Backsplash Tile Tools

Layout and Surface Preparation Tools

• Tile workers typically install a backsplash over a finished wall surface with mastic or on cement backerboard with thin-set mortar. Tile workers use utility knives and circular saws to cut cement backerboard and a power drill to fasten backerboard to a wall surface. When installing tile onto a finished wall surface, such as a painted wall, tilers generally prepare the wall by sanding with hand sanders or power sanders. To layout tile patterns on cement backerboard or wall surfaces, tilers use tape measures, levels, chalk snap lines and squares.

Trowels

• Tilers use trowels to spread mastic or thin-set mortar. Trowels consist of a rectangular, metal base plate attached to a U- or L-shaped handle. Notches line two sides of a standard tiling trowel's rectangular base. The V-shaped or square notches allow a tiler to smooth wet mortar or mastic into evenly distributed lines. Additionally, tilers use smooth sides of a trowel to spread mastic or mortar onto the backside of tiles, a process called "buttering."

Tile Cutting Tools

• Tiling professionals choose among several hand and power tools to create a variety of cuts, including straight cuts, curved cuts and cuts through the center of tiles. Common manually-operated tile cutting tools include tile nippers, which bite small chunks from the perimeter of a tile, and the manual tile cutter, which creates straight cuts across a tile. Common power tools for cutting tile include the tile wet saw, a variation on the carpenter's table saw, and the jigsaw, which cuts both straight and curved openings from a tile's perimeter or through its center.

Grouting and Sealing Tools

• Grout is a cement-based product that fills the gaps between adjacent tiles. To apply grout, tile finishers spread the paste-like substance across a tiled surface with a specially designed trowel tool called a grout float. Unlike masonry floats, grout floats' base plates are made of soft materials, such as rubber or sponge. The bottom and sides of a grout float's base plate are smooth and straight. Tile finishers apply sealer to tiles and grout with brushes, sponges or paint rollers.