A night on the tiles.......

So.

Despite my assertion that the windows and doors were next on the agenda, I've abandoned them in favour of tiling the ground floor.

The tiles arrived in the post on Friday and I've been itching to get going with them so yesterday afternoon I threw caution to the winds and made a start.

Having decided to go for a diagonal tile pattern, rather than laying them square on, I first searched the internet for the best way to to about it.  The general concensus of opinion was to bisect the room from corner to corner, both ways, and lay the first tile so that each corner lined up with the bisecting lines in the centre of the room.

So far so good.

I was going great guns until it slowly became apparent that something wasn't quite right.  It took some time before I realised that discrepancies in the pattern weren't my fault after all  but were due to the fact that the tiles were not all exactly the same size.

Buggrit doesn't come close......

The discrepancy from tile to tile is mostly miniscule, but even half a millimetre's difference will start to show over a whole row.

So not only have I had the predicted problem of having to cut triangles to fill in the gaps at the walls, I'm also have the unpredicted problem of having to compensate for non-identical sized tiles.

This is both annoying and frustrating in equal measure and has resulted in the flooring becoming more akin to a jigsaw puzzle than a straightforward tiling exercise.

I have persevered though, and so far have completed about two thirds of the floor.  I've experimented with grouting to disguise the more obvious gaps in the tiling and am hopeful that once the floor is finished I'll be able to make it look the way it should.  Thankfully, the fact that I chose to use the devilishly difficult diagonal pattern means that it hides a multitude of sins.  Also, there will be shop fittings at strategic points, which will break up the visual expanse so I'm hoping that no one will notice.

Except of course, for anyone who reads this blog, who will be scrutinising the floor in close up for evidence.

Photos will follow just as soon as my camera batteries are recharged.......