Every person may have a situation where you need to repair small sections of the walls in the bathroom, shower or kitchen, where tiles are used as decoration. Of course, in such cases, you can hire a qualified specialist who will do his job in a short time for a fee. But if you have the desire and some skills in the construction industry, you can do it yourself. In addition, knowing how to lay tiles on the walls in a small area, it will not be difficult to do this in a large volume, that is, to finish the entire bathroom. When performing these works, we can highlight the main stages that we will try to cover in this article.
Preparatory stage
Before you put the tiles on the walls, you need to do a number of preparatory work:
- Remove the old finish. In this case, you must first releaseroom from plumbing and other items. To remove, you can use a chisel and a hammer, with which you can also clean the wall of adhesive (old mastic, mortar, etc.).
- Clean the walls. In this case, if the old layer of plaster has swelling and cracks, and when touched it disintegrates, it is better to remove it completely.
- Level the surface of the wall. This work can be done using a fixture (weight on a rope), which is fixed on the wall at the junction with the ceiling and the angle of the wall slope from the vertical is determined by the plumb line. With small values of this value, wall defects must be eliminated by applying a plaster solution. With large curvature, it is better to use additional designs.
- Check the surface of the wall for bulges and dents using a spirit level (at least 1 m long). With small deviations (no more than 5 mm per linear meter), depressions can be eliminated with plaster.
- Primer surface. Before laying the tiles on the walls, it is worth treating them with special compounds with antibacterial properties. In this way, the growth and reproduction of fungi and other microorganisms can be avoided.
Laying finishing material
Also, before you put the tiles on the walls, you need to decide how the finishing material will be connected to the wall surface. This can be done in two ways:
- With cement mortar. In this case, it is possible to simultaneously level the wall surface (with small deviations). Beforehand, it is better to install rails at the corners of the wall, as well as control tiles, the position of which must be determined using a plumb line. They are installed along the edge (along the angular vertical) at intervals of about 50 cm, the remaining elements of the finishing material are laid out along them (you need to install the cords horizontally, which will act as guide elements).
- With the help of an adhesive (special mastics). At the same time, a layer of soil mixture (mastic) is adjusted about 2 mm thick. After that, you need to wipe the surface with a damp cloth and stick the finishing material.
Highlights of laying finishes
In order to figure out how to glue the tiles on the wall, the following information will be useful:
- The adhesive (mortar or mastic) is applied to the reverse side of the finishing element with a trowel.
- The tile must be glued by gently pressing it against the wall surface so that the adhesive mass is distributed over the entire area of the element. Residues that have come out in the seams must be removed with a trowel.
- To make the distances in the seams between the tiles the same, you can use special wedges (thin slats or matches) that are stuck in at the time of laying the finishing element.
- Tiles can be cut to fit with a glass cutter. To do this, you need to mark a line on the reverse side and, substituting the ruler, draw it several times with a cuttingfixture. Unnecessary part carefully chip off with a hammer.
Knowing how to tile on a wall can make it easy to renovate your home and save a significant amount of money. To do this, it is enough to have a little skills in handling building fixtures, patience and accuracy.
