2. Preparing for Tiling

The most important thing to do is to plan precisely where the whole tles will fall. On flat, uninterrupted wall this is quite easy, simply find the centreline of the wall and plan the tiling to start from there. However, there will be some obstacles i.e, windows reveals, door openings and built-in furniture in the room, all competing to be the centre of attention and it will be necessary to work out the best "centre point" while all the time trying to avoid having very thin-cut tile borders and edges.
It is best to use a tiling gauge, a batten (furring strip) marked out in tile widths - to work this out. The gauge is easy to make from a straight piece of timber about 1.2m (4ft) long, marked off with pencil lines to match the size of the tile. Use this to ensure that the tiles will be centred accurately on major features i.e, window reveals, with a border of cut tiles of equal width at the end of each row or coloumn of tiles.
The next step is the actual setting out. With large areas of tiling, two things are vitally important. First, the tile rows must be horizontal. Second, the tiles need some support while the adhesive sets; without it, it may slump down the wall.

Estimating quantities is important step in planning. When working out how many tiles are needed, first select the tile size. Then set out the area to be tiled on the wall and use the setting out marks to count how many tiles are needed n each horizontal row and each vertical coloumn. Cut cut tiles as whole tiles, then multiply the two figures to obtain the total required. Always add 5 percent to the total to allow for breakages and miscalculations.