How to tile a wall

Video by Tommy's Trade Secrets. This walk-through is based on the video "Tommy's Trade Secrets - How To Tile A Wall" from Tommy's Trade Secrets, a long-running UK trade tutorial channel. The video covers the full process from marking out the centre cross through to setting the tiles and finishing up — the section on how to spread adhesive without covering your guide lines is particularly worth watching before you start.

1. Prepare the wall surface

Tiles need something solid and stable to stick to. Painted plaster that is in good condition is fine for most ceramic wall tiles. Bare plaster is also fine once it has dried fully. What will cause you problems is anything loose, flaking, or damp. Run your hand over the surface and tap it — a hollow sound means the plaster has blown and needs hacking off and replastering before you can tile over it.

New plasterboard is one of the best surfaces to tile onto. If you are starting fresh, or if the existing plaster is in a poor state, fixing new plasterboard and tiling straight onto that is often cleaner and quicker than trying to repair and skim. Whatever the surface, give it a wipe to remove dust and any loose material before you mark out.

2. Find the centre and mark your setting-out lines

Measure the width of the wall and mark the centre point. Do the same vertically. Then hold a batten along the bottom of the wall and stack a column of tiles against it — this is a dry run to see where the cuts will fall at either side. If the cut at each edge would be less than half a tile, shift the centre slightly so you end up with larger cuts. Thin slivers of tile at the edge look scrappy and are a nightmare to cut cleanly.

Once you are happy with the layout, draw a vertical line with a spirit level at your centre point and a horizontal line at the height of one tile above your starting point. These two lines form the cross you will work from. That is the single most important thing to get right — everything else on the wall follows from those two lines.

3. Fix a temporary batten and mix the adhesive

Screw or pin a straight batten horizontally along the wall at the height of your bottom horizontal line. This gives the first row of tiles a level ledge to sit on while the adhesive sets. Without it, full tiles have a tendency to slide down the wall, especially with heavier ceramic or porcelain tiles. You will remove the batten later and cut the bottom row of tiles to fit the gap.

Mix your tile adhesive to a smooth, lump-free consistency — about the texture of thick mashed potato. Ready-mixed adhesive is fine for standard ceramic wall tiles and makes the job a bit more forgiving if you are new to it. Flexible adhesive is worth the small extra cost if you are tiling in a bathroom or kitchen where there is steam and temperature change, or if the tiles are large-format porcelain.

4. Apply adhesive and set the tiles

Using a notched trowel, spread adhesive onto the wall starting from your centre cross and working outwards. Spread only as much as you can tile in about ten to fifteen minutes — adhesive that skins over before the tile goes on will not bond properly. The notches in the trowel leave ridges that compress when the tile is pressed in, creating a solid bed with no voids behind it.

Press each tile firmly onto the wall with a slight twisting motion to bed it into the adhesive. Use tile spacers in all four corners to keep the joints consistent. Check regularly with a spirit level as you go — tiles that are out of plane by even a millimetre will catch the light and look uneven once grouted. To be fair, most walls in older houses are not perfectly flat, so you may need to add a touch more adhesive behind some tiles to bring them forward.

5. Cut the edge tiles

Once the field tiles are in and the adhesive has set — usually the following day — remove the bottom batten and measure the gap for the bottom row. Measure each tile individually rather than assuming they are all the same width; walls and floors are rarely perfectly parallel. Mark the cut line on the tile with a pencil and tile scribe, then score and snap using a manual tile cutter. For awkward shapes around pipes or sockets, a tile saw or angle grinder with a diamond blade gives a cleaner result.

Cut tiles can be sharp at the edges. A tile file or rubbing stone smooths the cut edge before it goes onto the wall, which also means a tighter fit into corners. Apply adhesive to the back of cut tiles rather than to the wall — it is easier to control the amount and position accurately on a small piece.

6. Grout and finish

Leave the adhesive to cure fully before grouting — check the product instructions, but 24 hours is usually the minimum. Remove the spacers, mix the grout to a smooth paste, and push it firmly into the joints with a rubber grout float, working diagonally across the tiles to force grout into every gap. Do not leave it too long before wiping back — grout smears on the tile face are much harder to remove once they have begun to harden.

Wipe over with a damp sponge in smooth, diagonal strokes. Rinse the sponge often. Once the initial haze has dulled, buff with a dry cloth to bring the tiles up clean. Run a bead of silicone sealant rather than grout into any internal corner joints and along the junction with the bath, basin, or worktop — grout in those spots will crack as the surfaces move independently.

When to call a handyman

Call Richard if the existing wall needs replastering or new plasterboard before you can tile, if you are dealing with large-format porcelain tiles that need precise cutting, or if the job involves working around a shower enclosure where waterproofing the substrate matters. Tiling is also one of those jobs where the first few rows set the tone for the whole wall — if you want it done once and done right, having someone experienced start the job off makes a real difference.