LESLIE: Jim in Indiana is working on a bathroom remodeling project. How can we help you?
JIM: Hi. Well, I’ve got a couple things but the one that really is the most pressing for me that you guys might be able to help me out with is I want to tile the bathroom myself and I’d like to do it myself just because I kind of like to tinker a little bit.
TOM: OK.
JIM: I have seen, you know, different books and things like that and I never was real studious or anything but if there is like a how-to or a website or a good way (inaudible) …
TOM: Well, you know, we can give you sort of the 101 here. We’re not going to make a tile man out of you in one phone call. (Leslie chuckles)
JIM: Right.
TOM: But Leslie, you’ve done a lot of tiling. Why don’t you give this guy some tips?
LESLIE: Well, I guess it really depends on what type of tile you’re working with. I find that when I work with a smaller tile that has a mesh background it kind of goes on far easily and sort of spaces itself out, if you will; it sort of allots to where it wants to line up. If you’re working with individual tiles, those little spacers make fantastic sense. You know, buy the little cross-shaped spacer that’s the width of the grout lines you’re going to create.
JIM: Yes, absolutely.
LESLIE: Those make a ton of sense. Obviously, start – I usually start at the bottom. That’s correct, Tom?
TOM: When you’re tiling up a wall?
LESLIE: Yeah.
TOM: Yeah, but you’ve just got to make sure that – you’ve got to keep an eye on it to make sure your line is parallel because, typically, if something is off a little bit – you want to put a level across the tub for example in the shower.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) It’s going to get way off. (chuckles)
TOM: Yeah, it’ll get worse the higher you go. So you want to make sure that no matter what you do that you at least start level. You may end up having to trim some of the tiles to get started so that you can start with a perfectly level line.
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