Never tiled a wall diagonally before and could do with any tips especially marking out etc. beforehand to get best result with the cut triangular bits at the ends ..... Am using 4" tiles. I usually fix a batten first when tiling in straight lines to hold first row - how do you go about starting first row diagonally ? Any help most appreciated Cheers
Cheesearse!
How about fixing the baton diagonally?
In message , Weatherlawyer writes
I did our kitchen but have had ten years to forget the details.
A couple of points come to mind....
Consider corners. If you make a feature of say the hob, as I did, with a nice diamond shape in contrasting coloured tiles, the junction at the wall corner is unlikely to be an exact half or full tile. The consequence is that your nice diagonal line is broken. This is not a serious problem with conventional laying.
The other recollection is making a template to aid marking tiles for cutting when you reach something you are not tiling behind. You need to cut a square having sides the same length as the diagonal distance across the tile. This may be common knowledge to tilers but I was quite pleased with myself:-) The tile to be cut is laid over the last full one, the template butted up to the obstruction and a line marked.
regards
>
I've done it. Start in a conspicuous corner and start laying the first row of whole tiles on their points so to speak, having marked out where those points need to be situated first* ( moving out from the corner ) using a marked stick is one way. Also space them off whatever the horizontal datum surface is with some matches.
(*In fact you also need to space the tiles carefully out from the room corners so that the grout gap in the corners will be the same as between the tiles elsewhere, that needs a bit of experimentation beforehand with some of the half-tiles to hand so you can mark the initial vertical line for the first column of tile through their points so to speak. Any succesive verticals can be marked on the wall with a stick marked with the appropriate intervals.)
You need 1.414 x the length of a side plus an allowance for the spacers. Maybe best to lay some out on a table first with spacers to get the right spacing for the stick.
Draw in vertical lines on the wall at the right spacing so you can tile with the tile points on these lines. I suppose you could use horizontal lines instead. I found it necessary to keep an eye on the diagonalness of the joints and the verticality/horizontalness of imaginary lines drawn through the tile points with a long straight edge, adjust as you go and don't let the tiles depart much from spirit level trueness either. Pick out the spacers before the tile cement goes off.
You may find breaking the tiles in half the worst bit - I found that they had a natural reluctance to cleave in half along the diagonal in a dead straight line, as soon as you got near one of the tile points the crack would deviate from straight. The only way to guarantee a clean straight break was to score the tiles really well along the break line, or use a diamond wheel wet bed cutter.
Andy.
In fact, I remember now that the bottom row of tiles ( half tiles ) need to be experimented with first so you can get the datum level for the lines of whole tiles, so I'd start off with some bottom half tiles ( no tile cement ) spaced off the horizontal datum surface with matchsticks or whatever, giving you a level for the whole tiles.
Probably that's the key to the whole thing, getting the correct start datums UP from the datum surface and OUT from the corners. After that its a case of repeat vertical pencil marking at intervals, easy.
Andy.
Thanks for your reply Andy.... is it best to use the cross type spacers and take them out before grouting ?
I found it was easier to do - and the end result looked better - if I put a narrow border of horizontal and vertical tiles around the edges of the diagonally tiled panel. The diagonal tiles are then all whole or half tiles (with possibly quarter tiles at the corners), and the border takes up any uncertainty in the measuring and laying out.
Do a rough layout on paper first to decide whether you want the centre point of the panel to coincide with the centre of a single tile or a point where the corners of four tiles meet.
I took great care to adjust the spacers under the first row of half tiles so that the points were all aligned and level. For the bulk of the tiling I used cross spacers and checked for level and vertical at regular intervals. A rubber mallet is useful for the inevitable 'adjustments'.
I used a 'slide lever' type cutter to cut the diagonals and I didn't have any proble with drift, but I did tend to get one half that was slightly big and one that was slightly small. I cut a batch of a dozen or so tiles at a time and sorted the half tiles for size, using the most appropriate ones to ensure that the final edge of the diagonal panel was true. I used an old file to round off the sharp edges.
Hope this helps,
Roger.
Is tiling not difficult enough vertically or horizontally without doing that .LOL
You're right, diagonal tiling is making things more dificult but the result is pleasing.
Actually, the other posters idea of rectangular strip border tiles around the diagonal tiles is also very good looking - I did my slate patio like that. I recommend it for effect if you're up for it!
I used cross type spacers and took them out before grouting. It may be OK to leave them in but I reckon its a bodge. I've seen tiling done where you can still see many of the spacers even after grouting.
Finally, as another poster said, if you are doing a panel of tiles it is best to start in the centre and work out - symmetricality is important in that case, both horizontally and to a certain extent vertically.
However, where there is a long row of tiles and you have a free hand as to where you stop tiling at one end*, then of course you start in maybe in the opposite corner if the tiling has to go around the corner, to get a neat join. All common sense really, but requires a little planning before starting. If the tiles go all the way around the kitchen/bathroom and there is no freedom as to where to stop, then of course you will almost certainly end up with fractional tiles. Try and put that kind of join between two lots of tiles in an inconspicuous corner etc.
*For instance starting in a corner and then tiling out past the sink, ending the tiles when you come to the far end of the sink/worktop.Andy.
In my (limited) experience, then set the batten horizontally and start with the first row of cut tiles (triangles). Then do a horizontal row of squares, then start working in diagonals.
If you start with a diagonal batten it's hard to get a decent horizontal alignment later.
If you continue working in horizontal rows, then it's difficult to maintain an even spacing diagonally (although not as hard as getting good horizontals off a diagonal batten).
Diagonal tiling _is_ harder to keep the spacing and alignment accurate, as you've now got 4 axes that are visually obvious. Not impossible, but you have to be careful. I still find my projection laser level to be useful.
Thanks for all your help guys - personally I wouldn't bovver but doing it for someone else ....... let's hope the end result is worth it :-)
I wouldn't of thought that would work well. How can you guarantee the cut tiles would be 'square and true'?
Diagonal batten with a spirit level and put a 'stop' at the bottom of the slope.
I agree with that!
Only done it twice but I managed a very satisfactory result with a 4 foot level.
Cheers
John
Tile saw, and a little V-shaped sliding guide (waterproof MDF) to run against the fence carry each tile through the blade. I can cut them accurately enough so that they'll stack up afterwards with no tactile overlap.
If you don't have a 45d angle from somewhere, then take the first cut tile from your jig and put it's glazed (or unglazed) faces together and align the cut edges to a straight edge or flat slab. If the cut is symmetrical and your original tiles were square, then the points of the triangles will come together ; if the cut isn't symmetrical, then the two points will be separated by some degree. (Considered doing this in our bathroom a couple of years ago. Decided against it, but worked out how to do the 45d right angled tiles.)
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