Tiling and floor finishes

Tiles are the top of four floor layers and the only one you can see. But what decides whether the floor will be flat, sound hollow or crack in three years lies two layers below, and that work was finished days before the first box of tiles arrived on site. This page starts from the day…

• This page contains
• The existing floor and the screed — three layers under the tiles that nobody will ever see again
• The nine-step sequence for laying the sand-cement screed — and the four steps that always disappear first
• Pour water on it and watch — a screed check that needs no tools at all
• Lay the tile face-down on glass — a check you can only do before laying
• Notched trowels and spreading adhesive — two things that decide whether there will be hollows
• The eleven-step sequence for laying each tile — and the three steps that disappear when rushing
• Lift a tile and look at its back — a check you have to ask to be done in front of you
• Tap and listen — the most accurate check, and you don't have to buy anything
• Bathroom floor fall — the only figure on this page that is law
• Flatness and lippage — measured with a straightedge and your fingertip
• Movement joints — something nobody mentions until the tiles push each other up
• Grout and finishing — what you can check at the end
• Solid wood floors — timber joists, three spacings you can count from the doorway
• Solid wood floors — two kinds of screed, and what must be decided before starting
• Composite decking — joist spacing tied to board thickness, not to the type of material