Tiles & Flooring: how to use it, and how much you need

Level and cure the base first — a new concrete slab must be 28 days old, and the surface has to be true to within 6 mm over 3 m before you start. Set out from the centre of the room with a chalk line so the cut tiles land at the walls and not at the doorway. Add the 20 kg adhesive powder to about 5 litres of water, let it stand 5 minutes, remix, then comb it on with a 12 mm notched trowel and back-butter every tile 600x600 mm and larger. Bed each tile with a rubber mallet, hold the joint with spacers, and check level as you go — the adhesive stays adjustable for roughly 35 minutes. Wait a full 24 hours, pull the spacers, then press grout into the joints with a rubber float and sponge the haze off the tile face within 30 to 45 minutes.

• Notched trowel, 12 mm x 12 mmask us to source it
• Rubber malletask us to source it
• Spirit level, 4 ftask us to source it
• Rubber grout floatask us to source it
• Manual tile cutter, 3 ft bedask us to source it
• Angle grinder, 4 inchask us to source it
• Diamond cutting blade for vitrified tileask us to source it
• Mixing paddle for drillask us to source it
• Mixing bucket, 20 litreask us to source it
• Rough-textured grouting spongeask us to source it
• Chalk line and measuring tapeask us to source it

• Tile adhesive, IS 15477:2019 Type 2 'T' (20 kg bag)ask us to source it
• Tile grout / joint filler (1 kg pack)ask us to source it
• Tile spacers, 2 mm (packet of 100)ask us to source it
• Tile levelling clips and wedgesask us to source it
• Acid-free tile and grout haze cleaner (1 litre)ask us to source it

• Rubber hand glovesask us to source it
• Safety gogglesask us to source it
• Dust maskask us to source it
• Knee padsask us to source it

• Buying exactly the area you measured. Edge cuts and breakage eat about one box in ten. Boxes bought later to top up come from a different firing batch and the shade will not match the floor you already laid.
• Using adhesive to level a bad floor. The Roff Vitrofix data sheet caps correction at 15 mm and requires the surface plumb and true to 6 mm in 3 m. Fix the screed first or the tiles will sound hollow and lift.
• Putting Type 1 adhesive under vitrified tile. Type 1 is for porous ceramic in dry interiors. Vitrified tile absorbs almost nothing and needs IS 15477:2019 Type 2 'T'. The cheap bag is the usual substitution and the tiles come loose in a year.
• Treating tile adhesive as waterproofing. Both the Roff and the MYK Laticrete data sheets state plainly that it is not. Bathrooms, balconies and terraces need a waterproof coating under the tile bed, laid before any adhesive goes down.
• Grouting the same day as laying. Both data sheets say wait 24 hours. Grout the wet bed and the joints crack and the tiles shift. Then cleaning the haze off with acid, which eats the joint out — use an acid-free tile cleaner.

• Read the water absorption group printed on the box. IS 15622:2017 requires it. Group B Ia is 0.08 percent or less — that is true vitrified. Group B III is above 10 percent, which is a wall tile being sold to you as a floor tile.
• IS 15622:2017 clause 8 requires every box to carry the maker's name or trade mark and country of origin, the batch number or date of manufacture, and the tile designation. A box with no batch number is a reject lot or a copy. Leave it.
• Buy the whole job in one lot and check the batch number is identical on every box. Shade and size drift between firings, and you cannot correct it once the floor is down.
• On the adhesive bag look for IS 15477:2019, the type number, and the BIS Standard Mark. Type 2 'T' is the grade for vitrified tile and wet areas. Rectified tiles marked R have ground edges and can take a 2 mm joint; unrectified need 3 mm or the joint lines will wander.