Our first project is going to be tiling a conventional bathroom. We’ll be using extruded plastic strips around the window profile. Begin by covering the sanitary ware with dust sheets to avoid any damage, such as surface scratches.

Now run a scrapper over the areas to be tiled, to remove any protruding lumps. Now finish the preparation with a medium grade sand paper. At this stage it’s worth mentioning that certain tiles are still sold imperial measurements, therefore when measuring the area to be tiled, you may find it useful if you take the measurements in both metric and imperial.

To work out the number of tiles, you’ll need to measure the height to which you want the tile to finish. Then measure the width of the walls, remembering to omit any items to be tiled around. For example, for bath, doors and windows. Having taken all the measurements, your tile merchant or distributor should be able to advise you exactly how many square yards or meters you’ll need. If the area you’re tiling includes a window recess, this should be your starting point.

From the bottom of the window, square around the room with a level and pencil. Use plain wood for this purpose. Check the squareness and mark the truest edge. Now fix the wood to the squared line with nails and a hammer. Now don’t drive the nails completely into the wood as they will need to be removed later. Measure the window opening, find the halfway point and mark it. Now measure and find the middle of the tile, mark with a pencil, match this up with a halfway measurement you’ve just find on the window opening. Dry layer the tiles across the window ledge, spacing with the tile spaces that you’ll be using. Mark the wall with a last tile finishes and with a level, draw a vertical line up the wall.

This is your starting point. Use a good quality of waterproof tile adhesive when tiling bathrooms or showers. Apply the adhesive to the wall using a tile adhesive spreader. Always wear protective rubber gloves when tiling. Make sure you apply the adhesive evenly and only prepare a small area at one time, as the adhesive will cure relatively quickly. Remove any excess adhesive from the spreader.

Now start tiling from your vertical line making sure that the tiles are firmly embedded in to the adhesive. Insert the tile spaces between the tiles and close up any gap between them. The spaces will give you uniform joints throughout. Continue to tile along the horizontal line, spacing is necessary. Begin to tile the second row. Spacing is before.

Here we’re going to use a decorative tile to finish off at this height. Again space is required. Make sure that all the tiles are laying flat against the wall. Remove any excess with a damp sponge. Measure your finished tile height. Transfer this to any external 90 degree angles. Place the tiling on top of the—board, mark the finish tight on to the trim and cut. Cut the trim with either a junior axel or a dedicated tile trim cutter. Apply the tiling adhesive along the edge profile and position the trim.

When it's in the desired spot, squeeze firmly into the adhesive, remove any excess with a spatula. Now apply more adhesive as you did before, remembering not to tackle two big area in one time. Again, tile along the horizontal bottom working from the tile trim with a full tile towards the corner. Always try to make sure that any cut tiles are in the corners and not in external angles. Measure the gap between the last full tile and the corner. Mark this measurement into a full tile.

When using any form of tile cutting equipment, it's important to wear eye protection. Using a straight edge, score the tile and snap. Apply the tile adhesive and fix into place. Repeat the same process for all the tiles that need cutting. Remove the horizontal wood support. Now square off the finish height around the window profile.