Before you decided to start your project you had a concept for how you want your tile floor to look. Any patterns in the tile, medallions, and the general layout should already be a part of your plan. It is at this stage when you should take a chalk line and begin transferring the tile design from your plan to the floor. It would seem simple enough to start at one corner of the room and work your way across. However simple this method seems, it is not the reccomended way to tile a floor. To have a finished room that is visually appealing the tile needs to start from the center of the room. The correct way is to locate the focal center and mark that point working outwards in all four directions. Its also important to note that the focal center of a room probably won’t be the exact center between two walls. If you are tiling a kitchen and cabinets will run along one wall, the center of the floor space will be between the front of the cabinets and the opposite wall.

Once you’ve found the focal center of your floor mark it with two chalk lines leading to the center of the adjacent walls. If you are tiling the whole floor in just one color with no embellishments this cross at the center of the room is all the markings you should need. If you are planning on putting a pattern on the floor you should measure the distance away from the center along the axis and mark all the major transitions in your design.

Granite tile is glued down with a trowel and thinset mortar. A good trowel to chose will have evenly spaced notches along one edge and a flat edge on the opposite side. To apply thinset you use the flat edge to scrape the mortar out of the bucket and drop a chunk of it on the floor. Then spread it evenly across the space where the tile will sit using the flat surface of the trowel. Once the area where the tile will sit is covered, come back with the notched edge of the trowel and scrape straight across the surface to form parallel channels in the thinset. The depth of the notches and the spacing between them guides you to get the right amount of mortar beneath each tile.

Once the space for the tile is prepared you place the tile on top of the mortar and press it down until it is level with the adjacent tiles. (use a level for perfect results.) The gaps in the morter created from the notches in the trowel create a void space beneath the tile making it possible to press the tile down without breaking it. Between each tile you need to leave a space for the grout. You can not place tiles down without leaving the grout space between them. If you do when your floor boards expand and contract from changes in the weather the edges of your tiles will break and pull up from the floorboards. Epoxy grouts will barely fit down into a 1/16″. Sanded grout is meant for gaps that are 1/8″ or more, and non-sand grouts are better for joints that are less than 1/8″.

The ideal way to leave optimal grout spacing is to put a temporary plastic spacer between the tiles while you work. Its often said that professionals don’t use plastic tile spacers, but rather they rely on the chalk lines. It is likely that you will get a better result using spacers. In all reality the most likely reason the pros don’t use spacers is because they want to work quick and cheap. Part of the benefit of a do it yourself job is that you can take comfort in knowing it was done right and not have to settle for the shabby work provided by a contractor.

Theres not much more to know about setting the tile. You just work along one tile at a time placing mortar, setting the tile, leveling, and repeat the process. When you reach a point where you need a tile cut you stop and make the cut, then continue on in the process. Depending on the complexity of your work you may find it beneficial to cut and lay out the more complicated portions of your design before you begin setting the tile.

After all your tile is set you will need to wait until the thinset mortar cures before proceeding on to the step described in the next article, Applying Grout.