For a quality kitchen or bathroom floor that's attractive, hard-wearing and will last for years, nothing beats ceramic tiles. Stone floors can be laid using the same principles and are within the scope of many DIYers, but these tiles tend to be much thicker and so it's generally recommended that professionals lay them.
Firstly, you need to think about the order of work. If you're starting from scratch and gutting the room, it's probably easier to lay the floor before the new kitchen or bathroom suite is fitted. This means you don't have to work around awkward objects like the loo, but you do have to be careful not to damage the new floor once it's in.
In the kitchen, you'll save money if you only tile the floor area left after the units have been fitted, though if you plan to have your units on decorative legs rather than with kickboards, you'll obviously need to tile at least some way underneath because this will be visible. The problem with tiling just the area outside the units is that the appliances, like the units, will sit on the original floor, which will be lower than the tiled floor. If the appliances are under the worktop, you'll have difficulty getting them out for repairs so remember to put something underneath them, if space allows, before slotting them in place.
The best floors on which to lay tiles are concrete, a fresh or cured mortar bed, and cement/backer board. If you have floorboards, you'll need to screw them in place, rather than nailing them down, because they tend to move around. Before doing this, use a battery-operated cable and pipe detector to check underneath for cables and pipes. You should repair any damaged boards at this stage.
Now fix plywood (around 20mm thick) or cement board on top. Cement board is preferable because it's highly resistant to absorbing moisture and is also less likely to flex and so cause cracks in your tiling. Whatever the sub-floor, it must be flat, level and clean, as even small particles can cause cracks. If it's not level, you'll need to build up the adhesive when tiling to make any lower tiles level with the rest, which is tricky and time consuming.
The size of the tiles you use will partially determine how easy the job is. The bigger the tiles, the fewer you obviously have to lay, but the general rule is that small tiles suit a small room and large tiles, a large room. However, this is not always the case, so don't be afraid to play around with proportions.
Once you've chosen your tiles and checked they're suitable for floors - some can be used on both walls and floors to give a unified look - work out how many you need. To do this, measure your room carefully, times the width by the length to get the area, then add on around 10 per cent for spares, mistakes and wastage, or more if your room is particularly awkwardly shaped. If you're using discontinued tiles, it's obviously vital to ensure that the shop has enough of them for your needs and then some - don't get caught out!
Q&A
I'd like to tile my bathroom floor but I'm worried about cutting tiles accurately to fit around the loo and basin pedestal because curved tiles are so hard to do neatly. Is there an easy answer?
If you don't want to lift up (or have a plumber lift up) your loo and basin, a simple solution is to use mosaic tiles for the floor, specifically random mosaics (rather than the square ones). The beauty of random mosaics is that you can pull individual stones off the underlying mesh to fill small spaces and you can cut off parts of the mesh to fit around awkward objects, so minimal cutting is required. For tricky areas, you simply piece the floor together like a jigsaw puzzle, which takes time but will give you a better finish than trying to cut curved tiles. A good tip with mosaics is to use a combined tile adhesive/grout product, which isn't always recommended, but in this case the adhesive will ooze through the gaps in the mesh so you don't want to grout with a different colour product.
Firstly, you need to think about the order of work. If you're starting from scratch and gutting the room, it's probably easier to lay the floor before the new kitchen or bathroom suite is fitted. This means you don't have to work around awkward objects like the loo, but you do have to be careful not to damage the new floor once it's in.
In the kitchen, you'll save money if you only tile the floor area left after the units have been fitted, though if you plan to have your units on decorative legs rather than with kickboards, you'll obviously need to tile at least some way underneath because this will be visible. The problem with tiling just the area outside the units is that the appliances, like the units, will sit on the original floor, which will be lower than the tiled floor. If the appliances are under the worktop, you'll have difficulty getting them out for repairs so remember to put something underneath them, if space allows, before slotting them in place.
The best floors on which to lay tiles are concrete, a fresh or cured mortar bed, and cement/backer board. If you have floorboards, you'll need to screw them in place, rather than nailing them down, because they tend to move around. Before doing this, use a battery-operated cable and pipe detector to check underneath for cables and pipes. You should repair any damaged boards at this stage.
Now fix plywood (around 20mm thick) or cement board on top. Cement board is preferable because it's highly resistant to absorbing moisture and is also less likely to flex and so cause cracks in your tiling. Whatever the sub-floor, it must be flat, level and clean, as even small particles can cause cracks. If it's not level, you'll need to build up the adhesive when tiling to make any lower tiles level with the rest, which is tricky and time consuming.
The size of the tiles you use will partially determine how easy the job is. The bigger the tiles, the fewer you obviously have to lay, but the general rule is that small tiles suit a small room and large tiles, a large room. However, this is not always the case, so don't be afraid to play around with proportions.
Once you've chosen your tiles and checked they're suitable for floors - some can be used on both walls and floors to give a unified look - work out how many you need. To do this, measure your room carefully, times the width by the length to get the area, then add on around 10 per cent for spares, mistakes and wastage, or more if your room is particularly awkwardly shaped. If you're using discontinued tiles, it's obviously vital to ensure that the shop has enough of them for your needs and then some - don't get caught out!
Q&A
I'd like to tile my bathroom floor but I'm worried about cutting tiles accurately to fit around the loo and basin pedestal because curved tiles are so hard to do neatly. Is there an easy answer?
If you don't want to lift up (or have a plumber lift up) your loo and basin, a simple solution is to use mosaic tiles for the floor, specifically random mosaics (rather than the square ones). The beauty of random mosaics is that you can pull individual stones off the underlying mesh to fill small spaces and you can cut off parts of the mesh to fit around awkward objects, so minimal cutting is required. For tricky areas, you simply piece the floor together like a jigsaw puzzle, which takes time but will give you a better finish than trying to cut curved tiles. A good tip with mosaics is to use a combined tile adhesive/grout product, which isn't always recommended, but in this case the adhesive will ooze through the gaps in the mesh so you don't want to grout with a different colour product.