How long does it take to tile a bathroom or kitchen?

Preparation comes first

Tiles are only as good as the surface behind them. Old tiles and loose plaster may need removing, walls in wet areas need a proper backer board and floors must be solid and flat. Timber floors are overboarded or screwed down, and uneven concrete may need a levelling compound before any tile goes on.

In a shower or wet room, tanking is applied and left to cure before tiling begins. This waiting time is easy to resent, but skipping it is how leaks behind tiles start.

Setting out and dry laying

Before any adhesive is mixed, we set out the room from the centre line and dry lay where it helps, so cuts land in sensible places rather than a thin sliver against a door frame. On a patterned or large format tile, this planning can take longer than people expect, and it is the step that separates a professional finish from an average one.

What changes the pace of laying

Tile size affects speed in both directions. Large format porcelain covers a wall quickly but every tile must be back buttered and levelled with clips to avoid lipping, and each one is heavy to handle. Metro, mosaic and patterned tiles cover less area per piece and involve many more cuts.

Room shape matters too. Boxed in pipes, niches, window reveals and mitred corners all add careful cutting time, while a plain rectangular floor goes down far faster.

• Condition of the walls or floor before tiling
• Tanking in wet areas and its curing time
• Tile size, weight and pattern
• Number of cuts, niches, mitres and trims
• Natural stone that needs sealing

Curing, grouting and finishing

Adhesive must set before grouting, and floors should not take heavy traffic until they have cured. Grout then needs its own drying time before silicone goes on at junctions with baths, trays and worktops. Natural stone is sealed as part of the finish.

Flexible adhesive is used over underfloor heating and where a floor needs movement joints, and these follow the manufacturer's guidance rather than a guess. It all adds time, but it is time that protects the finished surface.

Tiling as part of a bigger job

Most of the tiling we do sits inside a kitchen or bathroom project, so the timescale is built into the overall plan. In a bathroom, tiling follows first fix, boarding and tanking; in a kitchen, splashback tiles go on once the worktops are fitted. Because we handle these trades ourselves, there is no gap waiting for a separate tiler to become free.

For standalone jobs such as a hallway floor or an outdoor porcelain patio, the survey tells you how long your particular room will take, including any preparation it needs.