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My big tile layout mistake cost me over $300 in wasted material
I decided to lay my bathroom floor tile in a herringbone pattern without doing a full dry layout first. I just started from one corner, assuming it would work out. Halfway across the room, I realized the cuts at the opposite wall were going to be tiny slivers less than an inch wide. I had to pull up all the set tile, which ruined about 40 square feet of material. Has anyone else run into this, and what's your rule for planning a layout?
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thomas_butler5mo ago
My uncle's a contractor and he always says to find the longest wall and start your layout from there. That simple trick would have saved your material and a ton of frustration. It's a hard lesson but you won't forget it.
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brooke_taylor445mo ago
Used to wing it, now I always dry fit first.
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green.iris3mo ago
Is that not the most important lesson to learn? I remember my first big tile job, I was so confident I could just lay them as I went. What a mistake that was. Ended up with a crooked mess and had to pull up half the floor. Now I always do a full dry layout first. It takes a little extra time upfront but saves so much headache later. You can see exactly where cuts need to happen and adjust the pattern before anything is set in thinset. It's one of those things that seems like extra work until you've learned the hard way why it's not.
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