Tiling the floor (kitchen)

[Vass]

Best to tile up to the wall? or install units and tile up to the legs of the units because I'm using plinths to hide them? latter is cheaper but is it the right way to go?

[Andy Hall]

You can do either.

If you think that you may change the kitchen furniture during the lifetime of the tiles then you may want to tile to the edge.

If you have floor standing appliances it makes sense either to tile back to the wall where they are or to tile part way underneath and fill the back area with something suitable (e.g. ply, cheaper tiles) of the same depth.

Whether it's worth it depends on whether the tiles are £20 a metre or £120 a metre.

[Andrew Gabriel]

I tiled to the wall. I'm expecting the tiles to last longer than the rest of the kitchen. A "professionally" installed kitchen tiled up to the plinth, except in the gap for a washing machine where they go right back to the wall. The effect of this was to leave insufficient height for some standard washing machines under the worktop, as the units are all standing on a lower floor. The nice thing about DIY is you can do it properly.

[Simon Stroud]

Hmmmm... that suggests the legs on the units were set to the wrong height (like I did when I fitted my kitchen about 10yrs ago).

Symptoms of wrong-height legs include:

- appliances that won't fit under the worktops because the tiles are too thick

- having to trim a few mm off the plinths so that they will fit in between the tiles and the bottom of the cupboards.

We'll shortly be reworking our kitchen a bit and dumping the tiles in favour of something like Karndean flooring (quite a bit thinner). Hopefully I can just slide the plinths down the cabinet legs a bit and there won't be a noticeable gap at the top!

As others have said, I'd tile to the wall where you plan to slide in appliances, BUT adjust the cabinet legs to be a bit higher if you can.

Regards, Simon.

[Andy Hall]

Raise the legs?

[calums]

I always prefer to tile to the walls, it gives flexibility for changes at a later stage. Its also worth thinking of the laying time. Its time consuming to cut tiles around the units, but if laying to wall then you can leave a 100mm gap if you so desire so that you only use full tiles, except in places where they are seen and where appliances are. There is plenty height in a plinth to accommodate tiles going all the way under, and there is no excuse for professional fitters getting worktop heights wrong, unless of course the client changes there mind and opts for tiles when they had specified lino at the time of fitting (believe me this can happen and a good fitter will smile nicely and raise all the units and lose a days work).

Calum Sabey NewArk Traditional Kitchens 01556 690544

[Stuart Noble]

So, the washing machine plus tile thickness plus a reasonable gap at the top is where your worktop should go. One tile above that the bottom of the sockets, and 2 tiles above that, the bottom of the wall units.

I've always got lucky with the WM but it's easy to see how it could be a sting in the tail

[Vass]

150mm minimum worktop to socket so it depends upon your tile size :-)

[Stuart Noble]

It does indeed, but it gives you a flying start if you don't have to cut that first tile.