Many times it is quite frustrating to wait for the person, who will fix the tiles on your bathroom floor, but there is a way out available for you, you can tile your bathroom floor with your own efforts. For this purpose you will require some of the tools and the materials like sponge, adjustable wrench, screwdriver, damp rag, pry bar, putty knife, large piece of cardboard for template, tape measure, chalk, hot glue gun, large bucket, paddle mixer, electric drill, water cooled tile saw, ¼” notched trowel, card stock paper, pencil, template gauge, tile nipper, compass, foam rubber tile float and the materials like strips of wood for guidelines, hot glue sticks, thin-set mortar, tile spacers, grout and grout sealer. When you are ready with above tools you can proceed further.

If you proceed with planning then you will be able to finish the work rapidly and with a professional touch. For tiling your bathroom you need to proceed with a definite plan and your first step would be removing the toilet. For this you can begin by shutting off the water supply at the shut off valve and by flushing the toilet to empty it from the water contents. Now with the help of an adjustable wrench, disconnect the water supply from the toilet tank. Next you should remove the nuts holding the toilet to the flange on the floor and lift off the bowl from the floor and carefully remove the toilet from the bathroom. It is advisable to fill a wet piece of rag in the flange opening to prevent sewer gas from escaping. Now you should remove the old vinyl flooring if any before proceeding further, if there is no previous flooring then you may proceed to the next step.

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Usually the self stick floor tiles are made out of the vinyl. These self-stick floor tiles provide you a great, inexpensive option for kitchen, bathroom, and entryway flooring. These vinyl tiles possess a high quality and they can effectively imitate the looks of ceramic and stone tiles, but as compared to the other tiles they are much cheaper and are quite easier and faster to install. It is so easy to install these tiles that even you can do the job without any great amount of knowledge about tile fixing.

To begin with you will require certain tools and accessories to perform the job of tile fixing like sandpaper, floor filler, cleaner, adequate quantity of self-stick vinyl tiles, tile roller, utility knife, measuring tape and chalk.

The first Step is to remove the old flooring present, if necessary as the self-stick vinyl tiles can be laid over dry concrete, undamaged vinyl and linoleum or plywood surface. You can put a plywood surface over the existing damaged floor, if you feel that it is necessary to get a true surface. Now you should fill and sand any nail holes, cracks or low spots in the floor to obtain a true surface. Check and remove any bumps in the floor with a chisel or sandpaper whichever you deem fit. Now proceed to fill low spots in the floor or textured vinyl using a commercial grade leveler. Now you should clean the floor to remove all dirt and grease from the floor and remove any glossy surface or adhesive with the appropriate commercial products available in the market.

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Asbestos floor tiles were quite popular in the past until the mid 80′s when almost every tile available in the market contained asbestos. Some of these tiles are still present in many homes constructed during this period. Now the question arises whether these tiles are hazardous for us or not and the answer is that they are not harmful for us in the tile form, but, anyhow, if the asbestos fibers are released from these tiles then it becomes harmful for our health. Before moving any further let us know some of the properties of asbestos. Asbestos is a group of minerals that occur naturally as thin separable fibers and it is heat resistant, fire resistant, chemical resistant and a known bad conductor of electricity. This is extremely durable and contains very good sound absorbing properties.

Asbestos was preferred over and above other products because asbestos not only made the manufacturing process much easier than other materials, but was found extremely durable and cost-effective. These tiles usually consisted of a mixture of limestone, asbestos, plasticizer, stabilizer, binder, and pigment. The mixture was usually heated to temperatures of 300°F and fed into a roller to be pressed to the desired thickness. They were then pressed through cylinders to gain uniform thickness, after which pigmenting and surface designs were done while the tiles were still hot and soft. The tiles were then cooled by immersion in water, water-spraying, or placed in a cooling unit. They were then cut into appropriate size and waxed, ready for the market. The asbestos fibers gave the tiles properties like abrasion resistance, extra strength and durability, added flexibility and resistance to moisture, oil, grease, heat, acids and alkalis with dimensional stability.

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