When people are first figuring out how to lay tile, they tend to make mistakes. Here are some of the most common mistakes beginning tile setters make.

Mistake Number One

Floor prep is crucial to the success of your ceramic tile installation. If you mess it up, it can cost you the entire job. The end result is that you end up with a loose floor.

Mistake Number Two

The most common mistake home tile setters make is laying out their floor incorrectly. It's a problem that could cost you the entire job. But let's pretend you only end up with a swing (or a curve) in your floor. You can fix it with a grinder - but it'll cost you wasted tiles and grout.

Mistake Number Three

Not mixing your thinset mortar right and ruining a bag. These cost on average twelve dollars to replace.

Mistake Number Four

Another mistake you don't want to make is breaking tiles. You could chip them too, but you can always use these for cut tiles. Every ceramic tile that gets ruined will cost you money. If you break enough, it'll cost you a trip back to the store too.

Mistake Number Five

Messing up a bag of grout - this is easy to do if you know what you're doing, but it's almost an exact science. These will cost you about ten bucks apiece.

Mistake Number Six

You need to know how to lay tile with correct spacing. If you don't, it's a snowball effect - you get a few tiles down the line before you figure out where you screwed up. Figure it will cost you about a buck apiece to replace them, and time also.

Mistake Number Seven

Sometimes every tile isn't the same size. Especially with cheap tile, you can end up with enough of a variation in size to ambush your entire floor. So you have to be on the lookout for low quality tiles that often come in odd sizes.

Mistake Number Eight

After you've installed your entire floor and grouted it, the next day you find out that you didn't do a good enough job cleaning the grout. It's not that hard to do because of the thin, invisible layer of grout that builds up on top of the tiles while they're still wet. If you're lucky, you'll just need to buff it. Problem is, you've got to rent a buffer. Another grouting mistake is grouting with epoxy. Hey, it happens. And it's a real pain to try and reverse it.

Even though some of these mistakes might persuade you against learning how to lay tile, don't worry. These are here as a warning, and with the right guidance you can do a great job of installing ceramic tile.