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0:00
This video is to help you understand the steps to installing subfloor tiles
0:07
So we're looking down on the floor of a room here from the ceiling
0:12
and all subfloor tiles are square, so it doesn't really matter what brand you buy
0:17
They're all about the same size, and they're all the same shape
0:21
Now the first thing you have to understand is that you can't trust any of the walls to be straight enough
0:27
to guide you with the placement of these tiles. So you're going to want to snap a chalk line fairly close to the wall
0:35
maybe a quarter of an inch away or so, and that's your reliable reference line
0:42
You'll want to maintain that quarter inch gap too with some spacers when the tiles go down
0:49
because you don't want the tiles jamming up against the wall. You want a little bit of clearance there
0:54
The tiles aren't going to get a whole lot bigger, even if they get wet
0:58
but they might get a little bit bigger, and if they're already tight to the wall
1:02
then you might have some buckling if the tiles do pick up some moisture
1:07
So a quarter inch gap is the way you want to start
1:12
but you actually don't want to lay tiles down right away because there's something that you don't know at this early stage
1:20
What you want to do is you want to set out your first row of tiles
1:24
say along this wall here, and just push the tongue and groove joints together
1:31
all the way along and see where the tile ends up, where the last tile ends up in relation to the wall
1:39
Right here it's too narrow. Anything narrower than about four inches or so is too narrow of a piece to be stable on its own
1:48
So after this initial exercise, what you'd want to do is to cut off
1:53
a certain amount of material here from the first tile because whatever you cut off there, this last tile gets correspondingly wider
2:03
So I don't know if this piece is, say, two inches wide now
2:07
You cut off at least two inches from this piece so that this littler piece is the four inches
2:16
And you want to do the same thing as a trial in the other direction, too
2:21
Now as it turns out, the tiles end with plenty of material there
2:27
So you don't need to cut this first tile in two directions
2:31
You only need to make it narrower in this example so that the whole row shifts over and you don't have some little bit here on the end
2:39
that's going to be unstable and possibly give you some troubles. Another thing you want to note here is the fact that the joints are staggered
2:49
from one row to another. So this joint here does not line up with this joint
2:54
This joint does not line up with this joint. I have shown it here where the joints are staggered by exactly one tile width
3:04
but it doesn't have to be that precise. I mean, if it staggers by at least one-third of the width of a tile
3:13
then that will be fine. The results are still going to be the same
3:18
And cutting these tiles, a jigsaw is an excellent option. If you're a little bit frightened of power tools
3:26
but you still want the advantage of power tools, then a jigsaw is an excellent tool for cutting these tiles
3:32
You can also use a handheld circular saw or a table saw
3:36
A table saw will do a beautiful job. And when you lay your first row of tiles down
3:42
you should get some pieces of wood or something that measures about a quarter of an inch thick
3:47
and put it in this gap just so that the tile doesn't move around
3:52
and it's not going to slide towards the wall and take up your clearance gap unexpectedly
4:00
You want to be able to rely on that. You can pull those spacers out later
4:05
When it comes time to fitting the tiles together piece by piece, it's really pretty easy
4:11
This is just ordinary tongue and groove edges. There's no clicking or tilting or anything like that
4:17
But you don't want to hit the edge of any of these tiles directly with a hammer
4:22
because that's going to mush them up and they won't interlock properly with their neighbors
4:27
So just get a couple of blocks of scrap wood. You don't have to hit these tiles very hard
4:33
You can use a hammer, a regular claw hammer. A rubber mallet works nice
4:38
It's a bit heavier and it delivers a bit more of a thunk
4:42
But you want to hit the blocks and not the tile directly
4:47
And so you do all these things. You get the spacers, the preliminary layout
4:51
so you're not surprised by little slivers of tile on one side of the room or the other
4:56
Maintain the gap. Tap the tiles in place as they go down
5:01
And you're going to have a really good result. There's one other thing I want to mention
5:07
Whenever you come to the end of a row, you're going to have one final piece of subfloor tile to put in
5:17
And you won't be able to get around to the edge to use a hammer
5:21
So, for instance, if you've laid all these pieces here and you go to lay this last piece
5:28
which will, of course, be wider than shown in the drawing, you can't go here and hammer it in
5:34
with your tapping blocks and things because there's a wall there. It'll be the same for the last tile in every row
5:43
And it'll also be the same for all the tiles in the last row
5:49
because they're going to need to come down and you can't drive that with a hammer
5:54
So, for that, you need something called a hook tool. And that's what you see here
6:01
This is one end of the hook tool. It's hooked at both ends
6:06
And you can see this little drawing here right on the hook tool
6:10
One end hooks over the edge of the tile that's near the wall
6:15
and the other's got a larger, a taller, raised, bent end that you can tap with a hammer
6:23
And you're really using it to transfer pounding action from where the hammer is to the edge over here
6:31
It works very well. And you will also need a tool like this
6:36
for installing laminate floor, too. So, they're not expensive. Even if you only have to install the subfloor tiles
6:43
it's well worth it, especially if you've got some laminate to put down as well
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