Tile a Kitchen Backsplash With Bert and May Encaustic Tiles in 8 Steps

Bert and May encaustic cement tiles arrive unsealed. Glazed ceramic sheds grout haze; cement absorbs it, so the batch needs penetrating sealer before fixing. Lay the tiles flat on a bench, coat the faces, and let the sealer cure for the time printed on the tin, usually around 24 hours at room temperature. The typical tile in this job is 20cm square and roughly 16mm thick, heavier than the 8mm porcelain many DIY tilers have handled, and the adhesive bed has to carry that weight on a vertical wall.

Seal the tiles flat before cutting or fixing

Spread the tiles face up across a clean trestle or a worktop covered with masking paper. Use a water-based impregnating sealer sold for natural stone and cement. It sinks into the porous body and helps stop grout pigment from marking the surface later.

Apply two thin coats. A flooded coat can dry with patchy shine, which spoils the flat, matte finish. Work with an applicator pad and keep the coat even across the face.

The edges absorb fastest, so run the pad around all four sides of each tile before coating the centre. Let the first coat haze over, then apply the second. Once the tiles are fixed with 2mm joints, the pad cannot reach the bevelled bottom edge tight to the worktop, and grout pressure is strongest at that line. Seal flat, allow the cure, then make cuts.

Dry-lay the run on the floor

Mark the back of every tile in pencil and set out the full backsplash on the floor. A 600mm high field above a 3m worktop, using 20cm squares with 2mm joints, works out at roughly 14 columns and 3 rows. Those figures rarely finish neatly at cabinets or end panels.

Find the centre line of the run, usually the midpoint of the hob or sink, and balance the end cuts. Aim for equal offcuts at both ends, with no piece smaller than half a tile. Encaustic patterns read as one field, so an awkward half tile at the most visible corner makes the wall look poorly planned.

Cement tile chips under a standard score-and-snap cutter. Use a wet diamond blade on an angle grinder or a bench wet saw, and cut slowly. The pigment layer sits in the top few millimetres, and a rushed pass can tear it.

Dry-laying also exposes the shade fault that can appear in reclaimed or small-batch encaustic tiles. Tiles from two production runs can carry a slight difference in the white ground, and missing that difference before grouting can mean stripping out an otherwise sound wall.

Screw up a ledger batten

A 16mm cement tile can creep downward in wet adhesive before the bond grabs, and the worktop may be out of level. Screw a straight timber batten to the wall one tile height plus one joint above the lowest point of the worktop, checking the line with a 1200mm spirit level. Tile upward from the batten, then remove it and fit the bottom row last, scribed to follow the actual worktop.

Fix the batten into studs or use suitable plasterboard anchors. On a stud, use a 50mm screw biting into timber. On bare plasterboard, a self-drilling plasterboard fixing such as a Grip-It or a metal toggle will hold the temporary load, and the holes will sit behind the bottom row or be filled later. The batten keeps the field level and stops a gradual sag across the width.

Comb adhesive and back-butter each tile

Choose a flexible, white, rapid-set tile adhesive rated for the wall substrate. White adhesive suits pale cement bodies because grey adhesive can ghost through in the same way grout pigment can.

Mix to a stiff peak that holds a notch. Comb the adhesive onto the wall with a 6mm to 10mm notched trowel, depending on the flatness of the wall. Run the notches in one direction so air can escape as the tile beds in.

Back-butter each 16mm tile before placing it. A thin skim across the back fills the texture in the tile body and improves the bed behind the tile. Voids behind cement tile leave weak spots where a knock from a pan handle can crack the face.

Press the tile with a slight twist. Check it against neighbouring tiles with a flat batten, especially across patterned faces where a proud edge catches light.

Lift the first few tiles back off and look at the adhesive transfer. You want coverage across nearly the whole back, with no ridges left standing in air.

Keep a damp sponge close. Adhesive squeezed into the 2mm joint or onto the face has to be removed within minutes, before it skins. Cured white adhesive on sealed matte cement is almost as stubborn as cured grout.

Grout the sealed face with an unsanded mix

Allow the adhesive to cure fully, then grout with an unsanded grout in a colour tested against the pattern. Sanded grout can scratch the soft pigment surface during wiping. Medium grey often reads cleaner against many Bert and May patterns than brilliant white, which yellows above a hob and shows coffee splashes.

Work the grout diagonally across the joints with a rubber float and fill each joint fully. Wait until the grout firms in the joint, then wipe with a barely damp sponge. Move diagonally so the sponge edge does not pull grout from the lines, and change the rinse water often. The sealed face lets haze lift from the surface. Leave the joints slightly proud, let them harden, and buff the dried haze with a clean dry microfibre cloth.

Leave the worktop joint flexible

Leave a 3mm to 4mm expansion gap where the bottom row meets the worktop. Fill that line with colour-matched silicone, since a rigid grout joint at the junction cracks when the worktop flexes under load.

Fix shelves and pendants after the tile is finished

A String Pocket shelving system or a single floating shelf may land partly over the new backsplash. Drilling through cement tile needs a slower setup than drilling a painted wall. Mark the bracket holes, then start the tile with a 6mm diamond-tipped tile bit at low speed, feathering the trigger and keeping a steady drip of water on the bit. Keep hammer action off while drilling the tile face, then use hammer action only for plasterboard or masonry behind it.

Behind plasterboard with no stud, a floating shelf loaded with plates and jars needs a heavy-duty fixing. Use a metal toggle or a Geefix-type anchor rated above the loaded weight. A plastic wall plug can spin in the board. A String Pocket unit spreads load across several fixings, though the top fixings still carry most of the leverage.

A pendant over an island or worktop follows the hanging height guide many kitchen fitters use: roughly 750mm to 900mm above the worktop surface for task lighting, with lower placement over an island when a defined pool of light is wanted. The pendant fixing belongs in a ceiling joist or a fitted brace, because plasterboard alone is not a safe support for that load.

If a picture rail or framed print sits on the painted wall above the tile, adhesive-backed hooks rated for the frame weight avoid fresh holes near the tile edge. A Dulux Heritage shade can sit quietly behind a busy encaustic pattern when the tile is meant to be the loud surface.

Check the wall before the first tile goes on

Most backsplash failures trace back to a wall that bows 5mm or more across the run. Raking light from a side window makes that bow visible across matte cement. A 16mm cement tile cannot be forced into a hollow without risking a crack, and pushing one proud tile back can leave the next one standing forward.

Hold a long level flat against the wall before tiling and skim the worst hollows if the run is badly out. If the wall remains bowed, the joints will follow it under side light. A matte cement surface makes that unevenness visible long after the adhesive has set.