setting out advice for a beginner

[Burnz0]

Hi All. Im about to attempt to tile my bathroom floor and unfortunately im falling at the first hurdle of the setting out. The room is rectangular - 1.85*2.5, with the bath on the left wall going the length of the room as you walk through the door, the sink in the far left corner and toilet directly opposite the door on the far wall. This means that as you walk in there is a sort of corridor created by the bath and right wall about 1.2m wide.
The tiles i have for the floor are 30x60 composite marble and the wall tiles which are already up are 25x33 going horizontally - only the main left wall and part of the two end walls are tiled.
I'd considered setting the floor tiles out in a brick bond pattern but i don't think it really suits the room and certainly not with the wall tiles done in a normal grid formation. So, the question is do i lay the tiles going lengthways or across the room, which will mean that ive basically got two tiles wide in the corridor bit and then an extra one at the end of the room. If i do this though, do i need to centre the tiles on the door and then have cuts either side? im concerned that otherwise, if i just fit them in two next to each other, the line that is created up the room where the tiles meet will be off centre from the door and may look odd.
The alternative is lay them lengthways of course but in my head at least, laying them across the room will actually draw the eyes the length of the room making it seem bigger.
The other question is how to actually find the centre and the line that the tiles will follow. It makes most sense to me to go from the wall that the door is on meaning every line will be perpendicular to this so that the line of the bath is also followed.
Finally, i was told to put down 9mm ply as the base but have since read that it may not be thick enough. Whilst i have time is it worth me putting another thin layer on top or ripping it up and starting it again?
ive attached a pic below if it helps

 

[Mr T]

I would center the doorway from the wall on the rite side of the pic and mark with pen/pencil... Then at the back wall come from the wall on the rite again and mark the same center.. Then either get a straight edge and draw a line or if you have a chalk line chalk it... Theres ya center line...

 

[Mr T]

Than what you need to do is determine which format is going to not only going to look best but what is not going to leave you with any small cuts... dont forget if a tile each side of the center line doesnt work you can center a. Tile on the center line aswell so you have many ways to lay out the tiles but the room looks pretty. Square so wont take you too long just take ya time cuz its one of the most important steps... Im not a pro tho just saying how I would do it mate

 

[Burnz0]

sorry for being dumb, but do you mean work out the centre point between the bath and the right wall or the centre of the doorway? if the latter, how would you actually go about setting out the tiles. The doorways roughly 90cm and apart from the architrave its bang in the corner, so the centre of this will be somewhere in the 45-50cm from the right wall? To centre a 60cm tile on this would mean having a cut of about 15cm on the right of the main tile and then a 45-50cm on the left side. I can't decide whether or not being centre on the doorway outweighs the negatives of having lots of cuts.

 

[Ian]

Forget about the doorway, the floor is the focal point. Centre the corridor between the bath and the wall and then decide whether it would look best with a grout line as the centre or a tile as the centre.

 

[Stef]

Mark out from your right hand wall as this is the line that your eye will follow when you enter the bathroom.
It looks as though you will be under the bath with 2 tiles coming from your right hand wall so I would go for that.
Try & avoid a small cut if possible at the head of the bath, it's not always possible though,

It's what's pleasing to the eye a lot of the time.

 

[Burnz0]

it's a tricky one because i think with such relatively big tiles in the small room any line created by either the tile or grout line will need to be bang on for it to look good and thats why i'll need to take the time to get it centred properly. For ease of doing it i think two straight across with the tile grout line up the centre and with the other way the cuts at each end, although 30cm-ish, might look a bit messy. Its a shame that the bath feet supports and the rad pipes are in the way as otherwise id be able to set them out properly to make the decision.
Any thoughts about going the length of the room instead?

 

[John Benton]

Why not just lay the tiles randomly, so they are not uniform, that way you can avoid any small cuts.

I personally prefer larger floor tiles fixed like that

 

[Martyn Leeds]

I think its you're decision to decide which way you prefer to lay the tiles - you'll be the one looking at it everyday.

Then you can work out your lines..

 

[DHTiling]

I would random set the tiles as well ... does away with the problem of the small cut..

 

[Mr T]

have you done this yet? any pics?

 

[John Benton]

Here's a pic of a wetroom floor I did recently.

No worries about small cuts, just fix where they look best.

 

[Burnz0]

not started yet as i've got a few other things to be getting on with but wanted to get it all planned out first. I'm actually considering getting in a few quotes to do it as im hoping it should be a relatively easy job to do so not too expensive and ill get a better finish?

yep, those random ones look good but i think my room is a bit too small to do it really as it seems a shame to start cutting tiles down just to create the random look

 

[John Benton]

not started yet as i've got a few other things to be getting on with but wanted to get it all planned out first. I'm actually considering getting in a few quotes to do it as im hoping it should be a relatively easy job to do so not too expensive and ill get a better finish?

yep, those random ones look good but i think my room is a bit too small to do it really as it seems a shame to start cutting tiles down just to create the random look

You'll probably find you have less waste fixing randomly and you can put the joints where you want, whatever looks more pleasing to the eye. If you have brick bond then the joints are dictated by the first row of tiles you fix and where you select to start.

 

[Burnz0]

is there a special technique for cutting skirting? depending on which layout i choose i can potentially get several bits out of one tile but im not too confident in getting a clean finish with the cutter ive borrowed so was leaning towards using two from each tile and that way making use of the manufacturers finished edge