Tiling Recommendations

[prognastat]

I am looking to remove carpet from a large portion of my home, probably over 750 square feet, and replacing it with a wood look tile. This includes mostly our second floor, the stairs and a little of our first floor.

I was looking firstly for tips on good places and ways to save money on this with minimal to no impact on the end result.

Any other advise as far as what can reasonably done DIY and what would be best to hire out. Any tips for DIy or possibly useful resources and anything else you might think is helpful.

[geekette]

The John Bridge Tiling forum is very informative.  It's a mix of DIY and professionals, and lots of helpful people (at least it was when I needed help about 10 years ago).  It looks like it's still quite active.

My concern would be with the subfloor.  It was installed with carpet in mind, but is it stiff enough to support tile without cracking?

[prognastat]

The John Bridge Tiling forum is very informative.  It's a mix of DIY and professionals, and lots of helpful people (at least it was when I needed help about 10 years ago).  It looks like it's still quite active.

My concern would be with the subfloor.  It was installed with carpet in mind, but is it stiff enough to support tile without cracking?

I suspect it should since the builder offers upgrades during the build that use floors other than carpet and I doubt they change the build so much to accommodate having either carpet, wood or tile. However I won't know for sure until the carpet is ripped up.

[Spork]

+1 on John Bridge.

My experience on price: Stand alone tile stores are outrageous on price.  Maybe they have better quality.  Maybe not.  We priced tile for a kitchen back splash (not huge) and it was something ridiculous like $2000 just for the tile.  We went to big box store across the street and bought something that looked very much the same plus grout plus thin set PLUS an inexpensive tile saw for a little over $500.

I've never worked with the wood look tile.  In general the larger tiles are pretty easy to cut with the score-and-snap type tile cutters.  Small tiles in sheets are a little hard to do with the snap type cutters.  The wood-style tiles might be hard to score/snap since they have a texture to the top of them.  (I don't know... I am guessing there.)  An inexpensive tile saw will also help with oddball things like corners or round cut outs.  Someone posted a Skil on another thread recently that was selling for under $100. 

[Landlady]

In regards to the subfloor question. I would suspect that it would not be strong enough. Plywood won't cut it. You'll need to install cement backer board (HardieBacker).
I learned to tile from a local library book and youtube videos. I definitely made some mistakes on my first jobs, but nothing horrible. Definitely do your research first. :) Good luck!

btw, I've been tiling with a wood-like textured porcelain this week and my crappy tile cutter does just fine cutting through the 12x24 tiles. I'd also recommend researching grout types. I'm using an epoxy grout for the first time because I'm tired of regular grout getting stained after a few years, but it's a very time sensitive product and I don't think I'd have been expert enough on my first tile job to do it correctly in the window allowed.

[prognastat]

In regards to the subfloor question. I would suspect that it would not be strong enough. Plywood won't cut it. You'll need to install cement backer board (HardieBacker).
I learned to tile from a local library book and youtube videos. I definitely made some mistakes on my first jobs, but nothing horrible. Definitely do your research first. :) Good luck!

btw, I've been tiling with a wood-like textured porcelain this week and my crappy tile cutter does just fine cutting through the 12x24 tiles. I'd also recommend researching grout types. I'm using an epoxy grout for the first time because I'm tired of regular grout getting stained after a few years, but it's a very time sensitive product and I don't think I'd have been expert enough on my first tile job to do it correctly in the window allowed.

Thanks for the info, the tile will be a dark colour and we will be using a dark brown grout so hopefully staining won't be too much of an issue.

[Green_Thing]

The John Bridge forum is worth it's weight in gold. Super amazing helpful folks, some of the best on the whole internet. Hie thee hence.
Also. Your subfloor probably isn't stiff enough for large tiles. Don't expect to lay the tiles in a "brick" bond pattern since large tiles inevitably have a smidge of warp. Invest in good instalment and setting material, it's worth it for a permanent install. Schluter makes really good crack isolation underlayment, worth it. Porcelain tiles really need a tile saw. If your tiles are textured use grout release. If you want to use epoxy grout, practice first! If you want to seal your grout after, use Miracle water based, that solvent based stuff will kill you. Measure twice, cut once. Buy some overage of tile and grout because buying more if you run out doesn't work too well. Use caulk joints where required. Don't add extra water to your grout when it starts to set up, just mix new grout. Cleanup when wet, and get a good grout sponge.
That's a very very condensed version... John Bridge can fill in the details. I love installing tile and I hope you will too!