How to lay a ceramic or porcelain floor tiles?
Find your center point. You have already determined the size of your room, which is 84 square feet. Finding the center point is critical for laying the floor tiles. It will determine where you will lay your first marble tiles and the next ones. Measure one wall, for example the 12 foot (3.7 m) wall. At 6 feet (1.8 m), half the distance, mark a point with a pencil.
Do the same on the other 12 foot (3.7 m) wall. Using your chalk line, anchor one end at the midpoint of one wall and stretch across to the midpoint of the other. “Snap” the chalk line by lifting it up slightly and letting it hit the ground; this will leave a straight line on the floor. Measure the 7 foot (2.1 m) walls and mark a point a 3 ½ feet on both sides.
Rehearse laying out kitchen tiles. When you have found your center point, you will notice you will have a “quadrant” design on the flooing tiles, or 4 equally sized areas. Starting at the center, “rehearse” your tiles design pattern by simply laying them on the marble floor tiles without any adhesive or glue. Place the first small tiles at the corner nearest the center point. You are only going to work in one quadrant at a time. Begin placing wood tiles in a straight line towards either wall, leaving a small space in between the tiles.
Repeat the same process for the 3 ½ foot line. You will use 3 full cement tiles and 1 tiles cut to 4 inches (10.2 cm), since the size of the 3 joints plus the 1 wall joint equals 2 inches (5.1 cm) and your original tiles size was 6 inches (15.2 cm) (6 inches original tile- 2 inches total joint= 4 inch tiles). Note that this does not follow the realignment strategy mentioned above. Because this room is “squared,” the true center is best left where it actually is. Simply make uniform cuts as they correspond to each side (in this case, you will have 9 inch (22.9 cm) tiles as the wall tiles on the “short” 7 foot (2.1 m) walls and 4 inch (10.2 cm) tiles on the long 12 foot (3.7 m) walls.
Pre-drill some tiles to fit over items such as radiator pipes, bath pipes, and so on. To achieve this you may have to drain down radiator systems, remove the rad from the wall and take the taps off the pipework. Very time consuming but worth the effort if a minimal look is desired. Your floor will look better if you can drill a hole in the tiles and lay the tiles over the pipe.
Use a diamond hole saw to bore into the tiles and drill a perfect hole. If you do not have a hole saw you can use a wet-tile saw to cut a square hole in the center of the tiles. Draw a square on the back of the tiles in the desired location of the hole. Carefully place the backside of the tiles against the wet-saw blade at the midpoint of one of the sides of the square. Gently push the tiles against the the blade until the edge of the square is cut. Repeat for the other sides of the square hole.
