Tiling is an important part of your home improvement task, and so it is imperative that you learn to do it properly. However, most people seem to have a big bad misconception that they can start setting tiles without any preparation or planning on their part. In this article I will tell you about five biggest mistakes you should avoid while setting yourself to the task of tiling.
1. Most people make the mistake of not cleaning the surface properly before they start tiling. Don’t make this make. You should clean the place which you are going to tile. Make sure not a single foreign particle is there on the surface, as that may make your tiles uneven and ugly.
2. Don’t rush when spreading the grout. You should really take some time while spreading the grout. If you rush then the grout won’t be able to spread out evenly in all places, with the result that some spots will get tiled more than others. You definitely don’t want this to happen, right? So take some time to spread the grout all over the place.
3. Some people make the mistake of adding adhesive spots in the corners of the tiles. They believe that it will strengthen their tiles. Big mistake let me tell you. Far from strengthening the tiles, adhesive actually shrinks as it dries up. When that happens, it adds extra pressure on your tiles with the result that the tiles crack. So don’t ever put adhesives in the tile corners.
4. There will be times when you will need to use adhesives with tiles. For example, if you are tiling your bathroom walls, you definitely need to put adhesives. However no ordinary adhesive will help you; what you need is water-proof adhesive which will keep your tiles safe from water.
5. One of the awful things about grout is that it hardens up within 6-12 hours of spreading out. Now, while tiling, it is inevitable that you will make all sorts of mistakes. There will be places where too much of the grout will get deposited and you will want to spread that grout to the other places which have not received enough grout. There might be little holes and spots which you need to fix as well. However, you need to spot these mistakes within 6-12 hours of spreading out the grout, and fix them as fast as possible. Ideally, you should have someone watch the spots for you, so that you can fix them quickly! If you delay in spotting the mistakes, your grout will dry and become hard and you will need to start the process all over again!
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