# Forum Home Renovation Bathrooms  Tiling Floor or Walls First

## macmen

HI All, 
I am about to tile my bathroom and would like to know whether I should be tiling the floor or walls first. 
Thanks
Macmen

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## juan

I would tile the walls first but leave the bottom row of wall tiles off until the floor is finished.  This way you will not get gunge on the floor tiles. You can then cut your bottom row of wall tiles to suit the finished floor level and seal the  joint between wall tiles and floor tiles with silicon. 
Cheers

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## Gooner

What Juan said...  
I may be wrong, but I have a feeling that it is done this way by professional tilers simply for the "speed" factor. I.e the most of the walls and all the floors could be done the same day using this method. Probably the same thing to do the floors first, but then you would have to wait for the adhesive to dry before you could do the walls.  
So really, it seems the short answer is, floors first. 
I am also about to tile my bathroom. I will be doing the walls first minus the bottom row. The only thing I'm unsure of is how to fix a batten in place as a horizontal reference for the tiles. I have waterproofed most of the walls and so I dont want to be nailing in reference battens in the walls for the row of tiles. Have to find a solution to this.

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## Border boy

I did as Juan has described. Used a batten as a reference for the first row of wall tiles. Did the floor. removed batten & put a little silicon in the nail holes punched thru the waterproof membrane. I can't see why that wouldn't work.
Cheers,

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## chuth77

> I would tile the walls first but leave the bottom row of wall tiles off until the floor is finished. This way you will not get gunge on the floor tiles. You can then cut your bottom row of wall tiles to suit the finished floor level and seal the joint between wall tiles and floor tiles with silicon. 
> Cheers

   :2thumbsup:  :2thumbsup:  :2thumbsup:  
The wall tiles should come down and over the floor tiles. Like Juan said, it's much easier to get that final wall tile in place, than sliding in the floor tile...

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## GraemeCook

Hi All 
I did the reverse in our bathroom - I put in the terra cotta floor tiles first, sealed them, and then did the ceramic wall tiles.   This means that the floor tiles go under the wall tiles about 6.5mm.   My rationale for doing it this way was that I thought it better for moisture running down the walls to land on floor tiles, rather than land on the grout between the floor and wall tiles. 
After ten+ tears it still seems the right decision. 
Cheers 
Graeme

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## Gooner

> Hi All 
> I did the reverse in our bathroom - I put in the terra cotta floor tiles first, sealed them, and then did the ceramic wall tiles.  
> Graeme

  It's the same thing. What everyone else described is kinda like doing the floors first, but you have the advantage of being able to tile almost the entire room in one day.  
Leaving the bottom row of wall tiles as the last step means they will sit on top of the floor tiles, just as you have done.

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## zacnelson

I've done 2 bathrooms, and the first time I did the walls first, 2nd time did floor first.  Working alone in the evenings, it was never an issue of the quickest option of doing the whole room in one go, so that removed one reason for doing walls first.  In summary, I found it much less fiddly to do the floor first.  It made for a very neat result on the bottom row of wall tiles.  However, I can see good reasons for both methods.

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## encino

My tiler is doing my bathroom at the moment, and he's done the walls first, complete to the floor. I guess as long as it's siliconed at the border there shouldn't be an issue, and he's waterproofed the entire floor and wall skirt area. Must be easier for him.

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