With the setting-out complete and the guide battens fixed, you can start to place the whole tiles on the wall. Put down a dust sheet to catch stray blobs of adhesive, unpack your tiles and spacers and place them nearby.
- Scoop some tile adhesive from the tub with your spreader and spread it on the wall in a band a little more than one tile wide. The notches form ridges in the adhesive which will be compressed to an even thickness as you place the tiles.
- Place the first tile in the angle between the guide battens. Rest its lower edge on the horizontal batten, then press it into the adhesive. Check that its edge is against the vertical batten.
- Place more tiles one by one along the row, fitting a spacer between them, until you reach the room corner. Press the spacers at the top corners into the tile adhesive so they will be covered when you fill the joints with grout. At the bottom corners, push one leg of each spacer into the gap between the kitchen tiles; these will be pulled out when the batten is removed.
- Hold the edge of your tiling gauge across the faces of the tiles to check that they are flush with each other. Press in any that are proud of their neighbours.
- Apply another band of adhesive and place the second row of tiles. Align the bottom edge of each one between spacers in the row below before pressing it into place. Then fit spacers between the top corners as before.
- When you have placed the topmost row of tiles, scrape off any excess tile adhesive from the wall with a stripping knife and wipe off the remaining traces with a damp cloth.
- Allow the adhesive to set for 24 hours. Then prise out the nails that are holding the guide battens in place, taking care not to dislodge the tiles. Measure and cut individual tiles, one at a time, to fit the width of the remaining gaps and butter some tile adhesive onto the back with your spreader.
- Fit spacers into the gaps between the rows of whole ties. Then fit the cut pieces, one at a time, into the gap between the spacers. Press the cut tile into place so its face is flush with its neighbours. Repeat the process to measure, cut and fit the remaining cut tiles at both ends of each row. Then cut tiles to fill the gap between the bottom row of whole tiles and the skirting board or floor.
