Template for laying floor tile

[Ellen Benkin]

This may be really off topic for woodworkers, but I am rennovating my bathroom and would like to find a simple template program to lay out the floor tiles. I guess I could draw it myself but I'm much too lazy for that.

[Myk Rian]

You're going to be drawing on something anyway, like the floor.
Do a Google search for "tile floor designs" and see what comes up. Such as ideas.

[Rick Moyer]

Simplest thing to do is lay out two perpendicular rows, to see what size the edge pcs will be, then adjust your center until you have reasonable edge pcs.

[Jason Roehl]

The typical way to do it is to use a chalk line to snap two perpendicular center lines. Then, dry-fit tiles from those lines to the wall. If the last piece is less than half a tile, shift the layout line by half a tile width. Do the same for the perpendicular direction. Don't forget to account for the width of the grout lines.

[Larry Browning]

+1 for what everyone else has said. You don't need no stinkin' program! Just lay it out on the floor, you are going to have to do that anyway. You can get layout ideas from a google search.

[Ellen Benkin]

Thanks for the responses. I think it would be easier to lay out the pattern on paper then to try to do it on the floor. Many of the patterns require cutting tiles and it would be much easier and quicker to do that on paper than with real tiles.

[Mike Cutler]

Ellen

Log onto John Bridges' Tiling forum. Really nice people that are very willing to help.

[Larry Browning]

Thanks for the responses. I think it would be easier to lay out the pattern on paper then to try to do it on the floor. Many of the patterns require cutting tiles and it would be much easier and quicker to do that on paper than with real tiles.
That has really not been my experience. Once you settle on a design pattern, you are going to need to lay it out on the floor anyway. If you think you can skip this step by using as program or paper, you are asking for trouble. I guess I just don't see how it will help. I suppose if you were going to do a mosaic or an extremely complicated pattern it might help with the design, and even then I think it would be only slightly helpful. Maybe it's just me, but I just don't see the need for it.

[Jason Roehl]

What we're talking about with laying it out on the floor is not cutting tile, but laying out full tiles, then when they no longer fit, you measure.

For example, if your bathroom is 6'8" wide by 8'3" long, you would snap a line at 3'4" and at 4'1.5". Then you would start laying out full tiles. If they're 12" tiles, then you would find that in the width dimension, you could lay 3 tiles to one side of the line, then there would be a 4" gap--less than half a tile. So you would snap another, parallel line that's 6" away--at either the 3'10" mark or the 2'10" mark. Then you lay the full tiles starting at the line again, and you'll find that the last tile will be 10" wide--which looks better and will be easier to lay flat than the 4" tile in the first try.

There's nothing wrong with a sketch for a general idea of the pattern, but trying to cut tiles to that sketch without on-floor layout would be a disaster. Walls/rooms are rarely perfectly plumb, level and square, so anywhere those ideal conditions don't exist, it's nearly impossible to transfer them to the paper.