Where should I start tiling a wall — in the centre or in a corner?
The setting out decides how a tiled wall looks, and it is all done before any adhesive is mixed — centre lines, the batten datum, and where the cuts are allowed to land.
- Difficulty
- intermediate
- Time
- 1 hr
- Read
- 5 min
- Safety
- caution
Short answer
Set out from a centre line, not from a corner, so the cuts at each end are equal and wide enough to cut cleanly. Then fix a level batten to the wall and build the first full row off it — never off the floor, bath or worktop, none of which is level. The bottom cut row goes on last.
Amateur tiling and professional tiling usually use the same tiles and the same adhesive. The difference is that one of them was set out and the other was started in the corner because that is where the wall began. Every visible fault — the sliver at the end, the row that runs downhill, the joint that misses the window — is a setting-out decision that was never consciously made.
Safety
What you'll need
- tape measure and pencil
- spirit level, or a laser level
- straight timber batten and screws
- a gauge rod — a straight batten marked in tile-plus-joint widths (optional)
- chalk line (optional)
Step by step
- Make a gauge rod before you do anything else.A straight batten marked off in tile widths plus joint widths. Held against the wall it tells you instantly, without arithmetic, where every joint will land and how big the end cut will be.
- Find and mark the true centre of the wall.Measure the wall at top and bottom — they will differ — and mark the centre of each, then join them with a plumbed or laser line. This is the reference everything else comes off.
- Gauge outwards from the centre line and look at the end cuts.Two options exist: a tile joint on the centre line, or a tile centred on it. One of them gives better end cuts than the other. Try both with the gauge rod before choosing.
- Apply the one-third rule.If either end cut works out narrower than about a third of a tile, shift the whole layout sideways by half a tile. Both end cuts grow, and a wider cut is easier to make, easier to handle and less obtrusive.
- Decide which end is actually on show.A symmetrical layout is the default, but not a law. If one corner is behind a door and the other is the first thing you see, it is legitimate to push the layout so the awkward cut lands in the hidden corner.
- Set the vertical position from a level line, not from the floor.Gauge upwards from the floor, bath or worktop to see where the horizontal joints fall. Aim to avoid a sliver at the ceiling and to keep a full tile at eye level and around any feature.
- Screw a batten to the wall on that line.Level it properly — a laser or a long spirit level, checked at both ends. The batten carries the weight of the first rows so they cannot slide, and it guarantees the wall is square to gravity rather than to the floor.
- Tile from the batten upwards, working out from the centre line.Full tiles first across the whole field, cuts left until last. Keep checking the vertical line every few rows; small errors accumulate quickly on a big wall.
- Leave the batten in place until the adhesive has set.How long depends on the adhesive and the conditions — the data sheet governs it, not the clock. Removing it early lets the whole wall slump a few millimetres.
- Fit the bottom cut row last.By then the batten is off and you can measure each cut individually to the real, uneven line of the floor or the bath, which is what makes the bottom row look deliberate.
Tips
- Dry-lay a row on the floor with spacers in before committing. It takes ten minutes and it is the only way to see the layout at full size.
- Around a window or a focal point, set out so full tiles frame the feature and the cuts go to the corners — the eye goes to the window, not the corner.
- If two walls meet in a corner you will both look at, decide which one carries the cut before you start either.
- Take a photo of the marked-out wall before tiling. It is surprisingly easy to lose your own reference lines under adhesive.
Common mistakes
- Starting with a full tile hard into the corner — The end cut becomes whatever is left over, which is very often a sliver at the most visible edge. It is also the hardest cut to make: narrow strips snap during cutting and are almost impossible to press into the adhesive without them squeezing sideways.
- Using the floor, bath or worktop as the level datum — None of them is level. A first row laid to a surface that falls 6mm across the room carries that error all the way up the wall, and it becomes obvious the moment the tiling meets a ceiling or a window head.
- Setting out only horizontally — The vertical setting out decides whether there is a sliver at the ceiling or an awkward half-joint across the middle of a window. Both are more visible than a wide end cut.
If it doesn't work
Halfway across and the joints have wandered off vertical
Cause: Small errors in joint width accumulating, or spacers not seated — Fix: Stop, re-plumb from the centre line, and adjust the joint width very slightly over several tiles to bring it back. Do not correct it all in one joint.
The end cut is going to be 12mm
Cause: Setting out never checked against the wall length — Fix: If the adhesive is still workable, lift and shift the layout half a tile. If it has set, use a tile trim on that corner to absorb some of the difference.
First row slid down the wall overnight
Cause: No support batten, or the batten came off before the adhesive had set — Fix: Lift the tiles while the adhesive is soft, fit a batten and start again. Once set, the row has to be cut out.
Questions people ask
Do I always centre the layout?
No — you centre it by default, then override it for a reason. A wall with a window, a shower valve or a run of units has features that matter more than the corners, and it is usually better to give those full tiles and push the cut into a corner nobody looks at.
What if the two side walls are not parallel?
Very common in older houses. The cut tiles at each end will taper, and there is nothing to be done about that except decide where the taper is least visible. Set out from the centre so the taper is split between two corners rather than concentrated in one.
Can I just start at the bottom and work up?
Only where there is a genuinely level surface to start from, which in practice means almost nowhere. A batten costs nothing and removes the biggest single source of error.