put wall tiles first or fit kitchen units first? Advice and information on tiling and fixing tiles to a variety of surfaces

[chicheh_qt]

hello. im a newbie with diy. my hubby and i are renovating our kitchen. we have done our floor tiles and we're stuck whether to assemble and fit kitchen units first or do the wall tiles/splashback first. it will only cover one side of the kitchen.

thank you. much obliged!

[thedoctor]

Mark the height of the units on the wall and then tile everything except the course of tiles which sits directly on the units. You may have to fix a batten to the wall in order to fix the 2nd course of tiles, first. The batten is fixed absolutely level which makes sure the tiles are. The batten should be fixed at e height which means that about 12 mm need to be cut off the first course when it is laid....After the units have been fitted. The units are fitted and then the bottom course of tiles which are cut down to the top of the unit.

This is the pro way to fit tiles to a worktop or bath. Its done like this because when a unit or bath is fitted is almost impossible to get it 100% level and even a tiny amount of varaition can make the tiling look awful if it is started on an unlevel surface. By starting the tiling on a batten which can be levelled in easily, you can guarentee that the tiling above the batten will be good and as the tiles under it have been cut individually to the surface, they will look good to. A bead of silicaone will hide the cut to the worktop. Take a look at out bathroom suite installation project via www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects.htm and scroll down to the part where we tile to see what we mean.

[chicheh_qt]

will do as suggested. thank you very much!