guide rail for straight first line

[croikee]

Planning out a new tile job in our utility room. I noticed when our tile guy tiled our bathroom (cause I'm not that brave yet) he bolted a metal beam into the wall horizontally where he wanted to start the first row. That ensured that first bottom row was perfectly straight.

I saw one youtube video where someone mentioned a tile tracker, but all hits on amazon turn up some blue tooth thing . Any clue what this is called, or what technique the guy was doing in the bathroom? Is that common practice among you all?

I noticed I did not do that when doing the kitchen and drove me nuts, because our old counter was not 100% straight and threw everything off. Live and learn.

[tatumjonj]

You can really use anything that's straight. I've used a level screwed into the wall with a few pieces of wood blocking screwed through the hand holds to hold it like clamps. If I need a longer run, I've ripped a couple inch wide piece of an 8' sheet of 1/2 ply. You don't really need something super long. You can use a piece of straight edge ply, draw a straight line with a laser level and just keep moving the straight edge as you work.

[Jim Farrell Tiler]

dont screw through your waterproofing

[smifwal]

here is a link to the tile tracker
http://www.suretile.co.uk/category/t...r-tiling-walls

[croikee]

Thanks for the replies! I laughed at the "Don't screw through your water proofing." That sounds like something obvious to a professional and I sat there thinking "Well crap, thats a really good point."

Much appreciated!

[jadnashua]

You'd be surprised how many (so called) professionals that compromise the waterproofing by screwing/nailing things through it. some seem to think that after it's passed the flood test, it doesn't really matter (if they do one at all)! Nonsense, but it happens way more than it should.

A stack of tile or some other rigid substance supporting a ledger can work, but you need to ensure you got it really level and that things don't move in the process.

A good non-sag thinset can make it less of an issue.

[tatumjonj]

Well I guess I would have said that if he had said bathroom instead of utility room. How much waterproofing does a utility room typically have on the walls? I have a utility room in my house that has my freezer and washer/dryer. It doesn't have much waterproofing nor much need for any either.