Re-tiling Your Kitchen

Redecorating your kitchen can be quite a hassle, especially if you plan on re-tiling the floor and walls. If you ever find yourself in such a situation, calling for a professional to do the work may be tempting. However, even though it's easy to make mistakes and hard to fix them, professional help shouldn't be necessary. Dealing with the kitchen tiles on your own is much cheaper!

The first, and definitely hardest, part is removing the old kitchen wall tiles. Removing the old kitchen floor tiles is also hard and time consuming, but removing the kitchen wall tiles usually creates more of a mess. You will probably need a hammer, a scraper, a pry bar, a chisel, a grout removal tool and possibly a sledgehammer. Don't forget to protect yourself with a dust mask, safety goggles and a pair of gloves. Before you start working you should also shut off all water lines and electrical outlets in the room. The best way to remove tiles is to first remove all the grout around the tiles, and then use the scraper to loosen the tiles one at a time. This way, you will avoid breaking the tiles. At times, though, you may have to resort to more drastic methods, such as using the pry bar or even breaking a tile with the sledgehammer. Just clean up properly afterwards, patch up or replace the wall/floor that was behind the old tiles and make sure the surface is smooth before you start installing the new kitchen tiles. But first you'll have to choose which tiles you think will suit the rest of your kitchen best.

When that's done, it's time to measure how many tiles you'll need. Always buy more than you need, as it's easy to make mistakes when tiling. Then it's time to measure your floor and walls. Some people like to start from the centre and work outwards when tiling, but it's not required as long as you make sure the distances between all your tiles are the same. When placing the tiles, it is recommended that you apply the adhesive you're using only to small areas at a time, and then place the tiles that go there. Never let the adhesive dry before you've placed the tiles on it. When needed, cut tiles with a tile cutting tool. When you've tiled the whole wall/floor, use a rubber float to apply grout between the tiles. When the grout has dried, you're almost done. Now is the time to clean up afterwards, and wash away the excess grout from the tiles. Hopefully you'll be happy with your new kitchen tiles and won't have to re-tile the whole room again!