It’s 12" x 12" vinyl tile, but I suspect the problem is the same with sheet vinyl, planks, carpet squares, etc.
I’m trying to lay tiles in a basement room. That’s important, because the two outer walls are concrete and thus unalterable. According to the instructions, I should find the center point of the room and lay the first tile from there.
After multiple measurements I’ve decided that the east wall measures 128" and the west wall measures 129". I haven’t measured the north and south walls yet, but it seems logical that they won’t be equal, either.
What should I do? Should I mark the centerline from 64" on one wall to 64.5" on the other? Does that run the risk of making all the tiles run juuuuuust a little crooked? Should I split the difference and mark the centerline at 64.25"? Would that mean that both the north and south sides won’t be right? Or should I ignore the instructions, start at one edge of the room and work my way out? Won’t that mean that at least two edges, possibly three, end up out of plumb?
I should point out that I chose 12"x12" vinyl because I’m painfully aware of my skill level and thought it would be the most idiot-proof way to go.
I’d try to figure out which corners of the room were actually square, and use the corresponding edges to the squarest corner for the baseline, so that the tiles lined up with at least two walls, provided the walls themselves are actually straight.
Absolutely pick a point near the center of the room to start laying tiles … even very slight mistakes butting the tiles to one another tend to magnify as you work along … by starting in the middle, you’ll only have half the distance to go, and all the accumulated errors are expressed at the edges of the room …
Not a perfect fit, you will be cutting these tiles that lay up against the walls … here’s my system, guarantied to make you think twice before accepting advise over the internet form someone who fancies themselves as a wolf:
Each tile has an arrow print on the underside, the instructions say to make sure all these arrows point the same direction in the room your laying … that’s a good idea … you’ve started at the center and have laid down all the full tiles that will fit without cutting … get a razor knife and metal straight edge … at the center of the wall, take a full tile and set it down (with the paper backing still in place) so that the arrow is point in the right direction … flip the tile over so that the upsidedown tile has the arrow pointed the wrong direction … push the tile up against the wall* and mark it back where the full tile ends both edges … cut the tile between those two point … flip the tile rightsideup and it should be a perfect fit … if so, pull off the paper backing and set the tile in place …
This will leave you with the four corners … we use the same process except we do it twice for each of the corners, once in one direction and once at right angles …
It’s very helpful to have the room, floor and tiles on the warmer side … and once you have a few tiles down in place … use your full body weight to push the tiles down, then again after a few minutes, and again after fifteen minutes and yet again after a couple hours … wouldn’t hurt to “dance” the tile yet again the next day … I’ve had great luck bringing in pre-teen young ladies, playing their kind of music, and literally have them dance on the tiles … all to make sure the tile adhesive makes a great connection to the floor …
= if you’re planning on installing baseboard afterward, you can cut the tiles a bit short … an eighth inch gap will be covered by half inch baseboard …
ETA: “flip the tile over so that the upsidedown tile has the arrow pointed the wrong direction” only works on two of the walls … the other two the arrow will be pointed the correct direction … hopefully by the time you finish cutting in the first two walls you’ll have the idea on how this works …
First the pedantic, it can only be a parallelogram if opposite sides are the same length.
Your tiles will have to run “crooked” in some sense. They cannot be parallel to both walls if the walls themselves are not parallel. Aesthetically I’d think what you want is that the rows look parallel as you enter the room. That means if the door is near a corner of the room, the tiles should probably run parallel to the close wall that runs perpendicular to the wall with the door. If the door is near the center of the room, I’d think you want the tiles to be parallel to a center line that split the difference and wasn’t parallel to either wall.
Another thing you want to do is to make sure that none of the four edges has very small tiles as those might not be stuck tightly and come loose. As your walls are not parallel, that means you want to make sure this is true at both ends of the wall. The “center” line does not need to run down the center of the room. I’d pick a line near the center for the edge of a tile, then lay tiles to each wall so that you’ll have at least 1/3 of a tile against each wall. This might require moving your “center” line a bit
For example using your 129" larger dimension, you could try having one tile flush against the wall. You’d then have to cut 3 inches off the tile touching the other edge. But if tiles are not parallel to a wall, you’ll be doing some cutting all around.
Once you pick your start, it will probably help to draw lines where every three tiles or so will go to make sure you’re staying consistent.
It may not make a difference at this point, but if opposite walls do not have exactly the same length, there is absolutely no way the shape of the room is a parallelogram. The walls may not be straight.
No matter what he does, the tiles are guaranteed to very visibly not line up right on at least one wall, and possibly three of them. No pattern of tile layout or starting location is going to help with that. So yes, start from the edge (a corner if you can find one that’s actually right, or the middle of a wall if you can’t), and work from there instead of from the center.
I didn’t actually mean to START from a corner, but to lay the tiles parallel to an edge that has a square corner on it. It might still be good to start from the middle, for reasons stated above. If he’s real lucky, there’s two adjacent square corners and only one wall is out of line.
I have laid floor tiles in an old kitchen that had no square corners or vertical walls. The advice I was given was to make the tiles run parallel to the internal door. The same applies to laying wood floors. Leave all the outer tiles until you can walk on the ones you laid and be sure to have a good tile cutter.
In most rooms, you can’t actually see most of the edges anyway because that’s where you put stuff like cupboards etc.
The reason for the instructions as they are, is for aesthetics, mostly. So Bob’s idea, when you have a room with “difficult” walls, to lay the tiles so that they are square to the main doorway, is a very good idea.
Something you can do as a sort of self test, is to take some of the tiles, and lay them out dry, in a large enough part of the room that you can get a feel for how they will look when you are done. Then stand back and look at them for a while, to see if you like it.
Chances are, the most pleasing alignment will require you to cut all of the edge tiles crookedly, and that’s extra work. But if you end up with the areas you see the most, looking good to you, you’ll enjoy the result.
There’s good reasons to not start at the edge or corner … even if you can keep the tiles each within a hundredth of an inch we’ll still be a full sixteenth off by our sixth tile … the shorter distance of laying, the better the final results …
I chose the 12"x12" tile because it’s easier and cheaper to repair … some dumbass drops their cigarette on the middle of the floor … a full sheet of vinyl is ruined, whereas just replacing one tile is quick and easy … also mistakes do happen and wreaking a $1 tile is far better than mis-cutting a $500 sheet …
…And I just realized that the opposite walls differ by one INCH, not one FOOT, as I had initially read it. A one-foot difference would guarantee that you had small pieces of tile cut at one end (assuming the standard-in-the-US one-foot tiles), so no point in even trying to match that at all. A one-inch discrepancy, though, is not nearly so hard to deal with. OK, ignore my previous advice.
@Mangetout: A trapezium with curving or maybe undulating walls.
Rule one for carpenters and for DIYers: Nothing is straight. Nothing is square. Nothing is plumb. Nothing.
Fortunately houses also have fairly low precision expectations. As long as you keep the joints tight in the main body of the field and avoid gross errors on alignment as seen from the doorway you’ll have an acceptable outcome.
Oh, and a trick for seeing whether a purported right angle really is: Get a couple of mirrors, without frames. Put them in the corner, one on each of the two walls. Now look at your reflection in the corner of the mirrors, and count your nose. If it’s a true right angle, then your reflection will have one nose. Less than 90º, and you’ll have two noses, and more than 90º, you’ll have no nose.
Start from the middle-- that’s how the pros do it. Or, at least measure from the middle first, even if you start at a wall. Decide whether you have a full tile in the middle of the intersection or grout lines based on how it works out at the walls-- ideally, you don’t want any little slivers at the ends. If you have really little slivers, maybe you can cover them up with baseboards, and all is good.
Does the pattern on the tile work if you laid it on the diagonal, rather than square? For ceramic floor tile, I actually prefer the diamond layout, because you don’t have long gridlines paralleling the walls and making vanishing points in your field of vision.
The downside of diamond layout is, more cutting, which means it’s more time-consuming and a bit more tile waste . But I think a diamond layout would help to hide the “hey, this wall isn’t straight!” factor.
Nope - if you end up with really little slivers you cut the preceding tile short. Of course, if, by adjusting the starting point, you can avoid them, you should do that.
I should add that my tiles were ceramic and expensive. I did a lot of DIY back then and that was a job I was really proud of. Laying tiles dry first is a great idea and will give you a better chance of avoiding problems. Once you start glueing, you are committed.
Put a line in the middle of the room parallel to one of the walls. Which wall depends on what you’ll do in that room. In many rooms the floor along the walls is obscured by furniture so it doesn’t matter all that much. The best thing is to run that line parallel with the door opening so the floor doesn’t look skewed as you enter the room or seem off relative to anything outside of the room. The exception might be if you will see the floor at the wall opposite of the door as you enter, you may want to try to get parallel to that wall. Also, cove molding where the floor and wall meet will help obscure non-parallel/non-perpendicular lines.