Tiling a Kitchen wall

You’ve decided.

It’s got to be done so if you’re ready to take the plunge, read our blog post on how to tile a kitchen wall to get the professional looking results that you want.

• You need to calculate how many tiles you need so first work out the size of the area to be covered by measuring the height of the area in metres followed by the width of the area in metres then multiply them together to find the whole area in square metres:

So, height (m) x width (m) = area (m²) e.g. a wall with a height of 4m and width of 2m would have an area of 4m x 2m = 8 m².

Most boxes of tiles will say how many m² they cover. In the example above, if one box of tiles covered an area of 3m² then you’d have to buy 3 boxes (enough to cover 9 m²) for the wall that you’ve calculated as having an area of 8 m², giving you enough tiles to cover the wall with a few spares for breakages. In any case, add about 10% to the total number of tiles that you’ll need.

• Attach your batten (a straight strip of wood) to the wall to be tiled and use a spirit level to make sure it’s straight as this is what your first row of tiles will sit on. If this row is straight, then all the subsequent ones above it should be too.
• Now apply your tile adhesive to the wall. If you buy it ready mixed it usually comes with a notched tool for easy and even application – otherwise a notched trowel will do. Having applied a layer of adhesive, use the notches on the tool to draw grooves of equal depth all along the line of the adhesive using the batten a guide.
• Twist your first tile into the adhesive and place it flush against the batten. Push a spacer firmly into the adhesive right next to the tile then carry on with your second tile right next to the spacer. Continue this tile-spacer-tile-spacer sequence until the bottom row is finished.
• Continue attaching the tiles in rows and check that they’re all level by the amount they stick out. If you have used roughly the same amount of adhesive and force when attaching the tiles, then they should be very similar.
• If you have a gap at the edge, measure it taking into account the spacers and cut tiles to fit using a tile cutter. You can put adhesive on the back of the tile rather than the wall for these.
• Leave it all to dry for at least 24 hours then remove the batten and spacers and fill the batten gap with cut tiles if necessary.
• Now apply grout to the gaps created by the spacers and wipe away excess grout before it dries.
• Finally, buff the surface with a lint free cloth, stand back and admire.