glass or larger tiles use a wet saw it will produce smoother more precise cuts the trick with these is not to force the tile through just let the saw do the work tile adhesive and trowel size varies depending on the type and size of tile you're installing for our glass tile we're using a 3/16 inch v notch trowel with an adhesive mix from powder when mixing powdered thinset with water you want it to be the consistency of peanut butter place the adhesive on the wall and then while holding the trowel at a 45 degree angle rake over it with a notched side to create ridges that correspond with a depth of the notches press the edge of the trowel right against the wall so the ridges are uniform tile adhesive tends to dry pretty quickly so only apply as much as you can comfortably tile before it begins to dry if you're new to tiling figure you can cover a couple square feet at a time and it's easier to add more adhesive than it is to take it off after it dries out once you have the first section of adhesive on the wall it's time to start setting the tile when you're dealing with small-scale mosaic tiles whether it's glass porcelain or stone it oftentimes comes on a mesh backing it's a common way to buy tile now and the nice thing with these is you can pull individual tiles off the backing is needed or cut out sections with a utility knife start the installation with your border tile and don't forget to place a spacer underneath to allow room for caulk the field tile is next set the sheet in place these sheets fill the area between the counter top and the bottom of the cabinets with just enough room for the grout lines so I can just eyeball it to make sure the tile sheets are level add wedge spacers along the bottom and then go over the sheet with a grout float to make sure each tile is firmly adhere to the thinset since we're working in a subway pattern or brick pattern such as this is and we have a half tile to fill in than a full tile half tile full tile I went ahead and made my half tile cuts that way you can put the whole sheet up and then fill in with those pieces and your thin set isn't drying behind the tile while you're cutting when you run into an obstacle such as an electrical outlet you'll likely need to make some special cuts with a mesh back tile sheets just use a utility knife to cut all the tiles that are in the way for smaller cuts you can use a manual tile nipper it can be used with ceramic porcelain or stone and works well to make a rounded cuts cuts on larger tiles can be made with a wet saw or for more intricate cuts you can also use an angle grinder with a diamond grit blade so as you're working you want to make sure that the thinset you're putting on the wall is staying wet before you put the next piece of tile up so touch your finger to it and if none comes off on your finger it means it's skinned over and it's getting too dry to have a good adhesion so take your trowel and scrape it off and put on a new coat since these tiles interlock spacers aren't necessary other than the wedges along the bottom when setting partial sheets just fill in the open spaces with loose single tiles in this space under the window here we kind of have an ideal situation because we're able to fit one row of the tiles underneath there but of course there's not enough space to get your trowel back in there to to butter the wall so what I'll do is called back buttering the tile back buttering simply means you apply adhesive directly to the back of the tile instead of the wall remember as you make your way along the wall your bottom gap will get larger if your countertop is uneven just add extra spacers if that's the case well your tiling is finally done and now you get to take a break most of uses take about 24 hours to set up so give it some good drying time and start your grouting in the morning well our tile is finally dry and we are ready to move on to the next phase and that is grouting when you're grouting you generally have two choices either a sanded grout or an unsanded grout it's going to depend on the tile that you're using in the size of your grout joint and also just personal preference we're gonna be using a sanded grout generally the sanded doesn't shrink as much and it's a little more durable most people would think though with glass tile you can't use sanded grout it would seem that it would scratch the top of the tile but check with the tile manufacturer we can use it on this tile we just have to be gentle in our application now the other piece of this puzzle is a sealer you'll need to seal your tile if you're working with a porous tile or a natural stone we don't have to worry about this cuz we have glass but if you don't seal it before you grout there is a haze and sediment that can build up and soak into your tile and actually ruin the tile job so make sure you seal it first so grout comes in either a powdered form like we're using here or premix I don't know any pros that use the premix stuff you're not really saving that much time if you're buying it pre-mixed and the powdered stuff works great so I'm going to stir this up I'm looking for the consistency of peanut butter in here if you have it too wet on the wall that's almost a little too runny for us it'll drip right out of your grout joints and down your wall and then once you've got it stirred up you're gonna let it sit for about ten minutes let it do what's called slaking and that means that the water in the mix are activating and then you've only got with muskrats about 20-25 minutes working time so only mix as much crowd as you can get on the wall or the floor in that amount of time if you have any spacers left where you were tiling make sure you take them all out now before you go out take a sponge that's barely wet and wipe down the wall this will prevent any dust from getting in the way of the grout use a rubber grout float to scoop some grout from your bucket and smear it across your tiles in a direction that is diagonal to the grout lines hold your float at a 45 degree angle and continue to work route into all of your seams do not grab the bottom scene where the counter meets the tile this will be caulked when the grouting is done use your float to wipe any excess grout left on the surface now we've let our grout set for about 10 minutes and that means 10 minutes from the place that you started not ten minutes after you finish grouting if you want to take just a slightly damp sponge and wipe it over the top of the tile at a 45 degree angle rinse your sponge frequently for best results we want to make sure not to add any water to the grout you don't want this too wet because that breaks down the bond of the grout and you're really just taking off the haze making sure that you're not pulling any of that grout back out of the grout joints once the grout has dried completely usually overnight clean any leftover grout haze off the face of the tiles with a damp sponge and a grout haze remover if you're working with glass tile like we are you shouldn't need the haze remover since the dried grout shouldn't stick to the face of the tiles and will probably wipe it right off now that you finished your tiling and your grouting and it looks fabulous you want to keep it looking fabulous you're going to need two things the first is after about two days when everything is set up you want to apply a grout sealer this is going to protect the crowd from any mold or mildew or sting so it's an important step the other thing you want to do is go around each of your edges where your backsplash meets the countertop or maybe on the side seams and finish it with a grout caulk this caulk should match perfectly the grout that you put into your grout joints but what it does is it gives you a nice finished look around all your edges one more thing you might need to pick up some longer screws when you replace your wall plates to compensate for the thickness of the tiles and there you have it we just gave this kitchen a dramatic upgrade for under $300 that ain't bad

Channel: DIY Network

Views: 2,988,735

Rating: 4.7339821 out of 5

Keywords: tiling backsplashes, grouting, mosaic tiles, how to, diy, Do It Yourself (Website Category), DIY Network (TV Network), Do It Yourself (Hobby), Tile (Industry), backsplash, kitchen, easy, tips, tricks, Tutorial, Help, Learn, tiling, Tip, Mosaic (Visual Art Form), Hobby (Interest), Ideas, Porcelain (Visual Art Medium), Ceramic (Visual Art Medium)

Id: v6Ng9f2ucU4

Length: 14min 56sec (896 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 05 2010