Tiling the hallway
21 June 2026
The hallway is nine square metres if you count the bit behind the door, which the previous owner clearly did not. The old floor was linoleum laid over chipboard, and the chipboard had been damp at some point, so the first day went on removing things rather than building them.
I borrowed a tile cutter from a neighbour. It is a manual one with a scoring wheel and a lever, older than both of us, and it works perfectly well as long as you do not rush the snap. Two tiles broke before I stopped rushing.
The wall is not straight. Not badly — maybe eight millimetres over three metres — but enough that a full row against the skirting would have shown a tapering gap. I measured from the centre line instead of the wall, and let the cut tiles at both ends absorb the difference. Nobody has noticed. I notice every time I walk in.
Measure twice, then measure from something that is actually fixed.
Grout was the part I underestimated. The first batch was too wet and pulled out of the joints as it dried; the second was stiff enough to stay but had to be worked in properly with a rubber float. Total time: three evenings plus a Saturday morning. Cost: about forty euros in materials and one bottle of wine handed over with the cutter.