Disclosure: In any review for a product or service, products or compensation may have been provided to me to help facilitate my review. All opinions are my own and honest. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC Guidelines. Please see “Disclose” and "Terms of Use" tabs for more information.

Tiling on different surfaces – how is it done?

If you need to replace tiles in your home, you may be thinking about doing the work yourself. Tiling is not an easy job, but you can do it if you have patience and follow the instructions. There can be lots of different surfaces in a home, and you need to apply different techniques, depending on the surface.

The aim of this article is to look at some of the processes you need to complete, to successfully install tiles in your home. We are going to examine the process for installing tiles on concrete, wood and vinyl.

Installing tiles on concrete

The most important thing to remember, when installing ceramic tiles on concrete, is that you need to fix any cracks that are present, before you start the installation. This applies to all smaller cracks which are up to about one eighth of an inch. If you spot any larger cracks in the concrete you really need to remove the section of concrete and lay a new one.

You also need to check that there are no chemicals present on the concrete. If there are any chemicals on the surface, they can adversely affect the bonding process, when you lay the tiles. If you are unsure whether there are any chemicals in place you should drip some water on the concrete and check to see if beading occurs. If it does, it’s likely that chemicals have been used to coat the concrete.

Installing tiles on wood

If you are looking to install ceramic tiles on wood, you have to be careful as the wood needs to be strong enough to support the tiles. For instance, tongue and groove, hardwood and chip board are all unsuitable surfaces on which to install ceramic tiles.

If you have a wood surface that is suitable for tiling over, you need to sand it down first so that the tiles can be installed effectively.

Installing tiles over current tiles

It’s possible to install new ceramic tiles over tiles that are already in place. You need to ensure that the tiles are in a suitable condition to be tiled over. Cracked and broken tiles do not provide a suitable surface. Before installing the new tiles, you need to sand down the current tiles. Then you need to vacuum and wash down the surface, before leaving it to dry. Once the surface is dry, you need to use thin set to lay the new tiles.

Installing tiles on vinyl

It’s not easy to install ceramic tiles on vinyl. If you can avoid doing so, you should. If you are not able to remove the vinyl you should lay a backer board, to act as a new surface. This is the surface that you should fix the tiles to, using thin set.

These are the basics of installing tiles on different surfaces. Check out building materials services, to find the equipment and materials you need. Then, set aside a significant period of time, to make sure you do not have to rush to complete your tiling project.