Laying Out A Grid For Tile?

Spencer

Hey, Haven't posted in a while so I figured its time to come back here and get some education from the pros.

I was just reading a post in the pictures section about laying out a grid for large tile areas. I was wondering if anyone could explain exactly how you do this so that it comes out perfectly accurate.

I have laid about 6,000 sq foot of tile and have always just started in the center of the room with PERFECTLY square lines and worked my way out in quarters. I have always got a lot of compliments about my tile being perfect.

However I've never done an entire basement or something like that so I was hoping someone could elaborate on the grid idea.

Thanks

mikeswoods

Sorry ,but I don't have time right now to give you the details.

Cutting to a grid will speed your work up by 1/3 and avoid ending up with "impossible" cuts.

I worked with a topnotch pro many years ago,who taught me.

I'll try to find time tonight to give you the basics.

Someone here probably knows of a book?


If you set tile you must learn this .
MIKE

IHI

It's no different than laying out railings so the spindles come out even all around, or ceiling tiles so they come out even all around, etc...just do yourself a big favor and buy a few cans of aqua net so after you snap the lines you spray over them with the hair spray so they dont "get lost"

It takes a lil time to layout/snap'em but once it's done you can fly, I'll have one of the guys 5-8 tiles ahead of me cutting the funny area's that eat up time so when i'm laying/setting the tile i dont have to wait, it's just constant motion until completion. But, but often you will obviously have to use your better judgement, there's been countless jobs that after measuring it out we'd have the end pieces being some ridiculously small sliver, so we'd end up shifting the entire grid over so we could fit an almost full tile at the perimeters. I'm fix'n to walk out the door, so hopefully somebody today can explain the math, it's very easy since all your doing is dividing the space by tile size, finding center of the room and then doing layout from there.

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BCConstruction

There's hundreds of sites on the net showing you detailed ways to do the layout. Just do a google search for tile layout grid Pretty easy thing to do one you read about it.

floorinstall

Here are is the basic concept. First decide what your grout width will be. Lay out three tiles with the desired grout width and lay a strip of wood next to it. Mark the corner of each tile on the stick. You now have what is referred to as a story pole. Square the room and lay the story pole along the working line and mark the points along the line to correspond to the marks on the story pole. Move the story pole down and realign with the first mark. repeat. Do the same on the other working line that is at a right angle to the one you just marked. Repeat the process and connect the lines. This gives you a square grid with all of the grout lines established. Lay tile to the line. This process give you the ability to start and stop any where in the room and also has the benefit of allowing more than one setter to work on the same layout without worrying about not meeting up at the same point. That is quick over view. This process sounds cumbersome and time consuming but on large jobs or ones that are cut-up and going around obstacles it really pays off in the end. PM me if you need more info.