Do it Yourself Bathroom Tiling can Update a Home before you Sell it

By: Joshua Safee
Submitted: 2009-10-23 15:21:56
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Bathrooms are a very important area to consider when you are selling your home. Even if you have cleaned them up well, they can look dingy and worn out. As a result it could prevent potential buyers from making an offer on your home. They want to get something that has great looking bathrooms.

In older homes the shower bottom may be concrete. This is very uncomfortable and it is also not attractive. You don’t have to spend a lot of money but there are things you can do to get your bathroom more current. Then potential buyers are going to love the way they look.

Tiling your bathroom can dramatically chance the overall appearance of it. You can use such tiles on the wall of your shower, on the flooring of a concrete floor, on the walls, and even on the countertops. Some people want to have tiles in all of these areas while others choose specific locations for placing them. It is up to you and what you feel would work best to get the bathrooms in a home you have for sell looking great.

It is simple enough to do the tiling work on your own, so don’t spent a fortune hiring a contractor to do the work for you. If you have two bathrooms then do one at a time so you can use the other one for normal business. Take the time to remove the items you need to for tiling to be conducted. You may have to remove old tiles or other materials to get to the surface area.

Make sure you have a level surface to work on or your tiling job won’t look very good when you are done. The surface also needs to be clean and dry. What types of tiles you use are important as well. There are many types of materials, sizes, and colors of them that you can select from. You can buy them at home improvement stores or order them online.

They need to be specifically for use in the bathroom though due to the amount of moisture that develops in those rooms. If you go with anything less, they can end up falling off and you don’t want that. Apply good quality cement for tiles to the location as well as to the back of a tile. Make sure it is perfectly straight. Ideally, work from the middle point of a work area and then outwards from there.

That is why the first one has to be straight – it is going to serve as your guide for putting the rest of them into place. Periodically throughout your work, check to make sure that they are still going in correctly. You need the overall finished work to look very nice. When you get to the ends of your work area, you will need to use a tile cutter to fit into the space that you have left. Make sure you take your time to carefully measure how to cut them so that they are snug and a great fit.

Once all of your tiles are in place, allow them to dry for 24 hours. This will give the adhesive time to cure. It is best if you don’t use the shower in there during that period of time. The moisture can slow down the process of all the tiles staying securely in place.

After 24 hours, you will need to use grout between all of the tiles. This will help them to remain attached in place to each other. Allow the grout to dry for 24 hours as well. Then you can wipe away any extra as well as start to use your bathroom normally again. When potential buyers come to see your home, they are going to love the bathrooms due to the work you completed with the tiling.

Article source: Expert Articles