DIY Tiling Preparation

Get your DIY bathroom or kitchen tiling job off to the best possible start!

Get your preparation right. Preparing for tiling tips, techniques and advice....

Have you chosen your tiles yet? See these tiling kitchen and tiling bathroom ideas for choosing tiles...

To get a really professional tiling finish, you will need to be well prepared for your DIY tiling job…

• The most important thing is to make sure that your walls are:
  • clean
  • dry
  • fairly smooth and solid
• You should not tile:
  • over wallpaper
  • over any flaky or powdery paint (treat it first - with sanding, special primers etc, to give a good surface for the tiles to adhere to)
• If you already have tiled walls, it is usually best to just tile right over the top of them. Before you do this, do make sure that the existing tiles are:
  • stuck to the wall
  • clean
  • dry
  • as flat as possible

  So long as this is fine, just go ahead and use these basic techniques for tiling bathrooms and kitchens, to tile right over the top of them.

• If your tiles don’t seem well attached, you may need to remove your tiles.

  This is not difficult in itself, but it may lead to further complications for your DIY tiling project…

• Firstly, take some safety precautions:
  • always wear safety goggles
  • wear long sleeves
  • use a dust sheet to collect the debris and protect your bathroom/kitchen




• To remove the tiles:
  • Use a hammer and chisel, or a hammer and large screwdriver
  • Position the chisel either in the centre of a tile, or along the grout lines...

    (depending on how neat you want to be)

    ...and hit gently with the hammer

  • Sometimes it can be easier to start at an edge
  • Once the tiles are removed, you should scrape any remaining adhesive away (with the hammer and chisel, or a wallpaper scraper) to make sure that the surface is smooth
• Unfortunately, you may find that removing tiles will also bring down huge chunks of plaster

  (This is why it is usually advisable to tile over the top of existing tiles, where possible)

• If this happens to you:
  • You may be able to repair small chunks of missing plaster, to create a nice smooth surface for re-tiling
  • You may need to completely re-plaster. You will then need to wait for 7 days for the plaster to ‘set’ properly, before applying new tiles to it

When you are sure you have a nice, clean, flat and dry surface for re-tiling, then you can start planning how you are going to start your DIY tiling project…

Planning the Arrangement of Tiles on the Wall

If you are looking for a really neat and professional finish to your DIY tiling in bathrooms or kitchens, you should take some time out to carefully think through your arrangement of tiles on the wall…

This is to do with where the inevitable part tile will end up!

• You should aim for the part tiles to be in the spots that are least visible in the room.
• This means using full tiles in the most visible spots:
  • Use whole tiles where tiling starts above a countertop or bath
  • Use whole tiles where tiling starts or finishes at eye-level – for example part way up a wall
  • You can use part tiles if necessary, where tiling finishes at floor level
  • Use whole tiles where tiling finishes half way across a room (vertical run).
  • Use whole tiles where tiling starts under a dado rail
  • Use whole tiles at the front of a window sill (or window reveal) (use part tiles at the back)
  • Use whole tiles over the top of a window
• When you have worked out the sections that require part or whole tiles, you can start plotting out the positions of the tiles on the walls.
• You can use a long wooden batten for this, and mark on the sizes of the tiles in pencil.
• When you know where you want the first row of whole tiles to be, you can set a framework to rest your tiles up against.

  Simply mark the position where you want the row of tiles to start, and firmly attach a wooden batten to the wall…

• For example, if your tiling starts at floor level, and you decide to position the row of part tiles up to the skirting board:
  • Measure and attach the batten a few cm up from the skirting board – so that the bottom of the first whole tile will rest on the top edge of the batten.
  • There should be space below the top edge of the batten for:
    • the measured part tile
    • plus a small gap for grouting
• You can also position a wooden batten vertically in a similar way, to give you a vertical straight edge to start your DIY tiling against.
• Start your tiling using these basic techniques for tiling bathrooms and kitchens.

  You can remove the wooden battens and fit in the part tiles at the end of your DIY tiling project, once the tiles above are firmly fixed.

To continue with your DIY tiling project, look at:

Basic Techniques for Tiling Bathrooms and Kitchens

Special Techniques for Tiling Kitchens and Tiling Bathrooms

Tiling a Floor

A reader wants to tile over an existing bathroom countertop

If you aren’t sure if you really want to re-tile, see if you can get away with these renovating tiling tips.

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