Course description

A tired splashback, cracked tiles round the bath or a cloakroom floor you'd love to change: tiling is a satisfying job to learn to do yourself, and it rewards patience far more than strength. This course teaches you to tile walls, splashbacks and small floors at home, from the first survey to the last bead of silicone.

It's written for homeowners with no tiling experience. You learn to check what's behind a wall, prepare it, set out the tiles so the cuts fall in the right places, work out exactly what to buy, cut tiles cleanly, fix them flat and level, and grout and seal them. Safety runs through every section, using HSE guidance on silica dust, cement and noise, and the course is clear about when to book a registered electrician, a plumber, a Gas Safe registered engineer or a professional tiler.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons, each with a worked example, common slips, questions people often ask and a short exercise to try, and each section ends with a short quiz. You follow Izolda, a made-up homeowner in Evesham, as she tiles her kitchen splashback, the walls round her bath and her cloakroom floor, with advice from Ranulph, her neighbour and a retired tiler. Every section has a practice pack with a worksheet, an answer key, a cheat sheet and worked examples, plus extras such as a safety card, a survey checklist, a set-out worksheet, step cards for every stage, a materials list and a quantities calculator spreadsheet. You finish by planning a complete L-shaped splashback for a final project.

What you'll learn

• Getting started: tile types and which suit each room, a starter kit and what can wait, and working safely with silica dust, cement, noise, children and pets.
• Surveying walls and floors: what's behind the surface, asbestos in older homes, hidden cables and pipes, checking for flat, plumb and sound, floors that move, and drawing a measured plan.
• Preparing walls and floors: plaster and paint, plasterboard and backer boards, stripping old tiles safely, timber and concrete floors, and tanking round a bath.
• Planning the layout and setting out: patterns, gauge rods, centre lines, a level batten, and setting out a floor from the doorway with a dry lay.
• Quantities, adhesives and grouts: working out tiles two ways, allowances and boxes, choosing adhesive, grout and silicone, and a materials list, with a calculator spreadsheet.
• Spacing and cutting tiles: spacers and joints, straight cuts with a manual cutter, wet saws and safety, L shapes and curves, and holes for pipes.
• Tiling a kitchen splashback: planning round a socket, mixing and spreading adhesive, fixing the rows, cutting round sockets and corners, and grouting.
• Tiling round a bath: a level start from an uneven bath, tanking, large tiles, corners and trims, the shower pipe, and a neat silicone bead.
• Tiling a floor: door heights and thresholds, backer board on floorboards, a solid bed, undercutting a door lining, and floor grout.
• Repairs and your final project: fixing common faults, replacing a cracked tile, looking after tiles, and planning an L-shaped splashback from survey to grout.

Who it's for

Homeowners, and renters with their landlord's permission, who want to tile their own kitchen or bathroom walls or a small floor. It's for DIY at home, not the trade qualification route. You don't need any experience, and you build up your kit section by section.

What this course is, and isn't

This course teaches wall and floor tiling for DIY at home. It doesn't teach any electrical, gas or plumbing work, and it doesn't cover wet rooms, shower trays or enclosures, which are jobs for a professional. Safety facts come from HSE pages and the electrical safety regulation from GOV.UK. Coverage figures in the worked examples are made up: always use the figures on your own products. Izolda, Ranulph, Dzintra and every other person in the course are fictional.

What will I learn?

• Choose tiles for each room, and put together a starter kit of tools and safety gear
• Work safely with silica dust, cement-based products and powered cutters, and know when to call an electrician, plumber or professional tiler
• Survey walls and floors for flatness, soundness, hidden cables and pipes, and draw a measured plan
• Prepare walls and floors, choose backer boards, strip old tiles and apply a tanking system over a bath
• Set out a wall or floor with a gauge rod, centre lines and a level batten so the cuts fall where they look right
• Work out tiles, boxes, adhesive, grout and silicone two ways, and write a materials list and tools checklist
• Cut tiles straight, in L shapes and curves, and drill neat holes for pipes
• Tile a kitchen splashback, bath walls round a shower and a small floor, from the first tile to grout and silicone
• Fix common faults, replace a cracked tile and look after tiles over the years
• Plan a complete L-shaped splashback as a final project, with worked answers to check against

Frequently asked questions