First time tiling! But need advice...

arunadasi

I just had my kitchen tiled professionally, and it looks simply gorgeous! I am delighted. EXCEPT:
Before the tiler started the work he asked if he should also do the two high bits to the left and right of the extractor, and I said no -- I wasn't sure if I had enough tiles, and I thought it would look OK untiled.
But it doesn't. Those two areas, though small, need tiling as well; I have enough tiles left over, and I'm going to do it myself. I've never done tiling before.

On an impulse, I bought a "tiliing kit" from Argos. (at the moment I don't have a car and can't get to Homebase, B&Q etc)
The kit contains the following:

tile nippers
grout rake

and

tile adhesive comb
spreader comb
tile spacers
sponge

The four last items are OK, I know what they are and what they do. I am completely confused by the first two. There's a thing that I suppose are the tile nippers, but it doesn't look one bit like the pictures of tile nippers I've seen on the various DIY sites I've looked at. On one side, it has a small wheel which looks as if it should be used for cutting. And then a bit that I suppose is the actual "nipper" part: it has something like plastic wings which I suppose are to break the tile apart.

That leaves only the "grout rake". I would never have guessed that this thing is any kind of a rake or has anything to do with grout: it's a bit like a box cutter, with a blade about 3 cm long. How do I rake grout with this? Maybe to dig out old grout???? I would have guessed, if asked, that it is a manual tile cutter, as I've seen similar such things on the DIY sites.


My main worry is exactly this: the cutting of the tiles. The area is a small oblong at the top,. narrowing down in a triangle against the extractor; on two sides. I will need only nine tiles for each side, so it;s not a lot of work, but there is quite a lot of cutting to do along the slope.

I can hire a proper tile cutter from the Hire Shop for about £15 -- is it worth it?
Anything else I shouod be aware of? I di dswatch the tiler at work so I have an uidea what to do; it's just the cutting that worries me.

Or should I return this tiling kit to Argos and buy each thing seperately? It cost £9.99. Oh, I just found a photo of the kit, here it is:
http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10001&catalogId=1500001801&langId=-1&searchTerms=TILING+KIT&Submit=GO+%3E
You can see the mysterious grout take and nippers on that photo, in unclearly.

jhe

personally i would take it back to argos and ask your tiler to come back and do the bit you want doing. having said that i am out of touch with what tilers charge

arunadasi

He charged £100 for the lot, worked from 9 am to 2 pm with a lunch pause. I thought that was very reasonable.

arunadasi

I suppose I could ask him what he would charge to do the extra bits... but feel a bit of a chump.

Errata

Whoa......hang on............is there an edging strip down the sides of the existing tiles ? If so, it's going to look weird if you DIY tile up to it, and I don 't think that's what you want. Or is it ?

jhe

hi arunadasi.£100 sounds very reasonable to me. by the time you buy all the bits you need to tile yourself,bringing the tiler back sounds like it would work out cheaper plus he should do a good job as you are happy with work so far. i would just give him a ring and tell him you regret not getting the rest done.

arunadasi

OK, I'll do that, see what he says.
Errata: the new bit to be tiled is quite apart from the old tile; it is above the extractor and next to the cupboards, , whereas the old ones are above the counter top. But you folks are right, don't want to have an unprofessional job next to the professional!
I'll learn and practice tiling another time.