Hi,
I've decided I'm going to tile the splashback area our new utility room, rather than employ a tiler (sorry tilers). It's pretty straight forward, but I would appreciate your experience and guidance on the best way to layout the tiles around a window recess as its been a while since I did any tiling. I have my thoughts, but would like to double check they are in the right ball park.
The tiles we've selected (I say we, but of course I mean my wife
) are "brick style" 10cm high by 20cm wide.
The area to be tiled is above an L shaped work surface. The long part of the L is 240cm (almost a perfect length for 12 full tiles) with a couple of sockets at 40cm above the worksurface. This would allow 4 rows of full tiles, but due to 2mm gaps the tiles butting upto the sockets would need to be trimmed slightly, which is a shame! The shorter part of the L contains a window and the sill will need tiling (it has been plastered), this is where I'm really looking for advice. I should say that the worksurface was installed by my brother-in-law, who is a perfectionist, and it is therefore 100% level all the way around, so that's why I'm considering starting with a full tile at the bottom, "sitting" (allowing for the 2mm gap) on the worksurface. The third wall will need tiling for the depth of the worksurface, which is 60cm. No issues with this.
The sill to the worksurface is 17cm, so just less than 2 tiles high! If I start with a full tile at the bottom, this will result in a 7cm'ish tile upto the sill, which I can also arrange to continue around each vertical edge of the window. Alternatively, should I fit a full tile immediately below the sill and then fit the cut 7cm'ish tile to the worksurface? If I do this, then it will be necesary to do this on the other two side walls as well and instead of having 4 rows of tiles I would have 3 full rows and a cut row at the bottom (7cm'ish high). This would also lower the tiles so they don't touch the sockets!
Because the tiles aren't glazed on the edge, I'm considering finishing off all the exposed tile edges (top row and end rows) with UPVC trim. I would also use this trim on the sill edges (horizontal and vertical), which I have to do anyway as these are external corners. Is surrounding the whole tiled area in UPVC trim a little over the top? I don't see any other way of hiding the un-glazed edges of the tiles.
I would appreciate your comments on the best way to tile around the window (full tiles or cut tiles) and on the use of trim.
Thanks.
I've decided I'm going to tile the splashback area our new utility room, rather than employ a tiler (sorry tilers). It's pretty straight forward, but I would appreciate your experience and guidance on the best way to layout the tiles around a window recess as its been a while since I did any tiling. I have my thoughts, but would like to double check they are in the right ball park.
The tiles we've selected (I say we, but of course I mean my wife
) are "brick style" 10cm high by 20cm wide.The area to be tiled is above an L shaped work surface. The long part of the L is 240cm (almost a perfect length for 12 full tiles) with a couple of sockets at 40cm above the worksurface. This would allow 4 rows of full tiles, but due to 2mm gaps the tiles butting upto the sockets would need to be trimmed slightly, which is a shame! The shorter part of the L contains a window and the sill will need tiling (it has been plastered), this is where I'm really looking for advice. I should say that the worksurface was installed by my brother-in-law, who is a perfectionist, and it is therefore 100% level all the way around, so that's why I'm considering starting with a full tile at the bottom, "sitting" (allowing for the 2mm gap) on the worksurface. The third wall will need tiling for the depth of the worksurface, which is 60cm. No issues with this.
The sill to the worksurface is 17cm, so just less than 2 tiles high! If I start with a full tile at the bottom, this will result in a 7cm'ish tile upto the sill, which I can also arrange to continue around each vertical edge of the window. Alternatively, should I fit a full tile immediately below the sill and then fit the cut 7cm'ish tile to the worksurface? If I do this, then it will be necesary to do this on the other two side walls as well and instead of having 4 rows of tiles I would have 3 full rows and a cut row at the bottom (7cm'ish high). This would also lower the tiles so they don't touch the sockets!
Because the tiles aren't glazed on the edge, I'm considering finishing off all the exposed tile edges (top row and end rows) with UPVC trim. I would also use this trim on the sill edges (horizontal and vertical), which I have to do anyway as these are external corners. Is surrounding the whole tiled area in UPVC trim a little over the top? I don't see any other way of hiding the un-glazed edges of the tiles.
I would appreciate your comments on the best way to tile around the window (full tiles or cut tiles) and on the use of trim.
Thanks.
