Floor tiling - Border first or central tiles?

Discussion in 'Tilers' Talk' started by TonicUK, Mar 28, 2020.

  1. TonicUK

    TonicUK Member

    Normally I would do Central floor tiles first but I have a long hallway to tile which has loads of internal and external corners!

    Makes sense to do the border first?
     
  2. Dantech

    Dantech New Member

    No - tile from the centre outwards - success is in the preparation - you don't want thin slivers of tiles at the edges.
     
    TonicUK likes this.
  3. TonicUK

    TonicUK Member

    Thanks for the response.

    The tiles are mosaic and already come with pre cut border and even corners in mosaic form.

    Surely it's easier to get straight lines around the edge and start centrally and tile outward toward the border?
    As you would normally tile from the centre out but this time border first then the tiles inside

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  4. TonicUK

    TonicUK Member

    Like so, as you can seee, they are mosaic

    [​IMG]
     
  5. CGN

    CGN Screwfix Select

    If, you've got skirting to go on, then there is some tolerance. You could create a gauge from some wood to keep it uniform.
     
  6. Jitender

    Jitender Screwfix Select

    I would go border first.

    How will you finish around the curved step?

    Can you dry lay out the borders first to see how the will marry up at the corners, as need to get the patterns flowing.
     
  7. TonicUK

    TonicUK Member

    Yep. I will be taking note of wall unevenness and starting lines where the wall is most uneven to keep lines straight. Do not intend on cutting border tiles at all. Chalk line, laser line will all come out. 18mm softwood torus skirting will be going on.

    I think I will do the border first as it is easier filling a space from the centre out rather than tiling to an imaginary line that will be where the border starts.

    The border will not be going around the staircase, giving the illusion that tiles were laid before the staircase was fitted. Multitool gets plenty of use on this job!
     
  8. Dantech

    Dantech New Member

    Thanks for the excellent photo's which totally changed my view of how to proceed. I would definitely do the border first - you do not want to cut the border tiles. Since the middle tiles will have to be cut where they meet the border it will not cause a problem
     
  9. rogerk101

    rogerk101 Screwfix Select

    The correct way to do this is to start at the centre and work outwards.
    Once you get to being reasonably close to the edges, then lay the border strips so that you DON'T have to cut any of the tiles inside of the border, and you DON'T have to cut any of the border tiles. You then fill the small remaining gap between the outside of the border tiles to the skirting board with centre pattern tiles which can be cut to fit.
    This way, the whole space remains symmetrical around the centre line, none of the central tiles have been cut or compromised (which would look awful), none of the border tiles have been cut or compromised (which would look awful), and the only tiles that are cut are those between the outside edge of the border tiles and the skirting boards (but these are hardly noticed because they're in peripheral vision and are usually covered with clutter or furniture).
     

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