So one of the biggest fears folks have is messing up the tile job.
What do I mean by that?
Well, I mean installing this beautiful tile but it turning out terrible and looking bad.
That would be a huge catastrophe, right?
Because then either you’re going to have to live with it or tear it out.
And I don’t think anybody wants to live with a terrible looking tile job, and nobody
wants to tear out tile.
It’s a huge mess.
So what are some tools that you can use to help you get perfect looking grout joints
and your tile nice and level and even.
I’m going to share those tools with you right now.
So this first tool is the Bosch Professional GLL 3-15 laser level.
This is phenomenal.
Second tool is the LaserJamb.
When you combine this with the laser level, now you have a powerful set of tools for tiling.
So this little knob on the bottom of the laser level, it comes with the LaserJamb.
Then you just slide it into place, and you tighten it down.
You can see that when I tap the laser level, it self-levels itself.
Now we’re going to turn it on.
The LaserJamb goes from the floor the whole way up to the ceiling.
It’s basically a jamb that holds the laser level in place for you.
And what’s cool about this is there’s this handle here that you press down on it,
and this adjusts the height of the LaserJamb.
So here’s your laser level right here.
This is your vertical line; this is your horizontal line.
I don’t have this lined up exactly, but the vertical line can be lined up with the
grout joint and make sure that your vertical tiles are exactly lined up.
The horizontal line can line up with your horizontal tiles and make sure that they are
lined up horizontally and nice and level.
Lasers are pretty cool; although I probably shouldn’t be doing that.
So here’s another really basic tool.
This is a carpet knife.
Why do you want a carpet knife for tiling?
Well it’s real simple.
When you put the tiles on the wall, sometimes (depending on how much thin-set you have behind
this and how much thin-set you have on the edges) you’ll have thin-set that oozes out
of the grout joint.
How do you remove that thin-set?
Well, with a carpet knife like this.
Before going any further, I do want to mention one thing: Carpet knives are super sharp,
so be careful when you use them.
Also be very careful when you run it between your grout joints because this is KERDI Board—this
is my water-proofing panel here—I don’t want to pierce that.
Because if I do that, it’s going to ruin the water-proofing membrane of the KERDI Board.
You may even want to dull the carpet knife before cleaning out any of the grout joints.
So it’s as simple as scraping out the grout joint while the thin-set is still soft.
And this is a huge help when you go to grout your tile.
So you might be thinking, “What the heck are those things in between the tiles in the
grout joint?”
Well, these are seamclips.
They’re called Tuscan seamclips, and what they do is compress the tiles together and
create a nice, even transition.
It eliminates what’s called lippage.
So this should be a smooth transition.
You can use Tuscan seamclips on vertical tiles and horizontal floor tiles.
Now some people argue that you don’t need them if you’re a good tile setter, but I
find that they do two things.
Not only do they eliminate the tile lippage, but they help compress the tiles into the
thin-set even more and ensure that that bond is very, very good.
Now you should be compressing the tiles into the thin-set as you move along, but the seamclips
help out with that.
These are 1/16” horseshoe shims.
And what they do is provide you with a nice even grout joint because the Tuscan seamclips,
they’re 1/32” thick.
They’re not thick enough to provide you with a nice grout joint.
So you have to put the horseshoe shim in between them.
Now the Tuscan seamclips go 2” to 3” from the edge of the tile, and you also want them
every 6” to 10”.
Now in this set up, this is a slightly more angled tile, and this is a vertical tile.
I couldn’t put them right here because it just wouldn’t work out.
But as you can see, we followed that pattern in the field of the tile.
So the seamclips and the horseshoe shims, they help you get perfect grout joints and
prevent tile lippage.
It just makes your tile job look so much better.
So there you go.
Those are some quick tips on tiling a shower or a tub surround.
Let me know what your questions are down below.
If you want to learn how to get a great looking tile job by installing an awesome water-proofing
membrane behind it, you can watch our KERDI Board videos right here.
Those are phenomenal step-by-step tutorials on how to install KERDI Board and set yourself
up for an amazing looking tile job.
That’s it for today.
Again, ask me any question you want down below.
I may not have the answer to every single question, but I’ll do my best to help you
out.
Thanks so much for watching.
Take care.
Have a great day.