laying a kitchen floor?

[OutOutLetItAllOut]

has anyone laid their own floor?
we are havin the kitchen re done, and to have the guys fit the floor would mean an extra days wage for them. so we are gonna do it ourselves...
do we do it b4 or after the new one goes in???
any tips?
and light or dark tiles?? whatcha think?

Yes, I've tiled the last three kitchen floors. I find it easy as long as I take it slowly and concentrate. If you're talking about ceramic tiles, two bits of advice. One, get a sample tile, take it outside and scrape it polished side down across gravel or pavement and see if it scratches. If it does, then it's not good enough for a busy kitchen. And two, although more of a faff, buy powder tile adhesive rather than ready mix, it works out loads cheaper.

As for colour, it depends on how much light you have in your kitchen. I went for white marble work tops, bleached oak cabinets, aluminium strips under the cabinets and then a dark grey tile floor which didn't show marks. You can get different colour grout so choose the one closest to the colour of the tiles (unless you're going for bright blue or something). Oh and a meter long spirit level is a must!

Once it's done, it'll make you smile with pride every time you see it. .

And the floor goes in before the kitchen, so they can build the kitchen on top.

hey, thanks for that.
do you have to tile the whole floor? or just where the will be no units? ie, do i have to go to all the walls?

Up to you. If you're planning on staying in the house and think you might replace the kitchen again in the long run but keep the floor, then I'd do the whole thing so you don't need to try matching tiles in 10 years time. Also will it make much difference in cost?

If you're like me and like to take the kickplates off the bottom of the cabinets to clean underneath once in a blue moon, having a whole floor rather than different levels makes it easier.

The other thing I thought of overnight, you might need to cut a couple of tiles to go round pipes which is a real pain with a hand cutter. You can hire an electric cutter for a day from a hire shop for about £10 or I just drew the lines on the tiles, took them to the hire shop and sweet talked the man there into doing it for me for free. Best to leave DP at home though.