How to Install New Tile
- 1). Clean your floor thoroughly. Lay the cement board on its face and spread carpenter's glue around the back of it. Turn it over and press it to the floor in the far corner of the room, glue-side down. Sink drywall screws every 5 or 6 inches throughout the surface of the board. Repeat with the remaining boards, laying them side-by-side and making sure there are no four-way joints between them. (To cut smaller pieces for the edges of the room, score the front of the board with your rasor knife running alongside your t-square, stand the piece up, and bend it until it snaps.)
- 2). With your tape measure and snap-line, divide the room into four squares, with two intersecting lines in the middle of the floor. Starting in one square, from the middle of the room, spread tile adhesive with your adhesive trowel and press the first tile into place. Set plastic spacers next to it and lay the next tile. Continue until you have laid all the full tiles (without cuts) that will fit into that quarter, then, repeat for the remaining three quarters of the room. Allow to dry for a day.
- 3). Go back and cut and lay the tiles needed at the edges of the room, measuring the space to the wall and cutting the tiles on your tile cutter according to its instructions. The cut side of the tile should face the wall. Glue it down as before. Let dry.
- 4). Pop out all the plastic spacers using your flathead screwdriver. Mix your powdered grout and water in the bucket with your putty knife, getting it to the consistency of heavy mud. Spread it over the tile with your rubber grout trowel, pressing it into the grout lines and squeezing off the tile surface. Allow to dry for a few minutes, then wipe it down with a wet sponge, getting the residue off the tile face while smoothing the grout in the lines. Let dry a day before using the floor.