When it comes to bathroom flooring nothing can beat ceramic tiles. Ceramic tiles are the best as they provide both durability and style to your bathroom. Take care while selecting a suitable tile for your bathroom as manufacturers rate them according to their durability. They classify them as commercial, residential, industrial or light industrial. Residential grade is recommended for bathroom. Smoothness is rated on the basis of coefficient of friction of material. Rating of 0.6 provides good slip resistance. I used to wonder how tiling is performed especially for bathroom. After knowing how to tile a bathroom floor, I found that it is not at all a big task to perform. If you are not good at handy work do not do the task yourself. Instead call professionals for that.

How to tile a bathroom floor?

Step 1: Prepare the subfloor

In the image a dial indicator is attached to check the intensity of deflection in the subfloor.

Tile floor can be a nightmare if it is not laid out on a well prepared subfloor. Make sure the subfloor which you have prepared is flat. It should have minimum bounce. This can lead to the weakening of bonds with the backer boards and cracking of grouts.

How to correct a wavy floor?

Prior to backer board installation make use of a leveling compound over the subfloor. You can get the leveling compound from the tile supplier.

Step 2: Leave an expansion gap while installing backer board.

Image shows the use of HardiBacker. The board will snap cleanly with no back cut.  

Image shows the use of Type I mastic to bond the backer board to the subfloor.

Make use of cementitious backer board. One such cementitious backer board is HardiBacker from James Hardie Interior Products. It is easy to cut HardiBacker in a clean manner. Do not nail down prior to the layering of backer board. You can use type I mastic as an adhesive to bond backer board with the subfloor. Instead of using type I mastic you can also use acrylic-modified thinset mortar.

Make use of Galvanized nails to install the backer board.

Step 3: Set control lines for laying the tile, and cut the odd ducks.

Image explains how to get through the obstructions. Cut the tiles while the floor is dry.

Prior to a layout check that the walls are square and parallel. Prefer diagonal layouts as it makes narrow room appear wider. Make sure the control lines must corresponds with the room’s focal point.

 
Image shows the cutting of tile with the tile saw. Series of straight cuts forms a curve.

Nipper is used to clean the let overs due to tile saw.

Step 4: Be accurate and precise while preparing thinset.

Make use of a slow speed (300-400 rpm) paddle to stir the thinset. Leave it for 15 minutes.
Follow the instructions on the packaging bag of the thinset. Make sure seams between the tiles are completely filled. Do not leave any lumps of thinset at the seams.

Step 5: Apply an even layer of thinset on the floor.

Make use of notched trowel as shown in the picture to spread the thinset.

Step 6: Tap the seams.

This is done to avoid the cracks in the tile. Use fiber-glass mesh tape.

Step 7: Bed the tiles in the thinset mortar.

Make use of plastic spacers to keep the grouts uniform in width.

Step 8: Clean the excess thinset.

For this grout mix should be stiff and clean the water film instantly.

Step 9: Do not over water the grout to perform a proper job.

Get some additional information from this video

Clean the excess grout and moisture with a clean sponge. Apply less pressure while cleaning. At least two hydro sponges are needed to get the job done. This is just the general idea of the steps involved in tiling. Though it is not a rocket science yet you need specialists to get the work done. Experts only have the deep understanding and skills of how to tile a bathroom floor. So for a perfect work you must contact an expert.