Guides

Hiring a tiler, explained

What to ask before you hire, what the British Standard expects, how a shower is made watertight, and what old floors can hide.

Illustration: a sampler board with five tile swatches: white metro in brick bond, green hexagons, hand-glazed green zellige squares, terrazzo and an ochre herringbone

Illustration: a clipboard holding a floor plan of a bathroom drawn with its tile grid and a short checklist, with a tape measure and a pencil

Questions to Ask a Tiler Before You Hire One

Before you hire a tiler, ask what the price includes, how the walls or floor will be prepared, how a shower will be waterproofed, who buys the tiles, how long it will take and how you pay.

Illustration: a tiled wall being checked, with an aluminium straight-edge leaning across it, a spirit level standing against it, a clipboard with a ticked checklist and a tape measure on the floor

BS 5385 in Plain English: The Tiling Standard

BS 5385 is the British Standard code of practice for wall and floor tiling.

Illustration: a shower corner before tiling, its walls and floor covered in green tanking membrane, with corner tape, sealed pipe collars, a floor drain and a tub of liquid membrane

Tanking a Shower or Wet Room: What It Is and Costs

Tanking a shower or wet room costs £100 to £250 depending on the area, in MyJobQuote's 2026 floor tiling guide, before the tiling.

Illustration: a stud wall with plasterboard screwed to the timber studs and tiles being set on it, and a cement backer board leaning against the open studs

Tile Weight Limits on Plaster and Plasterboard

A gypsum plaster wall takes about 20 kg per m² of tile and adhesive, and plasterboard with no plaster finish about 32 kg per m², under BS 5385-1.

Illustration: a wall of old brown patterned tiles, primed, with new large pale tiles part laid over them, and a tin of primer with a brush on the floor

Can You Tile Over Old Tiles? When It Works

You can tile over old tiles when they are firmly bonded, flat and clean, the combined weight is within the wall's limit and the extra height works at doors and fittings.

Illustration: an old floor of dark square thermoplastic tiles seen from above, with a labelled sample bag holding a small piece of tile and an open testing kit beside it

Asbestos in Old Floor Tiles and Textured Coatings

Old vinyl and thermoplastic floor tiles, the black bitumen adhesive under them, and textured wall and ceiling coatings put up before 2000 may contain asbestos.

Illustration: an underfloor heating mat rolled out across a floor with its cable in loops, partly covered with levelling compound and the first tiles laid on top

Underfloor Heating Under Tiles: Part P and Who Does What

Electric underfloor heating costs £60 to £85 per m² in a renovation in Checkatrade's 2026 guide.

Illustration: a wall part tiled from the bottom up, the bare board above marked out in chalked metre squares, with a chalk line reel and a tape measure on the floor

How Many m² Can a Tiler Lay in a Day?

A tiler can usually lay 10 to 15 m² of wall tiles or 8 to 12 m² of floor tiles a day, in Checkatrade's 2026 tiling cost guide.

Illustration: the back of a tiler's van with its doors open, kit on the racks and floor, and a flask and cup on the sill

Tiler Day Rate 2026: £150 to £350 a Day, Explained

A tiler's day rate is £200 to £350 in Checkatrade's 2026 tiling cost guide and £150 to £200 in MyJobQuote's, so £150 to £350 across both.

Illustration: a wall of old patterned tiles half painted over in plain pale green, with a paint roller at the edge of the fresh paint, and a roller tray and an open tin of paint on a dust sheet

Painting Tiles: When Tile Paint Works and When to Retile

Tile paint can last for years on a dry wall that nothing rubs, soaks or heats, such as a cloakroom or a half-tiled wall behind a basin.

Illustration: a grout float sweeping pale grout diagonally across a wall of green tiles, the joints filled behind it and still empty ahead of it, with a bucket of grout and a sponge on the floor

Grout Explained: Types, Colours, Epoxy and How to Grout

Grout fills the joints between tiles, keeps dirt out of the gaps and holds the tiles in line, but it is not waterproof, so a shower relies on the tanking behind it.

Illustration: a recessed niche in a shower wall of large pale tiles, lined with small green mosaic tiles, the tiles mitred at the edges of the opening, with a stone shelf and bottles standing in it

Shower Niche: How a Tiler Builds and Waterproofs One

A shower niche is a recess built into a shower wall for bottles, and it is the weakest point of that wall: internal corners on every side and a flat sill that holds water.

Illustration: a manual tile cutter on a workbench seen from above, a tile on its bed scored halfway along, offcuts beside it, and a hole saw next to the round piece it has cut

Cutting Tiles: Ceramic, Porcelain, Holes and Silica Dust

Ceramic scores and snaps cleanly on a manual cutter; dense porcelain often needs a wet saw, and holes need diamond core bits.

Illustration: a bathroom wall being tiled from the bottom up, with spacers in the joints, a spirit level resting on the top row, combed adhesive ahead of the next tiles, a bucket of adhesive with a notched trowel and a stack of tiles

How to Tile a Bathroom: The Stages and Where DIY Goes Wrong

Tiling a bathroom's walls and floor takes a tiler three to four days in Checkatrade's 2026 guide and costs £800 to £2,050 across Checkatrade and MyJobQuote.

Illustration: an external corner of a green tiled wall finished with a rounded metal trim, and three lengths of trim laid on the floor: round edge, square edge and straight angle

Tile Trims Explained: Metals, Profiles and Mitred Edges

A tile trim is a metal or PVC strip set under the last tile to protect and finish its edge on outside corners, window reveals and the top of half-height tiling.

Illustration: a cast iron fireplace with columns of patterned tiles either side of the grate and a hearth of red and black tiles in front

Fireplace Tiles: Hearths, Surrounds and Heat Resistance

The hearth is the non-combustible floor in front of the fire and the surround frames the opening.

Tile Styles and Layouts: Metro, Zellige, Terrazzo and More

Metro, zellige, terrazzo, hexagon, herringbone and encaustic-style tiles each lay differently.

Illustration: a tiler's kit laid out on a dust sheet: a bucket of adhesive, notched trowels, a spirit level, knee pads, spacers, a sponge, a grout float and a stack of tiles

Guides for tilers

Pricing a job per square metre, the tanking record, and getting listed.