How To: Tile a Backsplash

The first important step in tiling your kitchen backsplash is to select your tile. This is important because your other supplies will be chosen based on the material of your tile. Ceramic is inexpensive and can be easy to clean, porcelain and natural stone (granite and marble) is more expensive and can stain if not properly sealed, glass tile can be beautiful but is also a bit pricey and you must be careful  about the color of your adhesive, as it may show through clearer tiles.

The second step we took was to measure and mark off the area to be tiled. We marked our lines lightly in pencil first, double checking the area to make sure our lines were level (if you’re like me, crooked tile will drive you crazy!). We then edged the space in painters tape to more clearly define the area and also to help keep our edges clean.

Once you know the total square footage you are covering you can purchase your supplies. Here’s a list of what we used:

Before beginning what can be a messy tile job, we covered our new wall mounted microwave, floor and baseboard with plastic sheeting. The adhesive was pretty neat, but grouting a vertical surface got messy quick. It was super easy to just pull up the plastic afterwards and toss in the recycling bin.

We began by using the trowel to spread a thin layer of adhesive across the wall. We then went back over it with a second, slightly thicker coat. Flip your trowel over to the notched side and run it across your adhesive to create grooves for the tile to bind to (Side note: we are pretty slow tillers so we only covered half of the area at a time so that our adhesive wouldn’t dry before we could get to it with the tile.).

After the adhesive is spread, comes the fun part of laying tile. We began at the base of our wall cabinet because we knew the line was level and would be an easy starting point.  Examine your area to find a level place to start.

Squeeze tile spacers in between each tile, using a couple on every side.   This was a bit tricky with our tiny spacers on a vertical wall, a lot of them kept jumping ship on us. Be persistent in getting at least one on each side of your tile so that they line up nicely and will have consistent spacing.

Lay all your whole tiles first then go back and mark any tiles that need to be cut.  Most of us do not have a tile saw handy, so we recommend buying your tile from Lowes or another tile specialty shop that will cut them for you.  We purchased all of our supplies at Home Depot,  but found out that they would  not cut our tiles due to liability concerns (they were more than happy to rent us a tile saw though, had we been interested).  Instead, we headed to Lowe’s for our tiles who will cut them for free if you bring the tiles back in marked and with your sales receipt.  We marked our cut line with a pencil.  Due to our brick pattern, we were also able to use each side of a cut tile to fill in our edges, so we marked each side of the tile L for left and R for right so we would remember which side of the wall to use each newly cut piece.  Tip: if you label your side, label them in permanent ink. Tile saws use water when cutting and you don’t want your labeling to wash off.

After getting the tile up on the wall, we let the adhesive dry for a day. The instructions on our adhesive recommended letting it cure 24-48 hours. We waiting about 24 hours and had no problems.

The second day of work was the messiest using a grout float to spread our pre-mixed grout into all our spaces.  Make sure to remove all your tile spacers before beginning. Hold your grout float at a 45 degree angle and just spread it as evenly as possible across your tile job making sure to fill all the cracks and crevices.  Once finished, using a damp sponge in a circular motion, immediately begin removing excess grout from your tiles.

Allow your grout to dry for a few hours and then come back and clean the haze off all your tiles with a cloth. Our grout instructions recommended using a dry cloth or their tile cleaner to do this, however we used a slightly damp cloth that worked just fine – a little elbow grease was needed to make our tiles shine.

Finally, we finished our backsplash with a silicone caulked edge –using painters tape to keep those edges tidy.

We hope this little guide to tiling helps you plan your project. On a side note, The Tile Shop has a great DIY page on their website that will help answer all of your more complex tiling questions from kitchens to floors to bathrooms.

Feel free to comment with feedback or questions. If you try this at home we’d love to see how your finished backsplash looks!