How to lay ceramic floor tiles (terracotta)?
The floor must be level, dry, clean and stable. Wooden floors should be well ventilated underneath and must be strong, to support the weight of the tiles. The easiest way to prepare a smooth and stable subfloor is by lining the floor 1,2 cm with fibreboard or plywood and screwing the boards with screws spaced every 30 cm. To strengthen the adhesion of the substrate, the entire floor should be pulled with the primer. Then it must dry well.
Always start from the center of the room and work your way towards the walls. If you start laying from any of the walls, you will find it difficult to keep right angles. Mark the center point, then plan such arrangement of the tiles, that there are edge tiles of equal width at each wall. Check it out, whether the thickness of the plates will not prevent the door from opening. if so, you can remove the door and trim the bottom edge, or position the hinges like this, for the door to automatically lift when opened.
When preparing the adhesive for ceramic floor tiles, the manufacturer's instructions should be strictly followed. Most often, after mixing the glue, it is poured on the floor in an amount sufficient to cover a fragment of approx 1 m², then the surface is leveled with a toothed trowel.
You must press firmly on each plate, sliding it slightly to the sides. After laying the first square meter, remove the adhesive from the tiles and clean the joints, preparing them for later filling with binder. You can do this no sooner than 24 hours after laying the entire floor.
Fastening of whole tiles
1 make sure, that the surface is clean and even. If the floor is lined with wood, put a layer of primer paint.
Apply waterproof glue to the floor and start applying the tiles in a pre-planned order.
2 Press down each plate by slightly turning it from side to side. Arrange the tiles from the center to the walls, moving along the delineated chalk lines. If the edges of the tiles do not have tabs, separate them with plastic crosses.
Trimming and sticking edge tiles
1 Place the tile to be trimmed on the last entire tile, putting one more tile on top, leaning its edge against the wall (a cross should be placed between the tile and the wall). Draw the cut line.
2 Apply a steel ruler and use a cutter to cut the plate along the drawn line, and then cut the tile with special glaze scissors. Smooth the edges with a file.
3 Apply glue to the bottom of the perimeter tile and carefully press it into place. Repeat the trimming and sticking until all gaps are filled, then press the joint compound into the joints.
JOINT FILLING
They can be carried out 24 hours after finishing tiling. If you start doing this, before the glue sets, you can move the tiles.
Before starting work, pull the plastic crosses from between the tiles. When the binder has set – which usually takes several hours – wipe the floor with a damp cloth or sponge. Try not to walk on the newly laid floor for two days, so as not to move the tiles. If there is such a need, you can wash the floor with water, provided, that the binder is now dry.