How to tile wall around a laundry trough with 2 different base heights?

[SarahK1]

 

 

 

Hi. Am having a go at tiling vertical Kit Kat tiles around my laundry trough. The left side of the top of the trough sits flush with the wall. The back side of the trough has an aluminium lip about 15mm. 
I want the tiles to be matching heights from the trough up but am unsure how to achieve this. 
Do I need to add another piece of aluminium on the left side wall to match the backing the trough or should I cut the tiles at the back of the trough to be the same height as the left side? My only concern with doing that is the amount of tiles I’d need to cut to then fill the gaps under the window. 
It’s not a huge area but this is all new to me! Thanks in advance!

[JacobZ]

Hi @SarahK1,

Firstly, welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community, it's great to see you're getting stuck into some DIY home improvement projects.

With tiling, the most important step is always the first. Get your layout lines perfect to begin with and everything follows along nicely. 

Cutting the tiles to match is definitely an option but would be tedious and there are much easier methods.

With this being said, the easiest option would be to stick some Aluminium Flat Bar of a suitable size and finish to the wall in line with the top edge of the lip on the trough. This will give you that nice straight line to start from. You can then use some Selleys 300g Wet Area Waterproof Silicone Sealant of a suitable colour to seal and blend in the bottom lip of the flat bar to the trough.

Make sure that when you stick the flat bar to the wall that it is nice and level with the lip as any small difference in level can become much bigger the further along you go.

Please feel free to reach out for any further advice if you need it,

Jacob 

[SarahK1]

Thanks Jacob. That’s great advise and exactly what we did in the end. Found some 20mm aluminium at Bunnings and used that as the edge around both sides of the trough. 
I am pretty happy all in all for my first solo attempt at tiling. Just a bit of tidy up to do as the grout was still wet when I removed my edging tape. Also a tiny bit more silicone to apply. 
Cheers!

 

[JacobZ]

Hi @SarahK1,

That looks great, you should be very proud of your first solo attempt at tiling.

Please keep us updated if you have any other projects in the future. I'm sure our members would love to see them.

Jacob 

[Jason]

I also wanted to say well done @SarahK1.

Looking forward to seeing what you tackle next now you have a little more confidence in your abilities. 

Please don't hesitate to post anytime you need a hand. We're here to help.

Jason