How hard is tiling?

[NevermindtheBollocks]

Thinking of tiling the kitchen myself. Any tips?

I'll have to take the old ones of 1st.

It's really not hard. I'm fairly useless at DIY and managed to tile our kitchen. Was so impressed with myself! Just make sure you keep going back with a spirit level, probably more often than you think you need to. Use spacers, and I found it easier to put the adhesive onto the tile rather than putting it on the wall first like you're meant to. Also don't do too much at once as the weight of a load of newly stuck tiles could cause the whole lot to slip down a bit.

There was a thread about tiling a week or 2 ago, in which it was discussed how hard tiling is.

I did about 2.5 m square in our old bathroom; took about a week (I'm not joking). It looked OK. You need to hire a tile cutter and it is incredibly messy.

How flat are the walls? How many corners or cut outs will you need to do? How thick are the tiles you want to use? Will your tiling need to be 100% waterproof?

Flat walls, square corners and not much cutting = pretty easy

Loads of corners, bumpy walls, or off square ones, or thick hard to cut tiles = nightmare.

Also depends if any wonky bits will bug you forever. Mine upset me endlessly, DH was proud it was our own work.

In a lot of ways the smaller the tile the less cuts you need.....

Thick tiles are a bugger (must remember this for next time) & an electric thingie makes it much easier

Curves are a nightmare

Remember to place them all out and mark in pencil first to ensure no difficult cuts (less than about 5-8 cms is difficult for me)

Oh & often it's easier to tile over old tiles if you are having them in the same place/shape (unless they are all falling off already) if the are smooth and firm they may be used as a base

there are lots of video tutorials that you can watch.
agree with above poster, it is relatively easy, but difficult to do well if the circumstances are not ideal (wonky walls/weird or uneven tiles)
and it takes a lot longer than you think.

Thanks!

There are 3 corners, and a window sill, nice and flat wall.
It's for a splashback and the area is about 3m in length and 60cm in height. The old ones have been cut at the top where the meet the edge of the windowsil but the new tiles I'm looking at are a different shape - rectangular subway type rather than square.

careful with subway tiles.
if they have tapered edges you can cut with a dry cutter (the scratch&break kind) but need to hire a wet cutter (the saw kind)

Thanks yellow!

sorry I mean you can't cut tapered metro tiles with a dry cutter.