Install a Ceramic Tile Floor in the Bathroom

Cover up an old floor

Whether you’re replacing an old shabby floor or installing a new one, you can’t beat ceramic or stone tile for durability and appearance. When laid properly, it’s virtually a forever floor that requires almost no care and maintenance. And you can select materials from a vast array of colors and textures.
What’s equally attractive is that you can lay a first-class tile floor yourself, often in one weekend, and save the $500 to $1,500 cost of hiring a pro.
The key to keeping the job simple is to cover the old vinyl or other flooring with a new thin underlayment that gives you a fresh, clean start. No messy tear-out and repair. In this article, we’ll demonstrate how to install a thin “backer board” over the old floor. Then we’ll cover tile-setting techniques, from layout and cutting to grout and cleanup.
This is a two-day project for most bathrooms, even if you don’t have any previous tile experience. If you’re comfortable using basic hand tools and have the patience to align tiles just right, you can handle this job. The entire cost of this project for a typical bath ranges from $300 to $600.

Assess your floor

The success of any tile job depends on a solid base, that is, a floor that flexes very little as you walk across it. If you have a concrete subfloor, this isn’t an issue. You can lay tile directly over the existing vinyl as long as it’s well adhered.
If possible, avoid tearing out vinyl flooring. Leaving it in place saves time, of course, but it also reduces asbestos hazard concerns. Asbestos was used in sheet vinyl and vinyl tile until the mid-1980s. By leaving the vinyl undisturbed, you won’t risk sending asbestos fibers into the air.
If you have a wood subfloor, there’s a good chance that you’ll have to install backer board over your vinyl to make the floor thicker and stiff enough for tile. The easiest way to see flooring thickness is to pull off a floor register. Otherwise look for plumbing passageways through the floor. As a last resort, drill through the floor with a 1-in. or larger spade bit (your new floor will cover the hole later). To prevent asbestos dust from becoming airborne, mist the bit with a spray bottle as you drill. In addition to floor thickness, you’ll need to determine joist spacing. If there’s an unfinished basement or crawlspace below the floor, simply measure the spacing. If there’s a ceiling, probe for joists with a drill bit.
If the joists are spaced 16 in. apart, the layers of structural flooring beneath the vinyl should add up to at least 1-1/8 in. With joists every 24 in., you need 1-1/2 in. If your floor is too thin for tile, add a thicker layer of tile backer board. Our floor required 1/4-in.-thick backer. Yours might need 1/2-in. backer to reach the minimum thickness. If your floor is already thick enough, you can simply prep the vinyl floor (Photos 1 – 4) and skip the backer installation (Photos 5 – 8). Then tile directly over the vinyl, following the same steps we used over backer board.
Regardless of the type of subfloor, there are two situations where you can’t leave vinyl in place: First, if large areas of the vinyl are loose, don’t set tile or backer over it. Small loose spots are acceptable and easy to deal with (Photo 4).
Second, “cushioned” sheet vinyl must be removed before you can set tile. Cushioned vinyl has a foam backing that makes it noticeably thicker and softer than standard vinyl flooring. It’s too spongy to support tile or backer board. Before removing it, call your local health department for instructions on how to check for asbestos and proper procedures if asbestos is present.

Prepare the room

First, get the toilet out of your way. Stuff a rag in the hole to block sewer gases. If your home only has one toilet, you can leave it in place until you install the backer board. Keep a supply of wax rings on hand if you plan to reinstall the toilet at the end of each day.
If you expect to keep your vanity for many years to come, leave it in place and tile around it. But if you think you might replace it, remove it now. When the job’s done, you can reinstall the old vanity or put in a new one. Having the vanity out of the way gives you more workspace, and you won’t have to cut backer board and tiles to fit around it. This also eliminates the floor repair problem if you install a smaller vanity or pedestal sink in the future.
Pull off the baseboard or plan to add base shoe molding. This leads to a neater-looking job because the edges of the tile will be covered later—jagged cuts and slight measuring mistakes are hidden. If your baseboard has base shoe molding, remove only the base shoe. Backer board and tile will raise your floor 3/4 in. or more. So you’ll have to remove and undercut the door. To mark the door for cutting, stack backer board, tile and two layers of cardboard on the floor (see Photo 3). Mark the door 1/2 in. above the stack, remove the door and cut off the bottom.

Scrub, screw and patch the floor

Scrub the floor with a vinyl floor stripper following the manufacturer’s instructions. The stripper will dissolve wax and other residue. Scrub hard with an abrasive scouring pad (Photo 1). The tiny scratches left by scrubbing help the thin-set bond better.
Next, drive screws through the floor into the joists (Photo 2). This ensures that the subfloor and underlayment are securely fastened. If there’s an unfinished basement below the floor, locating the joists is easy: Go to the basement and drill a couple of 1/4-in. holes up through the floor next to a joist. If you can’t locate the joists from below, pick a spot near one wall and drill a hole. If the bit breaks through into hollow space, move over 1 in. and drill another hole. Keep going until you hit a joist. Then go to the opposite wall and find the other end of the joist. Measure at intervals of 16 or 24 in. from the first joist to locate the others.
While you’re driving screws, look for any spots where the vinyl has loosened from the floor. Cut out loose spots and fill them (Photo 4). If there are any copper pipes that pass through the floor, wrap them with duct tape at floor level. Cement-based thin-set and grout can corrode copper.

Install backer board

The backer board is fastened with a combination of screws and thin-set adhesive. Cut and lay out all the pieces before you mix the thin-set (Photos 5 and 6). You can run the sheets in any direction, but be sure to stagger the joints so you never have four corners meeting at one point. Leave a 1/8-in. space between the sheets and along the vanity, tub or shower. The gap along walls must be at least 1/8 in. wide, but a wider gap (about 1/2 in.) makes the panels easier to set in place.
After cutting and fitting, label the location of each one and set them all aside. Vacuum the floor and have your drill and screws ready to go before you mix the thin-set. Read the thin-set’s label. Spread the thin-set with a 1/4-in. notched trowel. Comb in one direction so air can escape when you embed the backer (Photo 7). Drive screws every 6 in. around the perimeter of each piece and every 8 in. “in the field” (across the face of the panel). If the leftover thin-set is still workable, you can immediately embed mesh tape over the joints (Photo 8).
If the thin-set has become too stiff or chunky, mix a new batch. Use “alkali-resistant” tape that’s meant for backer board. While the tape coat of thin-set hardens, run a putty knife over all the screw heads to scrape off the “mushroom” bulges around screws. Drive in any protruding screw heads you come across.

Careful layout pays off

Too often, tile novices simply start setting tile in a corner and continue along two walls until the floor is covered. Sometimes they get lucky and the floor looks good. But more often this method leads to trouble:
They end up with awkward-looking, thin slivers of tile along a prominent wall or at the doorway. And the tile looks even worse when walls are badly out of square or crooked—a straight grout line running too close to a wall emphasizes the wall’s imperfections.
Whether you’re laying a simple grid pattern like we show here, or a diagonal pattern with a border, the best tile layout usually calls for centering full tiles between walls so the partial tiles along the edges will end up all the same size. Don’t rely on your tape measure and mental arithmetic. Rip open a carton of tile, grab a handful of spacers and experiment with your layout on the floor.
To begin, center rows of tile between walls so you have equal spaces along walls that face each other (Photo 9). Set the two rows parallel to the two most prominent walls. Then make adjustments, trying to achieve these three goals:

Use full tiles at doorways and along the bathtub or shower. These are usually the only places where the edges of the floor aren’t covered by baseboard. If you use full tiles in these exposed spots, you don’t have to worry about making smooth, perfect cuts.
Avoid narrow tiles along walls. Ideally, you’ll end up with tiles cut to half size or larger. Avoid cutting tile to widths less than 2 in.
Minimize cutting and try to avoid difficult cuts. For example: Cutting tile to an L-shape to fit around an outside corner is especially difficult when one arm of the “L” is less than 2 in. wide. The arm tends to break off as you cut.

Chances are, your layout won’t meet all these goals. Because the shower stall was the focal point in our bathroom, we made it our No. 1 layout priority. We chose to use full tiles in front of the shower. That left us with 3-in.-wide tiles along the opposite wall, which was less prominent. We also chose to center the tile rows on the shower; that meant we had to use cut tiles at the doorway.

Once you determine a layout, Required Tools for this Project

Have the necessary tools for this DIY project lined up before you start—you’ll save time and frustration.

Bucket
Caulk gun
Cordless drill
Drywall saw
Dust mask
Grout float
Knee pads
Notched trowel
Putty knife
Safety glasses
T-square
Tape measure
Utility knife

You’ll also need these specialty tools for working with tile and backer board:
Scoring knife, Margin trowel, Tile cutter, 4-in. diamond blade, Drill mixer, Offset saw, Tile cutter, Nippers, Wet saw
You can also use an angle grinder for cutting tile.
establish lines to guide your tile positioning. The usual method is to snap chalk lines on the floor. But chalk lines are hard to see after you’ve spread thin-set, and one row of tile may slip as you set the next row. Here’s a more reliable guide: Choose straight boards a foot shorter than the length and width of the room. Tape one edge of each board so thin-set won’t stick to them