My wife and I have replaced bathroom tile before. It is actually not that hard to do. Most of the time, you can complete a project for a fraction of what it would cost you to have it done professionally. Once you know how to do it properly, you can do just as good of a job as a professional.

The Demolition Process

Remove the existing flooring or tile. If you don’t like the flooring that you have in your bathroom, you might enjoy tearing it out. If you have tile, you’re going to want to use a vibrating chisel, or a small sledgehammer and a flat screwdriver. If you are just pulling up linoleum, make sure that you get it all up and that you clean off the glue residue, before putting down your tiles.

Installing Bathroom Tile

After you have gotten rid of all of the unwanted flooring, you should be left with a level surface when installing bathroom tile. If you have wood underneath for your subflooring, make sure to add a few extra screws to keep the plywood from moving around. If it moves around, it could cause your tiles to pop out of the floor. If you have cement, make sure that it is level and clean before you start putting down your mortar and tiles.


The next step when you are tiling a bathroom floor, is to take a chalk line. Using the length and the width of your room, find the middle of the floor. Most professional tile installers will start installing tile in the middle of the floor, and then work their way to the edges. This helps them to install it straight. The first few tiles that you install are going to be very important because they will dictate how the rest of your tiles will look.

The next thing you want to do is mix your mortar paste in a 5 gallon bucket. Using a float with a quarter inch, or a 1/8 inch wedge, spread the paste evenly on your floor. Use spacers in between the tiles to make sure that they are properly spaced.

When you are learning how to tile a bathroom floor, you never want to walk on it to push it in place. Rather, you just want to slide it into place, and then push on it lightly with your hands. This way, you can make sure that the mortar helps to hold the tiles in place. You want the tiles to be as level as possible. It is okay to go slow, and make sure that everything is even and level. Make sure to use a wet saw to cut any tiles that need to be cut before they are installed.
It should take about 48 to 72 hours for the tile mortar to cure. After they are fully cured, you should use a grout paste to fill in all of the grout lines. After the grout lines have cured, then you’ll want to add a grout sealer as the final step.

Here’s another article you might also like:

*How to Grout Tile