4.17.2019
How to lay big hexagon tile!: Week 3 of the One Room Challenge
We are making big progress on this bathroom reno!! I have been sharing updates in my Instagram stories, but wanted to dive deeper into one of the major elements of the project.
One design element that was essential to my clients from day one was larger scale, dark hexagon tile. Almost all the bathrooms they were inspired by featured black or grey 5-8" hexagons!
I had never laid large hex tile before--I've done mosaic hexagon tile, big squares, and subway tile--but I knew we could do it! It took some extra math and design, but DIY installation for my clients' beautiful off-black hex tile was totally doable and not that much harder than laying square tiles!
I also have to say... I did some googling on this and it seems there is a serious lack of tutorials for how to lay large hexagon tiles! I apologize if I missed any, but it seems like this post is needed! A lot of the tutorials are for mosaic hex tile, which is a different (easier) animal. (We used 1" and 2" mosaic hexagon tiles in two bathrooms at our last house--you can see a video about how we did both at the same time HERE!) There are also some cool videos out there, including this time lapse of a previous ORC and this contractor's entire process with some similar tiles. But I'd like to share the steps we used to lay these hex tiles carefully!
This tutorial will show you how to lay individual hexagon tiles on a bathroom floor!
For preparation, like you would do for any floor tile application, prepare your surface with backer board or other tile base. We used Schluter®-DITRA instead of concrete backer board to keep the tile well under the door swing. We also replaced the subfloor with a lower profile subfloor. (Read about our preparation in this post.) In the past I've just laid concrete backer board over the old particle board subfloor and it has worked fine. Do some research into the tile base that will work best for you depending on your floor construction!
Once you have your tile surface ready...
1. Lay out your design. We did this using Adobe Illustrator, but you can use any graphics program and create your own scale. We did this in a few steps:
This step was SO useful because it allowed us to see the ripple effects of lining up the tiles at any of the sides. We wanted both the tub edge and flooring threshold to look the nicest, as they'll be most visible, and just because of the size of the room that meant it didn't work to line up a full tile at either side.
We also played around with direction, though--these tiles are not symmetrical like a square or circle and so it gives a totally different look (and math) to turn them 90 degrees. Take a look at our options!
Option 1 looks cool, but check out the cuts around the floor vent and toilet. Also, if we used the edge of the tiles at the tub, we had a very tiny (hard to cut) row at the door (shown in red).
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One design element that was essential to my clients from day one was larger scale, dark hexagon tile. Almost all the bathrooms they were inspired by featured black or grey 5-8" hexagons!
I had never laid large hex tile before--I've done mosaic hexagon tile, big squares, and subway tile--but I knew we could do it! It took some extra math and design, but DIY installation for my clients' beautiful off-black hex tile was totally doable and not that much harder than laying square tiles!
I also have to say... I did some googling on this and it seems there is a serious lack of tutorials for how to lay large hexagon tiles! I apologize if I missed any, but it seems like this post is needed! A lot of the tutorials are for mosaic hex tile, which is a different (easier) animal. (We used 1" and 2" mosaic hexagon tiles in two bathrooms at our last house--you can see a video about how we did both at the same time HERE!) There are also some cool videos out there, including this time lapse of a previous ORC and this contractor's entire process with some similar tiles. But I'd like to share the steps we used to lay these hex tiles carefully!
How to lay big hexagon tile
This tutorial will show you how to lay individual hexagon tiles on a bathroom floor!
For preparation, like you would do for any floor tile application, prepare your surface with backer board or other tile base. We used Schluter®-DITRA instead of concrete backer board to keep the tile well under the door swing. We also replaced the subfloor with a lower profile subfloor. (Read about our preparation in this post.) In the past I've just laid concrete backer board over the old particle board subfloor and it has worked fine. Do some research into the tile base that will work best for you depending on your floor construction!
Once you have your tile surface ready...
You will need:
- Individual hexagon tiles (with an extra 10-20% to account for edges and errors) (ours are these 7"x8" ones)
- Mortar
- Grout
- Spacers (we used 1/8")
- Tile wet saw (we used an electric one but I have also used a manual/scoring tile cutter instead before)
- Mortar mixer attachment for power drill
- Two buckets
- Tile trowel (here is a guide on what size to use based on your tile size)
- Rubber grout float
- Small level and/or tile leveling system
- Measuring tape and pencil, and I also highly recommend a Speed Square
- Laser level (highly recommended)
- Tile sponges
Instructions:
1. Lay out your design. We did this using Adobe Illustrator, but you can use any graphics program and create your own scale. We did this in a few steps:
- Using a hand-sketch of the bathroom layout, we created an Illustrator base that is to scale, so 63" by 80". One inch in the graphic = one inch in the bathroom. (No conversions!)
- Then we added the notch of the wall, and 4" separation for the floor vent, dimensions for the toilet distance, etc.
- Then we created our tiles (ours were 7"x8") and a row of tiles with 1/8" scaled spacers, and copied it over and over again to fill the room.
- Once the room was (over)filled, we could scootch the whole tile layout up and down to play with where the cuts would land at the edges, focusing on the bathtub and door threshold as prominent areas.
This step was SO useful because it allowed us to see the ripple effects of lining up the tiles at any of the sides. We wanted both the tub edge and flooring threshold to look the nicest, as they'll be most visible, and just because of the size of the room that meant it didn't work to line up a full tile at either side.
We also played around with direction, though--these tiles are not symmetrical like a square or circle and so it gives a totally different look (and math) to turn them 90 degrees. Take a look at our options!
Option 1 looks cool, but check out the cuts around the floor vent and toilet. Also, if we used the edge of the tiles at the tub, we had a very tiny (hard to cut) row at the door (shown in red).
