We did our own subway tile in the kitchen. It was only the second tile job (after the kitchen floor) that we tackled. Super easy. Take your time, make sure everything is straight and clean as you go. We found the long stretches of tile went faster if one of us buttered each tile while the other person set the tile, straightened and cleaned the joints. Good luck!

I had never tiled before. My husband had. We did the first run of our subway backsplash together and I did the second run all by myself. I found it easy. Slow and steady and measure and cut carefully and it's a snap. I even had some complicated cuts around window casings and they came out really tight and nice. Mantra..."slow and steady, slow and steady" and you'll do fine.

We're doing ours in a couple of weeks (and then we will be 100% DONE!!) and are first-time tilers, so I can report back then. :) So far, it seems like the hardest part is going to be lining the tiles up so that there aren't slivers and the corners get wrapped properly. We did order 15% extra tile per our tile store's recommendation for first-timers.

(Also, the Oakland Tool Library is doing a hands-on workshop on how to tile next Saturday; not sure if it's open to non-residents but it looked like a good session.)

Unless you are doing something like a diagonal inset in the middle, it's pretty easy. And if you have access to a wet saw, and it's really easy!

I am doing subway with a diagonal, herringbone inset. Took half of Saturday and all day Sunday to get the layout figured and the tiles cut. I'll do the end tiles as I lay them, but I had to make sure the inset would be centered and worked backwards from there. This is for the sink wall, I have another one for the cooktop wall.

(I just noticed I have the border mixed up - another thing I have to be very careful I DON'T do when putting it on the wall)

Measure your walls and figure so you won't end up with slivers anywhere - though with a wet saw, you can cut amazingly small pieces (I've done porcelain, this was my first time cutting ceramic since I got the saw). Lay out several tiles and measure them - and allow for your grout lines too. Don't do the math as often the tiles measure slightly different then the measure they say they are. It's too small to really notice on one tile, but when you lay out ten and measure, you may have 3/8 to 1/2" more than you expected.

I'm going for as small a grout line as I can get, so I'm butting the tiles up and using the built in tabs as the only spacers.

I did my subway tile backsplash, my neighbors' subway tile backsplash, and I just completed an entire tiled bathroom. It's pretty easy. I'd definitely recommend a tile wet saw (buy a cheap one or rent one from the hardware or big-box store).

And, yes, the most important thing is lots of careful planning. Make sure you know exactly what will happen in all corners/ends so you don't wind up with ugly slivers. I used the range area as my deciding point in layout, and had to adjust the whole layout over by 1/4 of a tile (I think) in order to make the alternating rows of tile all look symmetrical without slivers. it definitely took some mind-bending layout time.

My subways had self-spacing lugs, which makes for a much easier installation than tiles that require you to insert your own spacers. The only place spacers are needed is at the bottom to get the correct gap between the counter and tile. You might look for tiles with that feature to make your life easier :)

The very BEST tool in my tiling arsenal is a laser level. You can just set it behind you and tile along the red lines, without having to mark level lines that invariably get covered by your thinset as you go along.... a laser level with both horizontal and vertical lines is great. I still mark my lines in pencil on the wall, but I use the laser level, resetting it as needed, to speed things up.

Also, although the pros all frown on pre-mixed mastic for wet areas like bathrooms, it might be just fine to use that product for a backsplash... and that will make your life a lot easier, too.

If you get a basic "how to" tile book from the library of Home Depot, and read through it so you havea good understanding what you're doing, I think you'll do fine. And you'll have such a great sense of accomplishment afterwards!

Babushka,

Doing stained glass helps a great deal, but you don't mention whether your tiles are ceramic or glass. If they are glass, then your wet saw has to have a special glass cutting blade to properly cut glass tiles. If you are renting, make sure that the rental company gives you a new blade that hasn't been used before. Cutting glass tiles also takes a bit longer to cut than ceramic from what my GC told me while he was doing our kitchen.

And of course, I ditto previous advice on doing layout ahead of time, small batches of grout and taking your time to line up the tiles. It also helps to have someone with a fresh eye come in and check the lineup before the grout sets. That was my job along with making some of our subway tiles.

Ours was our 2nd tile job (we did a bathroom floor a couple years ago). I did all the layout and putting them up, and dh manned the wet saw. We bought one with our first job, and I think it was worth the investment (I think it was around $200 vs. $50 or so a day to rent one). The layout was the most time consuming, but it wasn't that hard, per se. I got really tired of working with it though grouting the 2nd wall. And if I didn't have dh to use the saw, I think it would have been much harder, esp for the more complicated cuts. But we're pretty diy all the way, so we never considered not doing it, and I simply love the look and it was 100% worth it!

I did in my previous kitchen. Kinda fun. Advice? DOn't skimp on equipment. Get a proper wet saw.

Here's my wet saw.

I had borrowed a little table top one that used the "splash" method to keep wet, and boy did that splash!

Right now the saw is set up in the basement with plastic hanging around it. This one also has a laser line for lining up the cuts. That also makes it so much easier to use.

Another nice thing to use if you need to cut ceramic is a Rotozip with a ceramic bit. Put the tile down on scrap sheetrock and set the blade so you are cutting into the sheetrock. It keeps it well supported and cuts like it's not there. I have to get mine out as I'll need it for cutting around some of the outlets.

A table! OK. You're really doing this thing right. I thought you set it up on the floor and hope your hair doesn't get caught. That looks much more user-friendly! :)

thanks all for the replies. you have fortified me, i can do it, i will do it! she pauses as she ties on her superman cape!...

The rotozip is a great tip... we have one! I'll have to make sure to get a ceramic tip for when we are ready. I hope we're going to see photos on here after everyone does their backsplash!

Ok - another tip - clean up the grout lines the next day if you use thinset to set the tiles. It takes several days for the mortor to fully cure, and it will be quite soft and crumbly the day after - makes cleaning any high spots out of the grout lines rather simple. If you wait several days, it will harden (like cement should) and it will be very difficult to remove.

I spent about 30 mn this morning carefully going over the grout lines in my one wall (I have learned to be anal about this so I don't have "spots" when I grout) - I normally end up ruining a fingernail or two in the process but that is normal for me.

BTW - here is what I got done yesterday. I mixed up too much thinset the first time, I forgot I was dealing with a small wall area and not a big floor!

it looks a lot better after I took down the spacers and cleaned it all up.

I had one "sliver" I had to cut for up by the range hood, it was 1/4" wide by 2" long, and the tile saw handled it fine. Ceramic is so much easier to deal with than porceline as it's softer and does not crack as easy when cutting.

I used the rotozip for any "U" shaped cuts around the outlets and the tile saw for everything else.

Here is an "in process" picture

I had boards cut for the area needed for the border. By using them I could get my tile edges very straight - just make sure you don't accidentally cement the boards to the wall.

This is what I got done the first "batch" and then I fitted and cut the rest of the perimeter tiles (they are laying on the coutner in this picture - ready to install).

I put the border in after all the rest of the tiles were set.

Here is my mixing setup. I use our smaller hammer drill (but not hammer mode) and a five gallon bucket so things don't splash. I have a scale (it's a fish scale, I'm not using a good kitchen one on this) to measure the powder and measuring cup for the water. Add the water to the bucket and carefull add the powder - if you simply dump it in, you'll get a plume of cement dust! And I have a timer - you mix for five minutes, wait for ten and mix for two and then use.

one wall down - one to go!

Now, we'll see if the resident experts come on here and rip me a new one for all the things I've done wrong. I think I'm learning why people rarely show "in progress" pictures on this forum. I'm showing the way I did things, I am not saying that I think this way is the only way to do it.

It's looking good, macybaby!I can't wait to see it finished!

wow, you rock! beautiful!

I have an article saved that showed some sort of glue type mat for putting the tiles on the wall (like a heavy duty double sided tape, made specially for tiling). It look easy. Not sure if it is the correct way to do things, but it seems like a new alternative. I may have to do ours as our finances are tight, but I will be doing my homework first and rereading this thread as part of that!

macybaby - what are the size proportions of your inset rectangle under the range hood? I am driving myself crazy trying to decide whether to add an inset with a 30" hood or not. Many of them look too small or too square or just clunky, but yours looks just right!

It looks like you are using a 6" tile on the bottom course, too. Is that right? Many thanks, and I apologize for hijacking this thread to ask such detailed questions. Your pictures are very helpful.

Great tips! (The rotozip is definitely priceless for outlets etc.) You all just forgot one DIY tiling essential, as pictured below:

The material I referred to above is Bondera. It seems like a great tool. I'd love to hear if anyone has ever used it and what their opinion is.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bondera

Cicruspeanut - that is so funny! I was setting tile over the sink last night and my husband come up with a beer and asked if I wanted some. I took a sip and said that was enough until I was done - unless he wanted wavy lines!

maxihari - my range hood is 36", the cooktop is 30". The math with the border tiles works out to five blocks in 6" and the subway is 3x6, so I went with 6" increments- so the rectagle is 18" tall by 24" wide. I did not want to have a partial subway below or above the inset. I tried that look and it seems "off"

Though it's hard to tell in the picture, the bottom row is 6x6 tiles and the inset starts right on top of that. I did a lot of layout on paper and on the floor - it was driving me nuts as I orignally wanted to use one row for the boarder but the math didn't work out. As it is, I have a wider grout line around the border than the rest of the tiles to get it all to line up.

BTW - I have the same pattern on the apposing wall where the sink is (both are interior walls so no windows).

I also didn't like the look of a full bullnose tile on the edges, so cut them down to about 3/4" wide. Tonight I'll be cutting the rest of the tiles for around the upper end of the sink wall, and then friday I shold be able to get the rest of the tiles set. I'm taking my time as I really want this to look nice, and it's too easy to start "not caring" as much if you get tired. It might look "good enough" when you are tired, but you'll regret it the next day and then you are chipping tile off the wall to fix it. Another word of advice - if you decide it might not be good enouhg -fix it before you go any farther, as it usually won't end up looking better and once grouted, it's a lot harder to get patched in grout to match (if you bust out a tile later).

Another thing to check before doing a project like this is how flat/straight your walls are. We rebuilt ours and shimmed out some of the studs (and planed some down) on the sink wall as that use to be plastered and some of the studs (real 2x4's too) were as much as 1/4" in from the others. The cooktop wall is new, and that one is perfectly straight.

If your wall is wavy it makes it much more complicated to get good results. You may end up not liking your results and thinking "I'm no good at this" when in fact, you had a very challenging application that even pros struggle with.