5 Tips For Tiling Like a PRO

you know I'm gonna go see if my wife wants to learn how to set tile I think I think a lot of people do I mean if you think about who wouldn't want to learn how to do tile I mean if I don't you want to know how to do it so let's see hey you wanna learn how to set tile no yes okay more fun for me who passes on learning how to set tile it's it's like the old thing you teach a man to set tile and you never have to call a tile guy again absurd well more fun for us what's up guys I know a lot of people always intimidated by the concept of laying tile and to be honest this to you there's a lot of mistakes you can make but for the most part it's an easy process if you take in consideration a few key important details the first things a homeowner does when taking on a tile job is they go to the hardware store and they pick out the tile that they like like in this situation this is a tile that we picked out a local hardware store we like it it's pretty and it hit our budget once you get to pretty child picked out it's important to find out the material that the tile is made out it could be stone it can be porcelain it could be ceramic in my situation the Tyler see behind me Tyler see right here it's a ceramic so we'll need a thin set that's specifically cater to ceramic not too far from the tiles you pick that in store you will see the thinset section this is the material that we used to actually set your tile in place and on the bag it will say ceramic all right so we got our tile we got our thin set now let's talk about the tools that we'll need to tackle on this job in the back of your thinset effect you will see the directions of how to apply or actually knit this material now we're also tell you is a type of trial the tool that you'll need to apply this material in this situation will need a quarter-inch trowel here is our travel these gaps are quarter inches apart and that's going to be exactly the what the manufacturer recommends when it comes to applying and setting this tile now obviously you will need a bucket to mix everything in and you'll want to do is have it mix up to consistency of some sour cream now the big question is how do we mix that stuff up easily well the solution is a mixing paddle these are very inexpensive probably around 10 bucks or so and it just connects to your handy-dandy drill once you turn it on they'll add some water to spin it and it'll be good to go now the rest of the tools they'll be required for this tile job are the mechanisms that will cut the tile so there's a couple options you have let's start with the inexpensive one first things first we have a tidal break and this is a very simple device that's cost I believe under thirty bucks perhaps even 20 and what you do is it has a little slide and a little brazier blade underneath here a wheel shaped razor blade and what it does is creates a small little sear on top of your tile very fine and then this little rubber piece flips down and let the flips down we compress it slowly it uses this little fulcrum of a piece of metal and it snaps the tile in half I know that's weird to envision but let me show you how it works all right let's see the next so here's their talipes let's say we need to make a cut I don't know before I ship off the time so mark it at four flip her down set her in place bring the little sear over one little fine razor blade here you can see it on camera here it's not very big flip the rubber piece down give it a gentle slow break and voila there's our cut very inexpensive very easy project to tackle on with this little towel ring and of course we have the tile saw this is slightly a little bit more expensive you can get you about 1/4 100 to $150 at your local hardware store or you can score something like this on Facebook mark place or Craigslist for hain't got this one for a killer deal 60 bucks lady who is moving awesome into a move lady and the way tile Styles work is they have this abrasive diamond coated blade that is not enough to cut your finger but it creates a perfect cover agent to actually cut through the tile now when tile is typically cut that material is made out of turns into a fine dust that you are breathing and it's really damaging to your lungs and at the same time the towel is so brutal that he tends to crack and break very easily so these towels are typically pumped with water as they're cutting to keep the dust particles down but also the same time keeping the Bernal tile from snapping so in this particular situation that's fairly inexpensive Taos off has a little pool of water here that gets picked up by the blade as it's cutting to do this exact same deal now you're wondering well how does a towel stop cut well let me show you two in action this is our little friend that comes into place let's say we want to make a cut I don't know about yay big hang up a little bit we'll turn it on it's gonna get a little loud here [Applause] [Music] and there's our cut towel sauce is always the big win now if you're wondering well if a towel break is fairly inexpensive compared to tell us off why don't I just use a tile break for the entire project well in such situations you need to make a knot and a weird cut that a tile break can do here's a perfect example of it as you could see all these pieces were cut with a towel break but this piece had to be notched out that was a perfect opportunity to use a tile sock now you can get away with using an angle grinder with a specific Lee approved wheel that's used for ceramic tile but again very hard to cut tile in a dry environment without it cracking and lastly when it comes to tackling on any kind of tile project is you'll need a bunch of these these are just very cheap very inexpensive tile spacers they come in a variety of sizes this is an eighth inch gap I like a thing it's not bad it keeps a nice clean look this is a prime example they sit right in the intersection of the joint to keep the perfect spacing over and to the sides of the tile once they dry you just pull them out and you're ready for the ground so very inexpensive very important key to actually having a nice clean symmetrical job like that now we've seen the tools we've seen the materials that are needed let me show you a quick little run-through when it comes to actually setting the tile that you've cut to size into the area they're working with let's start setting the tile we're gonna use our trial take a nice hunk and start smothering and applying it thanks get messy not a big deal okay so once you have your first layer on at that point we're going to flip our trowel over and use these quarter inch gaps that are very important for this thin set and this tile that we're playing we're gonna flip it over and grate it over now what you want to do is you want to have the backing the flush part of the wall covered in things in but also these grooves covered in thin set any areas that has this light transparent area might meet a once over there I feel comfortable with that now the next part is one of the most important parts in setting a tile typically if you start slapping the stuff on what it'll do is because of how uneven thus wall is and different pockets that are inside of this tile piece is you'll create these air pockets so what that means is over time they'll be stronger and weaker sections of this tile and it will pop off very annoying fixable but very annoying so to help minimize that there's a process called back buttering and what you do is you put a little chunk of thin-set on top and you scrape it covering the entire piece now before i cover it entirely i want to show you this typically tile has these little pockets grooves with that are in set or indented inside and that's the area that's basically met for the thinset to sit in what you want to do put a small amount and just scrape it off especially essentially your buttering toast once you get it on and it looks just like that nothing heavy nothing crazy not even a sixteenth on there very light then you can start applying it here and what you want to do is give it a little wiggle just to allow all the parts to actually settle in excess will get squeezed down will take all the little spacers put them in place and now we're ready to put the next set of tiles in line with it well uh so it's important to note here that the amount of thin-set that I put on are kind of in small chunks you don't wanna start covering a huge surface area and then taking your time to get to it because the things that might dry and it won't be good so just do small sections at a time in this situation it was a foot and a half by the height of the top piece these small little blocks works the best the tile doesn't dry and you have per opportunity to set them safely it's curly hey I tell you don't to learn how to Kyle I don't understand what you're just so good at it yeah you're right I am I am you're right when you're right you're right I'll just do it I'll just do it now your pluck it make it more fun for me you go have fun well that is it for me this week I hope you guys like this video I hope you found it helpful to any degree if you're a professional tile guy I know you're gonna tell me these weird comments below let me urge all guy from 4050 years been chef all right we're just teaching people how to get started and that is it all right I'm just kidding if you guys have any questions write them in the comment section below if you found this video any bit helpful please like it share it with your friends and please hit that subscribe button because we have videos like this coming out a ton and make sure you watch this video of this full of renovation if you don't know yet this used to be a tub area so big renault done anywho to Ned this week we see you guys next week see ya bye