Tiling A Wall From Top To Bottom
I have used this method it worked for me.
Tiling a wall from top to bottom. A batten board is nothing more than a 1 x4 or 1 x2 board screwed directly into the wall horizontally. In this case draw a vertical line dead centre of the wall and work in both directions from there. Sweep diagonally across the tile forcing the grout into the joints. Start applying the adhesive in a bottom corner about 1 tile length away from the bottom and side of the wall leaving space for the edge tiles.
Next apply the grout to the tile working from the bottom of the section upwards and holding the float at an angle of about 45 degrees. Don t start it at the floor. On standard three by five shower the back wall we always start center and bottom to top so we have equal cuts in the corner then side walls we start front to back bottom to top so you also have equal cut in corner the combined corner cuts are usally just over a full tile looks great. Begin by scooping up a load of grout onto the grout float using one end of the float.
Step 1 use a gauge rod to work out the position of the lowest horizontal row then mark the top row s position on the wall. Scoop out a golf ball sized amount of adhesive onto a notched trowel and spread enough adhesive in a thin layer over the wall to hang 2 3 tiles at a time. The tile council of north america recommends at least a quarter inch gap between the tile floor and the walls. Do not cover the entire float with grout.
Never fill this gap with grout because tile grout is not flexible. Im not a tiler. Instead bring it up to about 3 4 of the height of your tiles. If your wall isn t an exact multiple of the width of a tile plus grout line start between one quarter to one half of a tile to the left or right of this line.
There is chances of slipping of tiles from top to lower. A batten board helps you start your bottom most course or row of tiles. Theoretically tiles to be laid from top to bottom but practically it becomes impossible due to above reason. If you re only part tiling a wall a top horizontal row full of whole tiles makes for a much cleaner finish so we think it s really worth investing some time to get it right.