Tiling All Alone

by David
(Virginia)

Over the years I have tiled my own kitchen, dining room, and 2 1/2 baths in my own house. I have also become by default the family tile guy so I've also done floors in my mother's and brother's house.
When I decided I would do this myself I was a bit overwhelmed at first but I have found after a couple that its really easy and anyone can do it all by themselves with my tip.
When doing my first floor I tried to mix the thinset, lay the floor, measure all my cut tile, cut and lay. The problem I was having is that when doing the cuts for the sides my thinset would go bad because it takes alot of time to cut tile.
On the next floor I came up with a solution that actually has made the whole job less stressful and I think I'm actually faster.

My solution was to prep the floor and then mix thinset and lay all my whole tile. I didnt do any cuts on the first day. I was done working on the floor in just about an hour on the first day. The second day I was able to walk on the floor so I marked all of my cut tiles and cut them all at once. I then mixed my thinset and layed them all at once. It was so easy because I didn't have to strain to get to them, I didn't have to rush and I wasted no thinset. I also was able to use the room as long as I stayed off of the cut tiles.
So when you're laying a tile floor by yourself, set the whole tile on the first day and all your cut tiles on the second day.
It also helps if you need to get under something like an oven because you don't have to move it far. After the first day you pull your oven out on top of the whole tile and then you tile the space while doing your cuts.
Hope this helps. Tiling is not that hard by yourself if you don't try to do the whole job at once!