How To Make Sure A Wall Is Straight For Tiling

The tilers who did our hall reproduction victorian pattern drew a line on the floor and used that.

How to make sure a wall is straight for tiling.

Have an assistant hold the laser while you check from one end to the next. So if you ve tiled from a straight right angle and you re just reaching the odd shaped spaces between your last row of tiles and your crooked wall you can use the tool to mark your final row of tiles so that when you cut them they will fit right into the irregular shaped spaces between your final row of tiles and the slanting wall. To get a straight level start position a ledger on the wall leaving a gap below about 1 2 in. The ledger shown here is a length of steel angle held in place by wood blocks screwed to the wall.

Clean up right away. You d have to move it out of the way fairly quickly to ensure that you didn t stick it down. A batten board is nothing more than a 1 x4 or 1 x2 board screwed directly into the wall horizontally. We then stand the walls plumb them and tack the corners.

Don t start it at the floor. Divide this measurement in half then use the resulting dimension to measure and mark the center of the wall making a mark on the floor near the wall. Get the chisel into one of the tile s edges and hammer the end to force it under and the tile away from the wall. You could use a long straight edge to but the first row of tiles up against.

The grout joint and. Making a house s walls straight starts at the lumber pile. It s ok if the two walls are slightly different in length. To check a row of tile line up the laser with a grout joint and point it straight across the room.

We use the longest straightest stock for plates and we pull our stud layout from an outside corner almost always on the longest wall. Cut into the grout between the tiles with a sharp utility knife and then get to work with a hammer and chisel. Pin a line of string across the room and use that to line up the tiles. While you might simply start tiling along one wall and use it as your main guide walls are rarely perfectly straight themselves.

We square and sheathe the exterior walls while they re lying on the floor. Less than a full tile. Use a measureright pro to get the angle right. Measure the total length of one of the room s walls.

Tips for tiling a wall. A batten board helps you start your bottom most course or row of tiles. A strip of plywood or a perfectly straight board will do the job too. Hang a batten board to prevent tile slippage.