Flooring – start and stop a tile floor job

flooringmortartiling

I am tiling my bathroom floor and don't soon have a full day to dedicate to the job. Is it ok to lay down a few tiles each day and come back to the job when I have time? I would only lay mortar for the tiles I have time to lay each day.

My concern is that the mortar wouldn't properly "join" to the previously laid sections of tile and cause an inferior result, but I'm not really basing this concern on any facts. That is what I'm hoping to learn with this question.

Best Answer

It certainly is acceptable to do a tile job in phases. There's no structural reason that tiles need to have their supporting mortar connected mechanically. The critical bond is to the substrate, not adjacent tiles or mortar. Large residential and commercial tile jobs are done in stages every day, and with no special procedures or materials.

One caveat might be the grouting. Ideally you'll complete grout work for a room in one step using grout from a single mix batch for visual consistency.