How to Install Tile on Cement Slab
- 1). Mix a half cup of TSP with a gallon of warm water in a bucket. With a scrub brush, thoroughly scrub the surface of the cement slab floor. Mop the residue repeatedly with clear water. Allow it to dry for at least 48 hours.
- 2). Stretch your chalk snapline across the floor in one direction, from the middle of one wall to the middle of the wall across from it. Snap the line.
- 3). Lay the snapline in the opposite direction as the first line, intersecting it. Don't snap it yet. With your square, confirm that the two lines are at a right angle to each other. Move the string if necessary. Snap the line, leaving two intersecting lines that divide the floor into four sections.
- 4). Use your notched trowel to spread thinset mortar on the middle of the intersection, covering about six square feet. You'll still be able to see the lines through the mortar.
- 5). Press four floor tiles into the four corners of the intersection, using the lines as guides and putting spacers between them. Install the other tiles, putting down mortar and using spacers between. Build out along the lines, working your way toward the walls. Measure and cut the tiles at the outside of the floor, by the walls, using your tile cutter.
- 6). Allow the tiles to set for 24 hours. Take out the spacers.
- 7). Apply grout to the tile with your grout trowel, squeezing it into the spaces and off the tile face. Let it sit in the lines for 10 minutes. Wipe down the surface of the tile with a damp sponge to take up any excess grout. Let the grout cure for two-to-four days before using the floor.
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