KITCHEN BACKSPLASH IDEAS AUSTRALIA
i'm going to show you how to tile a splashback. for the job we're going to require: a masticglue, drill, mixes, cutting equipment such as a tile cutter, angle grinder, some spacers,ice cream stick, grouting trowel, normal trowel, safety equipment, caulking gun, tiles, anda measuring equipment such as that stud finder, pencil and tape measure, and also a pieceof timber to help us support the tiles and spirit levels. so our first step is to put a piece of timberacross the void it helps to support the tiles when we tile across. so what i'll do now isi'll use my stud finder. find out where a stud wall or noggin is in that area and i'llscrew that into there. so looks like one's
going across here so we'll screw into that. so using our long spirit level, i'm goingto span across that area. that gives us a perfect edge to butt up our timber. rightso support timber is in. we'll remove that after the tiles have set. next step is we're going to put down dropsheets over our benchtops, benches and floors. we're want to protect all the great work we'vedone so far. we're going to mix some mastic up so otherwise,put a little bit of water in the bottom of the mixing container. pour a bit of the masticin and then start mixing. make sure when you're mixing it up it's a thick toothpaste consistency.
we're going to tile straight onto a villaboard.villaboard's an ideal surface tile on especially in areas like kitchen, and laundries, andbathrooms and villaboard is strong and good for wet areas. we're using an 8 ml notched trowel. it's theright sized holes for the size of the tile. it allows enough glue on the back to coverthe back of the tile when we press it on to the wall. i'm going to use these little yellowspacers and make sure the first tile sits about a millimetre off the bench. the benchtops will move over time so havingthat a little bit of space will stop any tiles cracking or moving. put the spacers underneathjust to get about a ml, ml and a half space
between the bench and the tile. we've gotour one and a half ml spacers between tiles. to make sure we've got the level set, i'mactually going to put the spirit level on top and have a look to see if it needs anyadjustment. looks really good so we'll continue along but do a constant check with your spiritlevel to make sure the level is always there. it's important on the very first tile. justmake sure that the leading edge is straight with the benchtop. that looks good so thatmeans all tiles will go straight across there. we've got a nice straight line through hereas well. we'll continue this all the way across. we've got a small cut just in the back corner.when we're doing a cut we always want them manufactured in to be closest to the otherthe cut into the wall. the easiest way is
to just flip it over. pop it in place likethat. make your mark allowing a one and a half ml space for the spacer. we've done that.we're going to transfer that over and we'll use the tile cutter to cut that. with this tile cutter, we'll placed the tilesquarely into there. we'll bring the cutting blade up to here. hold it in place. firm pressuregoing forward and then apply just a little bit of pressure and that's it. and that'sthe tile cut. that's a manufactured edge and that's going to go closest to the other manufacturededge on that tile. so we'll pop it into place there. a littlebit lighter at the end we'll silicon the joint next to the cabinet and that will hide anygaps that we have. well that's the first round
place the most important part. we've set thebase for the rest of the tiles to go up. we're going to go up the wall and we'll completethe job. so we've finished tiling. we've given it about12 hours to sit. now it's time to get rid of all the spacers. now to clean the tilesdown. what we're going to do is to get in between the tiles to make sure there is noexcess glue and so forth there. clean it down and get it ready for grouting. it's important when you're using a scrapergoing between the tiles you take it really easy because you don't want to chip a tileand get rid of all your hard work. now we've got rid of all excess adhesive between thetiles. we're going to sweep down all the loose
adhesive. prepare the benchtops by puttingsome masking tape on them to protect them from the grout and we'll start the groutingprocess. now that we've finished cleaning the tilesnow we'll mix the grout up. once we've got our grout to a good toothpaste consistency,we're going to use our foam applicator here. going to apply it in a 45 degree angle tothe tiles and make sure we've got it all the way into the back of the tile. the reason we applied grout in a 45 degreeangle to the cuts themselves it just allows for the grout to go all the way in. if youapply it in this direction like this it pushes the grout nicely into the tiles. get rid ofas much excess as possible. it makes cleaning
up so much easier. we've finished applying the grout to the tiles.now we've waited for 30 minutes, we're going to now wash down the tiles. 45 degree anglemaking sure we fill it in the holes, any highs and lows in the grout. just makes sure wechange our sponges over regularly and they're as dry as possible. that way you'll avoidwetting the grout too much. during the cleaning process it's a good opportunityto check the grout if it's too high. just use your finger right along there. the groutis still pliable. just take off what you need and then just finish wiping off. looks a lotbetter. next step is the silicone. so we're goingto silicone the joints on the benchtop first
and then we'll go around and do the tops. before we apply the silicone on the jointswe're going to take away the supporting timber we put on the very beginning of the job. usingmy scrapper i'm going to take away any excess in the bottom because we're going to alsosilicone underneath here as well. i'm going to take off the masking tape nowbecause i'm not going to require this for silicon. okay the silicon we're using here is sanitarygrade silicone good for bathrooms and kitchen. it's mold resistance as well. important especiallyin these areas. we're going to apply it to the tile at a 45 degree angle with constantpressure, apply a thin bead of silicone in
one motion. next step is now to take the excess siliconeoff. what we're going to do is we're going to squirt a little bit of water along thatjoint because wherever the water is the silicon won't stick. it makes the job a lot neaterand a lot easier and it gives a good finish at the end. using our ice cream stick, we're going todrag it this way and just clean it up like that as you get any excess just wipe it off.now continue on we'll do the other benchtops and the cabinet work. we've finished applyingall the silicone to all the joints. the tiling looks magnificent. it'll set offthe kitchen nicely.
and that's how we tile a splashback.