Tile a bathroom in this order: plan and measure, prep the surfaces, tank the wet areas, tile the walls, then the floor, grout, and seal. Get that sequence right and the job mostly looks after itself. Get it wrong — tile before you tank, grout before the adhesive's cured — and you're ripping work out you've already paid for.
This is the pillar guide. It walks the whole job in the order I'd actually work in, and links out to a proper step-by-step at each stage so you can go as deep as you need.
Key Takeaways
- Order of work: plan → prep → tank → walls → floor → grout → seal.
- Tank before you tile. Waterproofing goes on behind the tiles, not over them. This is the step DIYers skip and regret.
- Walls before floor in a standard bathroom — protects the floor and gives you a clean bottom joint.
- Buy 10% more tiles than the area for cuts, breakages, and a spare box for repairs.
- Let things cure. Adhesive and grout set the timetable, not your weekend.
The order I'd work in
If I were doing your bathroom, this is the running order — and why each step sits where it does.
- Plan and measure — work out quantities and set a budget before you buy a thing.
- Prep the surfaces — flat, sound, and primed. Most tile failures start here.
- Tank the wet areas — waterproof the shower and bath zone before a single tile goes up.
- Set out and tile the walls — from a level datum, not the floor.
- Tile the floor — once the walls are done and protected.
- Grout — after the adhesive has fully cured.
- Seal — joints, edges, and natural stone where needed.
Each of those gets its own deep-dive below.
Step 1: Plan and measure
Before you buy tiles or book the time off, work out how many tiles you actually need and what the job will cost.
Measure each wall and the floor in square metres, add 10% for wastage, and divide by your tile size. Our free tile calculator does the maths for you, and the full method — including why a brick-bond or herringbone lay needs more spare — is in how many tiles do I need.
On budget: doing the labour yourself is a real saving, but the gap between DIY and a fitted price is smaller than most people expect once you've bought adhesive, grout, tanking, and any tools you're missing. The honest numbers are in how much it costs to tile a bathroom.
Step 2: Prep the surfaces
This is the boring step everyone wants to skip, and it's the one that decides whether your tiles are still on the wall in five years.
Surfaces need to be flat, sound, dry, and primed. On a floor, that means no bounce and within tolerance for flatness — tighter again if you're using large tiles. On walls, it means a stable substrate, not blown plaster or flaking paint. The full process — concrete, timber, backer board, priming — is in subfloor prep before tiling.
Get this right and everything after it is easier. Skip it and no adhesive on earth will save you.
Step 3: Tank the wet areas
Here's my hard rule: waterproofing goes on before the tiles, not over them. Tiles and grout are not waterproof — water gets through grout lines over time, and what stops it reaching the wall behind is the tanking layer underneath.
The leaks that wreck bathrooms almost never start in the open field of the wall. They start at the internal corners, the joint where the wall meets the tray, and around the pipe penetrations. That's where a tanking kit or membrane earns its money. I don't trust "waterproof" plasterboard on its own in a shower — I tank it.
The full walkthrough — substrate, tanking kit vs matting, and where leaks actually start — is in how to tile a shower wall and tank it properly. The key point stands: if it gets splashed in a shower or over a bath, it gets tanked first.
Step 4: Set out and tile the walls
Walls go before the floor. You keep the unfinished floor protected from drips, you can rest the first row on a support batten while the adhesive grabs, and you finish by tiling the floor up to meet the wall for a clean joint.
The make-or-break here is the set-out: work from a level datum line, not the floor (floors are rarely level), and plan your tile layout so you don't end up with a sliver of a cut tile in the most visible corner. The complete method — substrate, set-out, adhesive, cutting, and grouting — is in how to tile a wall.
Matching the adhesive to the job matters more than people think — wall tiles, wet areas, and heavy porcelain all want different things. The tile adhesive buying guide covers which class to use where.
Step 5: Tile the floor
With the walls done, tile the floor. The priorities are a flat bed, the right falls towards any drain, and consistent joints. Bathroom floors take a flexible (S1) adhesive because floors move a touch and rigid adhesive cracks.
The step-by-step — prep, set-out, adhesive, spacers, cutting — is in how to tile a bathroom floor.
If you're using big tiles (600mm and up), the rules tighten: flatter substrate, bigger notched trowel, back-buttering, and lippage control. That's its own job — see the large format tile installation guide.
Step 6: Grout
Grout once the adhesive has fully cured — not the same evening. Grouting over uncured adhesive traps moisture and weakens the bond.
Grout choice is more involved than it looks: sanded vs unsanded by joint width, and epoxy for wet, heavy-use areas. Get the wrong one and it stains or cracks within a year. How to choose tile grout walks through it.
When you've grouted, you'll get a fine film left on the tile face — that's grout haze, and it wipes off cleanly if you deal with it at the right time. Grout haze removal covers how, and what to do if you've left it too long.
Step 7: Seal
Cement grout in a wet area benefits from a sealer to resist staining and water ingress. Natural stone — travertine, marble, slate — needs sealing properly, and some stones want sealing before grouting so the grout doesn't stain the face. Porcelain and glazed ceramic don't need sealing.
Silicone, not grout, goes in every joint that moves: wall-to-tray, wall-to-bath, and internal corners. Grout in a movement joint will crack — every time.
A realistic timetable
Don't let a weekend deadline push you into rushing a wet area. A realistic DIY run is:
- Day 1: prep and tank, let the tanking cure.
- Days 2–3: set out and tile the walls.
- Day 4: tile the floor.
- Day 5+: grout and seal once everything's cured.
Curing times set the pace. The tiling itself is the quick part.
Where to go next
This guide is the map. Each step has a full walkthrough:
- How to tile a wall — set-out, adhesive, cutting, grouting
- How to tile a shower wall (and tank it) — waterproofing the wet area
- How to tile a bathroom floor — prep, falls, spacers, cuts
- Large format tile installation — 600mm+ tiles done right
- Subfloor prep before tiling — the step that decides it all
- Tile adhesive buying guide — which class for which job
- How to choose tile grout — sanded, unsanded, epoxy
- How many tiles do I need — quantities + the tile calculator
- What it costs to tile a bathroom — the honest numbers