How to Tile a Floor for Beginners

a lot of people watch my videos and see me using really expensive tools and they think yeah but how can i do it i don't have those expensive tools so in this video i'm going to show you how to tile a floor using some of the tools i started out with which are less expensive [Applause] welcome to my channel my name is naserine and in this video i'm going to show you how to make this bathroom floor go from this to this first you want to get down to the subfloor so if you have tile laminate or linoleum you need to get that up if your floor is concrete you don't need to lay down hearty backers so you can skip this step you also need to take out the toilet and remove the door which i already did before you lay down the hearty backer make sure you vacuum so your subfloor is clean also make sure you don't have any nails or screws sticking up like this one we're going to screw this one in a little more this is three by five quarter inch hearty backer and this room is a little under five by five so i'm going to need two sheets first i'm gonna measure from here to here and then i'm gonna come down three feet and measure from here to there and then i'm gonna cut this side off of the hearty backer because this wall is not as straight as the other side make sure to subtract a quarter inch off each side because you don't want the hearty backer pushing up against the walls or the tub now you could cut the hearty packer with a five dollar razor blade it's tough but doable i've done it before and if you're only going to be cutting a few pieces of hearty backer you might as well use a razor blade if you want to see a video on the different ways to cut hearty backer i'll leave it in the description below but if you have more than one tile job i'd recommend getting one of these it's called the snapper shear pro and the good people at snapper shear pro sent me this amazing tool to try out and i gotta be honest with you guys this is one of my most favorite tools and it makes cutting hearty packers super easy with very little dust let's go outside and cut some hearty backer look at how crooked the room is it widens out over here and then gets smaller and smaller [Music] so i got a piece of cardboard with two straight edges and i'm going to use this to make a template to cut the hole for the toilet flange this side is straight and the wall's not i'm going to use this side as my guide i'm going to put it up against the corner and cut the hole where the flange is i'm kind of going to look where it's at right there and just that's where i'm going to start cutting make yourself a little hole so you can see where you're going you don't have to be a professional to do this now i'm going to head to the outside edge [Music] just cut all the way around we almost got it here there we go doesn't have to be perfect but just as close as you can get it lay this piece in here see how it fits it's pretty good first you want to make sure it's not touching anywhere and that you have about a quarter inch space between the walls and the tub now i'm going to take my template and put it up in the corner and draw out my circle [Music] again you could use a razor blade to cut a circle with a bunch of lines running through it and hammer it out but i'm going to drill a few holes and cut it with my snapper shear probe because it's a lot easier [Music] all right i'm ready to put my snapper shear pro in there and cut my circle here we go look at that beautiful circle i love the snapper sheer pro you guys have to get one of these it's amazing i promise you if it's good that should do it now i'm going to measure from here to here and leave an eighth inch off this side for my joint line and a quarter inch off this side so it doesn't touch the wall now i'm going to take my tape measure and use it as a guide to draw a line from one side to the other [Music] all right we're ready to cut it's so cold out here guys it's freezing but we're still working all right here we go [Music] nice this thing only costs about 80 bucks it is so worth it all right i have all my hearty backer cut and it fits good and now i'm going to mix a thin set you really need a bigger drill for this because if you use a small one you could burn it out i'm going to put the water in first so it doesn't clump up at the bottom so much here we go all right now we're going to put our mortar and this is the part i dread because these are so freaking heavy all right here we go i look silly doing this every time but what the heck [Music] now you want to make sure and hold your bucket and start slow and then you can work up the speed that's why you want to hold your bucket all right remember we want it to a pancake batter consistency the instructions say to mix it for three minutes let it sit for five and then mix it for one more so that's what i'm gonna do i'm gonna set my timer for three minutes and mix away you want it to a pancake batter consistency i'm using a 1 4 by 1 4 notch trowel you want to pick it up with the flat side put some on there and just start laying it down [Music] you need to get enough on there that you can spread out just wipe it off if you drip it anywhere remember you wanted a pancake batter [Music] consistency [Music] just spread it all out i'm going to get these little edges by the flange and the tub and then i'm going to pour some out so it'll go a little faster all right now we're gonna pour some out [Music] now we're just gonna spread it out this stuff feels perfect [Music] then you use the notch side to make the grooves and you want to hold it at a 45 degree angle [Applause] and you want all the grooves going in the same direction [Music] 45 degree angle grooves going in the same direction and you can put the extra thinset back in the bucket [Music] [Applause] remember you want to have your grooves going in the same direction and as straight as you can it doesn't have to be perfect but just do your best since this was a tight fit i'm going to scrape this extra stuff off and dry fit my other piece one more time just to make sure i don't have to cut it again i'm not putting this stuff back in my bucket because it's a little dry i'm just going to throw it away [Music] if you're worried about this sweater it's not a fancy sweater it cost me three bucks so i'm just using it for this because i don't care about it well today i had to do another covet test on my way over here it's my 25th one and i'm so tired of being poked up the nose i wish they could get the saliva test but they haven't yet so just smooth it all out and then we'll put our grooves in all right i think we're ready for some grooves all right remember we want the grooves going in the same direction still [Music] now if there's not enough you can put a little more on there and just go over it again sometimes that happens okay this is ready to put our grooves in the reason i put thinset under the hearty backer is to help stabilize the floor i've seen a few jobs where they didn't do it and every time you walk on it it creaks and the grout is cracking [Music] all right we're ready to lay our hearty backer down it's always better to use an impact drill rather than a normal drill to screw down your hearty backer because the impact drill drives the screws in a lot better but a regular drill is really handy for pre-drilling the holes first i'm going to pre-drill some holes they should be three-fourths from the edge two inches from the corner and at least eight inches apart [Music] now i'm going to be using these one and a quarter inch cement board screws and i'm using the star bit screw because they work a lot better [Music] you just want to make sure the screw isn't sticking up above the surface i remember the first time i did this i used a regular drill to do this and it was terrible it was so much work now i'm going to tape the joints using this two inch self adhesive alkaline resistant fiberglass tape if you don't tape the joints there's a much higher chance of your towel breaking along that joint all right this stuff is sticky so you want to tape over the joint line and the joint line should be in the middle of the tape just like that [Music] and then we're just going to cut it at the end over there and that's it it's also a good idea to clean your trowel every once in a while so the thinset doesn't harden up because we're about to use it again all right you want to lay your thinset over the tape and you want to smooth it out you want it to be thin so you want to push it in so it fills in all the little grooves [Music] you want to smooth this stuff out really thin you don't want it to have a bump all right i got my thin set on i got my hearty backer screwed down i got my joint line taped i'm going to let this dry and come back and show you how to tile it's really good to lay out your tiles before you install them so you can get an idea of how you want the layout to look so this is how i'm going to do mine some of the tiles look a lot alike so you want to make sure and space them out i'm trying to avoid a really small cut by the tub so i cut a few inches off the piece by the door then i'll have an extra few inches for this side the box recommends these tiles be offset 15 to 30 percent with a minimum 1 8 inch grout line so i offset these tiles 5 inches to get the measurements to cut the tile i always use my wonderful combination square it already has a 1 8 inch lip which accounts for a grout line so what you do is you put it at the edge of the tile push it forward to where it's close to the wall but not touching it because you don't want the tile touching the wall like this one and then you lock it into place it locks right here by turning this then you put it up against the tile and make your measurement this thing is wonderful and so easy to use for people that have a hard time with measurements now i'm going to get the other side so you do the same thing put it at the edge of the tile push your ruler forward and then just lock it into place then you put it up against your tile and mark it now we're gonna go cut it i have a really nice expensive towel saw that i paid about seven hundred dollars for but i wanted to show you guys that it could be done with a cheap towel cutter and an angle grinder to use the towel cutter you bring the handle all the way to the bottom put your towel in there and line it up with the top right here put it up against the top edge make sure your top and bottom is lined up and then score it and then you just kind of push it down and it breaks it and here's our piece now we're doing the length and see i marked my pants dang it good thing i don't care about these pants all right we're going to cut it right here we're going to put it up against the edge we're going to align it perfectly as perfect as we can i'm just gonna double check it by running this thing over it [Music] to make sure it's right and then break it let's go try it out all right put it in there put your spacers in between looks great now we're going to cut the piece that goes up against the tub a problem you may run into is this tile is too long for the tile cutter so we're going to use this angle grinder to make the cut i'm going to be using a four and a half inch towel cutting blade and as always don't forget to wear your goggles and a mask [Music] and it's also sometimes good to wear ear protection because this thing is loud don't worry about how clean the cut comes out because it's going to be covered anyway and you'll get better as you go the key to it is just taking it nice and slow now to the flange this is another cut the angle grinder is really good for so i'm gonna lay my tile down be very careful not to chip it i've already chipped a few i'm a little clumsy and so it happens good thing i bought a lot of extra tiles so you want to put your spacers in there so you know where it's going to sit push it all together really good now i'm going to take the template that we made earlier and lay it down against the tub and trace the area we're gonna cut out so i'm running out of room in this bathroom all right right there let's go cut it with the angle grinder now as you can see it's not a perfect circle but i'm gonna do my best to cut it like one so for this one make sure you cut on the outer side of the line because if you don't it's going to be too tight [Music] [Music] looks pretty good let's take it inside and see how it fits look at all that makeup in there yuck all right we're gonna see how this fits super gentle spacers it fits really good now we're going to measure from here to here and here to here and get our cut now you want to put your tile back down right where you want it some spacers kind of hard to get them in there but just so we can get an idea of where it's going to be we're going to lay our template back over remember it goes against the tub and the corner there and then we're going to draw out the rest of the circle all right time to go outside and cut [Music] all right let's see how it fits people are very intimidated by this toilet cup but it's pretty simple with the angle grinder bam fits like a glove [Music] yep that looks nice last piece let's see how it looks we're gonna have to cut a little bit off i had to cut off a little more because it didn't fit the first time but now it fits perfect bam it's a really good idea to pre-cut your tiles especially if you're doing this project by yourself because you don't want your thinset drying out while you're trying to cut all these pieces especially if you don't get it perfect the first time and you have to cut it over again and your thinset's sitting there drying out i numbered all the tiles with a piece of tape on the upper right hand corner so i would know which order to lay them down i'm going to be trying something a little different i usually draw my guideline but when i lay the thinset down it ends up covering it up instead i'm going to be using this piece of tape as my guideline i'm also going to mark the wall where the tile ends right about there [Music] so i laid all my tiles down right here and they're in the exact same order as the bathroom so i can come in and grab each one as i need it before i start tiling i'm going to take a quick break to eat a snack because i'm getting so hungry this beef jerky is so good gets you ready to do some thailand if you guys want the recipe for my delicious beef jerky you can check it out on youtube at nasrine's kitchen let's get to work all right now we're going to mix the thinset i'm going to be pouring the water in first so it doesn't clump up at the bottom as much okay we're using porcelain thinset because our tiles are porcelain i'm just using up the rest of this bag i have here wait a minute we're forgetting something you should wear a mask when you're doing this because it's really dusty and i always forget so i'm going to grab my mask i'm ready all right we're going to use up the rest of this bag here let the dust settle hard to breathe imagine wearing an n95 mask every day at work that's what i have to do and it sucks now we're gonna mix the thinset with our mixing paddle and make sure you don't touch the button while it's plugged in because i did that one time and i made a hole in the wall okay you want to hold on to your bucket because it will get away from you and you want to start slow and you can work up the speed as you go now i'm gonna follow the instructions on the bag i'm gonna mix it for three minutes let it sit for five and then mix it for one more after you mix it for a minute you can get a trowel and scrape around the edges of the bottom of the bucket where the thinset clumps up and i just did that so now i'm gonna mix it for the three minutes here we go oh i need to set a timer three minute timer three minutes hold your bucket start slow and then work your way up okay set it for five minutes i usually only mix about half a bag of thinset at a time so it doesn't burn out my drill and it's all i can really use while i'm tiling before it starts drying out three two one let's set it for one more minute and it'll be ready to go looks nice and creamy you want it to a smooth peanut butter consistency i'm using a 1 4 by 1 4 square notch trowel and i'm going to lay some mud down spread it out with the flat side and lay down the tiles all right it's a lot faster if you can pour some down and we're going to do this whole section at once we're probably going to have to make some more thinset up but we're going to get started here okay i'm going to spread it out with the flat side [Music] we don't want to scrape the tub so we got to be super careful around the tub just trying to spread it out evenly [Music] oh it feels so nice and creamy just the right consistency peanut butter we're going to lay all this area down at once up to our guideline all right we got this whole area ready to go we're going to put our grooves in next it just splattered across the wall you should always have a wet washcloth so you can clean up your mistakes just wipe it off it comes right off now we're going to use the notch side to make the grooves that create that suction you hold it at a 45 degree angle and you just smooth it all the way across and you put the extra thinset back in the bucket you want all the grooves to go in the same direction if it's a little too thin just put some more mud up there and do it over again it's not a big deal if you have a little bit extra on the floor just pick it up and put it in the bucket now i'm going to back butter i'm going to put a thin layer of thinset on the back of each tile it just helps it stick really good and make sure that it's not going to come off now when you do this you want to make sure you're careful so you don't chip the tile so you got to be really careful with these tiles because you don't want to have to cut in the middle of this they're already all pre-cut and ready to go which makes it a lot easier just a thin layer you can put the thinset back in the bucket that you're not using all right now i have the number on the top of the right hand corner so i know which way it's going to lay and i'm just going to put it down and move it back and forth that collapses the grooves [Music] all right now i'm going to get the next tile dirty dirty dirty so just drag it across you can get more mud if you need it i'm going to lay it down gently move it back and forth push it down a little bit and we're going to have to get our spacers in there now i'm using the 1 8 inch tabby spacers i like these spacers a lot and you want them about an inch off the corners you push your tile together and you can get that mud out of there that kind of builds up and we're going to adjust this whole thing once i have more tiles in it's nice to have a day off from work this is the toilet flange cut we're gonna lay that down very carefully [Music] these are gonna have to go up so it'll fit [Music] now i'm going to line it up with my guideline and the line i put on the wall looks like it needs to go up just a little bit right there we're going to take this off looks pretty good guys i think this is gonna work okay i'm gonna cut it right here so that it doesn't take the whole tape off that actually worked pretty good i'm gonna put some wedge spacers against the back here so it doesn't try sliding up against the tub these are pretty little handy spacers i found looks like two of them are gonna fit in there and as i go i'm going to take a wet washcloth and just wipe the tub off and the tiles because we really don't want that stuff drying on there it's hard to get off it's so much easier when it's still kind of wet so we're just going to wipe all my little fingerprints off here and the wall there looks better okay back and forth collapse those grooves get some of that thinset out of there and then we're gonna put our spacers an inch off each corner push it together now for the next one i'm gonna have to be careful sliding this one in there we go slide it back and forth we're gonna have to push this one over that way because it's too tight and that's why we're doing them all at once so we can adjust them there we go that's gonna work all right i'm gonna put number six down now this is the other side of the toilet flange and i am no longer cold i am super hot back and forth push it down a little bit put our spacers in there and then we want one right here all right number seven going down ladies and gentlemen okay back and forth and spacers where are the spacers if you need to you can push it down a little bit and get some thinset out of there just to even it out and then we're gonna get our level in a minute and check it okay let's wipe it off so windy outside could hear the wind blowing all right an inch off the corners guys we're getting there it's a good thing this is a small bathroom not too much to tile pull it open a little bit and get your spacer in there now we're gonna take the rest of our tape off and line it all up looks like we did a pretty good job staying on our line [Music] wow perfection it's good to check it with your level and you want it as flat across as you can get it and that feels pretty darn good it's also a good idea to keep a bucket around so you can wash your trowel as you're going it can build up too much thinset and the thinset dries on there and the grooves just don't come out that well so that's what i'm doing i'm washing it off so i can just keep going bam all right [Music] we're getting that mud down very careful around the nearby tiles not to be chipping them now spread it out use the flat side to pick it up out of the bucket and spread it [Music] it feels so good to be able to do this yourself it's such a wonderful feeling i don't have to call somebody and pay somebody especially since i flip houses it is very helpful to know how to do this when you have big tiles like these you want your trowel lines to go this way so when you push it down the air has a shorter distance to come out as opposed to coming out all the way across this way get this next line of tiles down and then we'll be more than halfway done this is number eight it goes over here it's so handy when you have your numbers on there get some mud out of there throw it back in the bucket and since we have our guideline all the rest of the tiles will kind of just flow after that it's wonderful i can hear the little air pockets coming out pushing it side to side down a little bit feels pretty flush so i'm going to put my spacers in there [Music] so all right my beautiful people i have the last piece going down [Music] since this tile doesn't have anything to lean against and it could slide i'm going to take this one to that one i'm going to hold it up i'm going to push it together and tape it like that and then i'm going to tape this one to this one because this one's already set in place okay there we go so it's all done it looks beautiful i'm going to let it dry for a few days and then come back and grout so the tiles are dry and now i'm going to take out the spacers and clean them up the spacers should come out pretty easy but if you're having a hard time you can use a pair of channel locks or pliers and that should help take them out that one's kind of hard right there so i'm going to get a pair of channel locks just grab a hold of it and pull it out there's a few tough ones there yep works good a little hard on that one they're kind of set in the thin set so they get stuck in there [Music] we're gonna take our stickers off as we go because we don't need them anymore but they were super handy we're just gonna wipe down our tiles all the extra thinset that's on them they look so pretty guys look at that wow i love this tile this part goes really quick too much time spent on just wiping them down real fast if you don't leave them too dirty while you're tiling it's easy to clean up right now but if you leave them a mess then you're going to spend some more time trying to clean it up now you want to see my knee pads yep they don't fit they're always falling down it's kind of funny but it's not funny when you're trying to work they just always slide to my legs i've already tried some rollerblading knee pads like people suggested but those have no padding in them so i'm still on the lookout for some good knee pads if anyone has any suggestions this is just ridiculous next i'm going to be using my grout removal tool to take out any thinset that's sticking up between the tiles because it could show through when you grout just be careful not to chip the tiles see it just takes it right out this tool is excellent for removing extra grout see that now i'm going to vacuum up all the grout lines and it'll be ready to grout i'm going to be mixing my grout to the same consistency as a thin set like peanut butter i'm going to be using unsanded grout because my grout lines are an eighth of an inch anything over an eighth of an inch needs sanded grout to keep it from shrinking and cracking and i'm using the mapei unsanded grout with polymers in the color silver we're gonna put some water in first it just helps it so it doesn't clump up then we're gonna put the grout but i'm gonna remember my mask i should be really good at putting these on by now we should all be good at putting these on all right now my grout we're gonna use the whole bag it was already open it had a little bit missing but it's pretty much full all right let the dust settle okay let's get the cord back there always start slow and then you can work up speed even though you add water it still seems to clump up on the sides so don't forget to get your little trowel and get some of that dry stuff see it just clumps up there but it's easy to get off and then we can mix it up you always want to make sure and follow the instructions on the bag and this says to mix it for three to five minutes let it sit for five and then mix it for one to two more so we're gonna mix it for about four minutes you get the grout with your rubber trowel and work it in each line at an angle you just kind of pull the extra off the tiles bring it down and keep going down the tile just remember at an angle you want to press it in really good because if it's just brushed over it could end up cracking later want that grout to go all the way to the bottom now we don't need to do over here by the wall but we are going to have to do it by the tub just get it in there press it in there pretty good the reason you don't have to growl all the way up against the wall is because the trim is going to cover right over it like that i don't know why but i like to grout it's just easy it's fun i'm having a blast i guess i just like to tile i like to fix things and make them look beautiful this is going to go really quick because it's a small bathroom which is nice the last tile job i did was a big bathroom it took quite a while to growl [Music] all right it's looking good remember to go at an angle after about 15 minutes you get a grouting sponge and you clean off the extra grout put it in the water and you squeeze it out really really good you don't want too much extra water in it getting on the tiles make sure you go diagonal over the grout lines because if you go along the line you can take the grout right back out we're also going to get the extra grout off the tile and don't worry too much about the film it leaves we're gonna go back and wipe it off again later maybe a few more times make sure to rinse out your sponge pretty often and if you're doing a large bathroom it's a good idea to change out your water in between because it gets pretty dirty so we're going to keep going at an angle all right looks really good we're almost done a little more remember you want it to a peanut butter consistency [Music] diagonal o for the grout lines we let it sit for 15 minutes let it dry in there before we clean it up with the water rinse it out squeeze it really good and just make sure we didn't miss any spots like right there all right we're at the very end yay it's all done i'm gonna let the grout dry for 48 hours and then i'm gonna come back and seal it so i just cleaned the haze off the tiles with this dry washcloth and now i'm going to be sealing the grout i'm using aqua mix grout sealer which is for sanded and unsanded grout and i'm using this applicator bottle with these small bristle brushes at the end which are perfect for applying the grout sealer it fits right in the grout line it says to shake it really good [Music] all right put it in our applicator bottle be careful it's white but it dries clear and it doesn't change the color of the grout i don't think we need too much because this is a small bathroom and we're ready to go you can adjust this applicator tip to where a lot comes out or a little you don't want a lot to come out because then you're cleaning up a lot you apply it to the grout lines got a lot coming out right now but i'm going to adjust it this little applicator makes it so easy to apply the sealer i can't believe i'm on the final step today feels so good to have it done i have it coming out to about the perfect amount right now just enough to fill it in but not overfill it make sure and clean any grout sealer off the towel within five minutes because it will leave a residue on the tile and once it's dry it's really hard to get off so it's better to do it while it's fresh so you just get a damp washcloth and then just kind of clean on the sides of the grout line and just use different sections of your towel and get that extra sealer off the tile and then you rinse it off and keep going eventually this water turns milky white so you're gonna have to change it a few times especially if you have a big [Music] bathroom it's really good to seal your grout because it helps protect it from water dirt and grease you want to keep your grout as good as long as you can and this just extends the life of it a lot of people don't do it but you really should remember to wipe it right by the grout line just turn your towel around use the other side now i'm going to wait 30 minutes and apply one more coat all right it's been about 30 minutes the grout lines look dry and now we're going to add a second coat open it up a little bit and go the total cost to tile this floor was 680 for the tools and 200 for the supplies which is a total of 880. but once you have all the tools you can tile a floor the size for about 200 or less after you clean it real good you can also dry it with a towel [Music] and that makes it look really nice the floor came out beautiful i love it and just knowing that i did it myself makes me feel so good i hope this video helps you with your tiling projects and you realize you can do it too with a little determination anything is possible just look at me i'm a nurse and i'm remodeling houses and installing beautiful floors don't forget to subscribe and share my videos [Music] bye look at that beautiful floor [Music] and the good people at snapper shear probe get those peas out before i start tiling i'm going to take a quick it fell out of my pocket you also need to take out the door and remove the toilet [Music] this thing only costs about 80 guys first you need to get to your subfloor so if you have tile laminate or tile watch out move the car move the cord there we go i just spilled the water everywhere it's a good idea to change out your water in the team [Music] where there's a will there's a way oh my god it's just flinging crap everywhere it's dripping everywhere huh this is the story of my life making messes all the time cleaning them up afterwards that's what i'm about to do next i'm going to be using my grout removal tool to take out any thinset that's sticking up between the grout because it could show through when you grout

Channel: Nassrin's DIY

Views: 1,417,021

Keywords: remodel, How to tile a floor, HGTV, DIY, home, girls, new, fresh, do it yourself, thin set, trowel, before and after, Construction, bathroom, Bathroom remodel, floor, bathroom floor, tile, workwoman, hot, Drill, trending now, trending, home remodel, renovations, renovation project, renovation life, step by step, how to tile a floor step by step, DIY network, house, tile saw, design, interior, home design, flooring, building, home improvement, tiling for beginners, how to tile a floor for beginners

Id: ir8xAJUeKqI

Length: 46min 41sec (2801 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 08 2021