Renovation guides

How to tile a bathroom or kitchen floor yourself: step by step

Wet areas first, before the toilet and vanity go in. Everything depends on the substrate and the layout line: tile goes over cement board or an uncoupling membrane on a flat floor, never straight onto drywall or a bouncy subfloor.

Difficulty 4 of 5 · 2 weekends · careful

Photo of your room, the look you pick, then this guide with the materials counted for your room.

Step by step

1. Step 1 of 19

   Clear the room down to the subfloor

   Toilet out and the drain stuffed with a rag, vanity out, old flooring gone. Tile goes down before the toilet and vanity come back, so the fixtures sit on top of the finished floor.

2. Step 2 of 19

   Old floor in a pre-1980 building? Stop and test

   Old sheet vinyl, black mastic, and 9x9 tile can contain asbestos. Do not sand, grind, or break it. Have a sample tested, or leave it in place and build over it if it is flat and stuck tight.

3. Step 3 of 19

   Check the floor for flex and flatness

   Bounce on it mid-span: any springiness or squeak gets fixed with screws into the joists first. Then lay a 6 ft straightedge in five or six directions — more than 1/4" of gap across 10 ft has to be flattened with self-leveler or ground down before any tile.

4. Step 4 of 19

   Build the right substrate

   Over wood: comb thinset on the subfloor, set 1/4" cement backer board with staggered seams, screw it off per the board's pattern, then tape and thinset every seam. Over concrete: a flat clean slab takes tile directly, or roll an uncoupling membrane into a thin bed of mortar so slab movement does not crack the tile.

5. Step 5 of 19

   Vacuum and dry-check the height

   Sweep, then vacuum. Dry-set one tile on the substrate and hold it at the doorway to see how far the finished floor will stand above the next room — that is what the transition strip has to cover.

6. Step 6 of 19

   Find the layout lines

   Measure the room and snap two chalk lines at a right angle through the middle, squared with a 3-4-5 triangle — not off a wall. In a long narrow bathroom, square the line to the most visible wall (usually the one the door faces) so the joints run parallel to what people see.

7. Step 7 of 19

   Dry-lay a row each way and kill the slivers

   Lay tiles with spacers along both lines out to the walls. If either end lands on a cut under half a tile, shift the whole layout by half a tile. Do this before a single scoop of mortar.

8. Step 8 of 19

   Plan your way out of the room

   Start at the corner farthest from the door and work toward it, so you never tile yourself into a corner. Mark where you will stop for the day on a full joint line, never mid-tile.

   Ready to set tile?

   • Substrate is cement board or membrane — no bare drywall or plywood under wet-area tile
   • Straightedge shows no gap over 1/4" across 10 ft and the floor does not flex
   • Seams taped and mortared, screws set flush, floor vacuumed
   • Layout lines snapped square from the center or the most visible wall
   • Dry run done: no cut under half a tile at the door or the main wall
   • Wet saw on site and tested on a scrap

9. Step 9 of 19

   Mix mortar and pick the notch

   Mix to a peanut-butter consistency, let it slake the time on the bag, remix — do not add more water. Trowel size follows the tile: 1/4" x 1/4" square notch up to about 8", 1/4" x 3/8" for 8–15", 1/2" x 1/2" or a U-notch for large format. Mix only what you can set in about 20 minutes.

10. Step 10 of 19

    Comb the mortar in one direction and back-butter big tile

    Flat-trowel a skim coat, then comb straight parallel ridges in one direction only — never swirls, which trap air. For tile 12" or larger, skim a thin layer on the back of the tile too.

11. Step 11 of 19

    Set the first tile on the line and check coverage

    Press the tile down and slide it slightly across the ridges to collapse them, then set it on the chalk line. Pull this first tile back up and look: you want mortar on at least 80% of the back in a dry room and effectively full coverage in a shower or under a tub. Adjust trowel size if it is short.

12. Step 12 of 19

    Work outward with spacers and leveling clips

    Keep joints at 1/16"–1/8" as the tile spec allows — rectified tile can go tight, pressed tile needs the wider joint. Slide a clip under each shared edge and wedge it so neighboring tiles pull flush; a lip you can feel with a bare foot is a lip forever.

13. Step 13 of 19

    Clean joints as you go

    Wipe mortar off the tile face and out of the joints before it skins over — every ridge left in a joint is one you have to chisel out before grouting. Check the run with a straightedge every few rows.

14. Step 14 of 19

    Cut the perimeter, the flange, and the doorway last

    Measure each cut individually; the walls are not parallel. Around the toilet flange, cut a hole with the grinder so the tile clears the flange but the gap stays under the toilet's footprint. Leave a 1/8"–1/4" gap at the walls — it hides behind the baseboard and lets the floor move.

15. Step 15 of 19

    Let the mortar cure before you walk on it

    Stay off the floor and do not grout until the mortar has cured for the time printed on the bag — normally at least 24 hours, longer in a cold or unventilated bathroom. Pull the spacers and clips once it is firm.

16. Step 16 of 19

    Grout the field

    Mix the grout to the bag, spread it diagonally across the joints with the rubber float held at about 45 degrees, and pack every joint full. Scrape the excess off with the float on edge, then wait the haze time on the bag before sponging with clean water and a barely damp sponge.

17. Step 17 of 19

    Caulk every change of plane

    Floor-to-wall, tile-to-tub, around the shower curb, and at the threshold get 100% silicone in a grout-matched color — not grout. Cut the tip small, run one continuous bead, tool it once, and stop touching it.

18. Step 18 of 19

    Seal only if the label says to

    Cement grout usually gets a penetrating sealer after the full cure time on the bag (often several days); epoxy grout gets nothing. Follow the grout label, not a video.

19. Step 19 of 19

    Walk it and sign it off

    Bare feet are the best inspector — you will feel any lip long before you see it.

    Quality check

    • No lippage you can feel barefoot across any joint
    • Tap test: no hollow-sounding tiles
    • Joints uniform in width and packed full, no pinholes or low spots
    • All changes of plane are silicone, not grout
    • No grout haze left on the tile face
    • Transition strip set in every doorway
    • Toilet flange sits at or just above the finished tile

Draft guide written from standard practice, not yet reviewed by a licensed pro. Follow product labels where they differ.

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