Tile a kitchen splashback

Start with the wall, not the tile

Run a level across the area in several places. A wall that bows will show as a tile that stands proud at one end of a row, and there is no adhesive technique that hides a significant hollow. Minor variation is normal; a visible hollow needs making good before tiling.

The surface must be clean, dry, sound and reasonably absorbent. Old gloss paint, flaking emulsion and greasy plaster behind a hob are all reasons a splashback comes off in sheets a year later.

Set out from a centre line

Measure the run and mark its centre. Lay tiles out dry along the floor or worktop with spacers between them and see where the joints fall relative to that centre mark.

Then choose between a joint on the centre or a tile on the centre, whichever leaves you with the widest possible cut tile at both ends. A run that ends in a sliver at one side looks like a mistake; a run that ends in a half tile at both sides looks like a decision.

Mark the top line of the tiling with a level, not by measuring up from the worktop. Worktops are rarely dead level over two metres, and a row that follows the worktop will visibly climb away from the wall units above it.

Batten, then fix

Fix a straight timber batten along the bottom line of the first full row and check it with the level. The first row rests on the batten rather than on the worktop, which stops the whole run creeping downhill while the adhesive is still soft. The small gap left underneath is cut and filled at the end.

Spread adhesive over an area you can tile before it skins, which is a smaller area than it sounds, and comb it with the notched trowel in one direction so the ridges collapse evenly when the tile is pressed home.

Press each tile in with a slight twist rather than sliding it into place, and put spacers in as you go. Check the level along the top of every second or third tile; correcting one tile is trivial and correcting a whole row is not.

Cuts, and where to put them

Measure each end cut individually. Walls are not parallel and a run of identical end cuts will fit at one end and not the other.

Score once, firmly and in a single pass, then snap. A second scoring pass follows the first imperfectly and gives a ragged edge.

Put the cuts where they are least seen: into the corner, behind an appliance, at the bottom against the worktop. The visible edge of a splashback is the top, so keep full tiles there wherever the setting out allows.

Grout, and stop

Leave the adhesive to set for as long as the bag asks before grouting, and take the battens off first. Grouting early moves tiles that look fixed and are not.

Work the grout diagonally across the joints with the float so it fills rather than skates, then take the excess off with the float held on edge, still working diagonally.

Sponge off in stages with clean water and a well wrung sponge, changing the water often. The grout haze that dries on a tile comes off far more easily in the first hour than in the first week.

Leave the joint between tile and worktop as a flexible seal rather than grout. It is a junction between two materials that move differently, and grout in that gap cracks as a matter of course.