Ceramic tile installation on floors

Place the uneven, snapped sides against the wall, where baseboards will cover them. Buy or rent a wet tile saw for perfectly straight cuts. Use the tile nipper only for cutting around pipes, toilet bases, and for other non-linear cuts. Always wear safety glasses with any mode of tile cutting to protect your eyes against flying shards. After removing the tile spacers, use the rubber float to press the grout into the tile seams.

Work in small sections. Then, holding the float at a degree angle, firmly draw the long edge of the float across the tile seam. Move diagonally to avoid pulling grout out of the seam. Deposit excess grout back in the grout bucket. After a section has cured for about an hour, follow up by soaking a sponge in clean water in a bucket and lightly wiping the grout lines in a circular motion to remove excess grout. A milky-white grout haze will remain on the tile surface.

Remove the grout haze after the tile has fully cured by first wiping it down with a sponge and clean water. Next, add 3 ounces of haze cleaner per gallon of water, or as directed by the product instructions, and soak the sponge in this solution. Wipe down the tile surface with this solution until the haze has disappeared.

Cured tile grout will soak up water if it is not properly sealed. Seal the tile grout either by applying sealer to individual grout lines with a brush applicator or by spraying down the entire tile surface and wiping off the excess from the tile faces. Actively scan device characteristics for identification.

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Low spots can be filled in with a floor-patching mixture that then can be sanded once it has hardened. When actually laying the tile, measure out an area away from walls and other border areas where you can install full squares of tile.

Once you have allowed this to set and can walk on it, measure the space you have along walls and other border areas, minus the grout line, and mark where tiles need to be cut to fill these odd spaces.

Try to avoid sliver pieces—thin, cut pieces along the perimeter of the space. Plan the layout so you can have the largest possible pieces along the perimeter, limiting the number of tiles that need to be cut as much as possible. Actively scan device characteristics for identification.

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