Tiling

Timmyhealy

Hi, we have bought a new house and it has to be tiled, have bought/ordered the tiles we want and went to get a quote from a tiler, about 100m2 of floor and 50m2 of wall tiles to be put in, hall floor, kitchen floor, 2 ensuite floor's and in the shower, small bathroom floor and in the shower and main bathroom floor and walls. Quote was 2500 labour, 1500 adhesive and grout, cash. Is this high or about right, in donegal.
I have never done tiling before, but work involves a lot of machinery so I am handy enough with the hand's!! Would I be mad to attempt doing the floors myself and get a tiler to just do the showers and main bathroom?
Thanks in advance.

Wishbone Ash

Timmyhealy wrote:

Hi, we have bought a new house and it has to be tiled, have bought/ordered the tiles we want and went to get a quote from a tiler, about 100m2 of floor and 50m2 of wall tiles to be put in, hall floor, kitchen floor, 2 ensuite floor's and in the shower, small bathroom floor and in the shower and main bathroom floor and walls. Quote was 2500 labour, 1500 adhesive and grout, cash. Is this high or about right, in donegal.
I have never done tiling before, but work involves a lot of machinery so I am handy enough with the hand's!! Would I be mad to attempt doing the floors myself and get a tiler to just do the showers and main bathroom?
Thanks in advance.

€1,500 for adhesive and grout????? Are you sure that is right. Why don't you get the adhesive and grout yourself?

Give the tiling a go yourself. It's not that difficult. The only machinery involved is a tile cutter. You could probably buy one for less than €100 - make more sense than hiring it. I do all my own tiling now and I would never dream of paying some of the prices being charged. Start in an ensuite that won't be seen by everyone - you'll soon get the hang of it.

artieanna

like you my brother (chippy) had never done tiling before he built his house then he gave it a go and its fine, he did showers too. Its pretty straightforward as long as you take your time and lay only enough adhesive to do about four floor tiles at a time. Just keep the spacing accurate. If you have complicated patterns get a pro but otherwise DIY. Once you get going you'll get the hang of it. He used a tile cutter he bought for 30euro...

The price of the grout and adhesive does seem excessive!!!

yop

As the lads said, all depends on 2 facts, 1 how handy you are and 2 how complicated it is.

If you never had a bother with a bit of DIY a feel confident enough to take it on then start in the ensuite where it is not obvious.

I definately would not recommend one of them 30 euro tile cutters, if you are going to save 2500k go out and spend 150 euro on a right tile cutter, a wet saw and tile snips. An angle grinder can do the job but it is dangerous.

If you have long tiles, 600mm then you will need to hire a long tables tile cutter for these.

The Devil

floors are very handy to do (as long as you don't need to go around toilets etc). definitely give it a bash yourself.

yop

Take the toilets and handbasins out, trying to tile around them is messing.

delboy159

I'm only half handy at the DIY stuff - and I found the tiling a job I could handle. I tiled a bathroom and a kitchen in an 80 year old house with massive holes in the walls and unlevel surfaces etc. and the tiles are still up and looking okay.

Get a proper tile cutter
Take your time
Plan out the job in advance - this is literally just sitting down and looking at the floors and walls and trying to see the job and thus looking for problems so you can solve them before you start....

Where I had a lot of holes which would have taken ages to fill in - I actually based my tiling pattern around the holes so that 4 or so tiles would cover a hole and thus 75% of each tile had surface to adhere to.. Whereas if i just started tiling without thinking I could have been left with 2 tiles covering the holes and thus had less than 50% surface to adhere to...

Best of luck with it - and treat yourself to something with the money saved(€4,000 less expenses) which will probably be over 3k....

DublinDilbert

Hi,

As the others have said it's all about planning, planning and planning...

Measure up the job, figure out if any walls are running off at an angle, then figure out how to hide it! in my bath room one wall wasn't square to the door, so i started with 90% of a tile, and at the end of the wall it was like 60%, but you wouldn't notice it, as i planned it that way.

Also pay attention to where you come up to doors ect, as you'll notice them bits more, when you walk into the room...

On a long hallway most professionals will snap a chalk line down the centre and work off either side of it. After you snap down the chalk line, take measurements off either side and make sure it's all square with the walls.

give it a go, you'd be supprised with the results, if you take your time, and make sure everything is square ect...

Mellor

A quick way to check if a room/walls iare square is to measure the diagonals.
just a tip for you.

mjffey

I would definately do it myself. Have a go.
As Yop says, start somewhere a bit out of sight and lift the toilet and handbasin. In our house my husband and I work together. He is a bad tiler, so I do that, but he is the better cutter. For difficult corners he does the cutting. perfect teamwork!:D

smashey

Where in Donegal are you? I think the price is too high. If you are anywhere near Lifford, I have a couple of names I can send you by pm.

LFC Murphy

just finished tiling my house, my first time and it was easy, however it did take time. The floor area bill for adhesive came to about 150-200 (20yoyo for 20kg in homebase, 30 in alantic)

But I would suggest, if you have the time, to give it a go yourself. And a strong back cause its a killer. Also teach herself how to mix adhesive, which is a big help and time saver.

bigtimecharlie

I did most of the tling ( well still some left) in the new house. Tiles (wall and floor), adhesive and grout for ensuite, main bathroom and downstairs loo was €1200 approx. Tiling was fine but I messed up on grouting ( left it too long before washing off the tiles). Otherwise have a go.

I tiled around the toilet in the ensuite but raised the washhand basin. I now want to lift the toilet in the main bathroom. Do I just leave a hole to rescrew the toilet back or is there another way to do this? As it is, it doesn,t sit right on the floor ( and a neighbour has mentioned the same problem).

Timmyhealy

Thanks everyone, yeah, think I will give it a go,starting with ensuite floors, and see how I get on. Any other tip's? Some of the floor tiles are to go upstairs on wood and downstairs onto concrete, I presume a different tile adhesive is to be used?

smashey

bigtimecharlie wrote:

I tiled around the toilet in the ensuite but raised the washhand basin. I now want to lift the toilet in the main bathroom. Do I just leave a hole to rescrew the toilet back or is there another way to do this? As it is, it doesn,t sit right on the floor ( and a neighbour has mentioned the same problem).

Just lift the toilet and when the tiling is finished it can only go back on the same place due to the waste connection location. If you think the screws aren't catching the timber underneath, put some silicone right around the base of the toilet and then put the screws in. The silicone will seal it and form a sort of suction cup. The only drawback with this is that it becomes very difficult to lift the toilet in the future.

hunnymonster

I'm about to start tiling our new house. I've taken note of the advice here. Roughly speaking, how long does it take. I guess it's very different for the floors in the kitchen (square) and bathroom (lots of corners and around whitewear).... Just looking for some guesstimates.