very first tiling job - got a problem

[Overkill]

My reno job is down to painting & tiling - never done any tiling before. I have a toilet floor to do and I just noticed today that my chippie has run the door architraves right down to the floor but left the skirting off. It seems easier to cut the wood rather than the tiles and then cover the tile edges with the skirting, but I need to know how much to cut off the base or the architrave. I am using 55mm tiles and a 4mm notched trowel; about how thick will the bed be using that sized trowel?

Just as an aside, the adhesive product guide suggests a 10mm notched trowel for floor tiles, while my 'expert' friend says a 4mm trowel is needed for small tiles - any comments on what's right for the job?

[cherub65]

4mm trowel will compress to 2mm, personally would use 10mm on floor as will have a little more play (5mm).
Why not cut around Arch's?
We use 4mm trowel for mosaics etc. as they are a thinner tile

[shauck]

I would carefully prise the architrave off with a couple of chisels, starting at the middle and working my way up and down, not trying to get the entire nail out in one go but bit at at time until they're all loose. Then knock the nails back till pointy end is flush against the timber, put aside until tiling done then measure, cut and re-fix the arch. You use a scrap of timber as a lever to protect plasterboard when levering from that side.

[Overkill]

Thanks for the advice! The tiles are about 5mm thick and the reason I was told for using the 4mm trowel is that a thicker bedding would squish up between the tiles. The reason I don't want cut the tiles around the architraves is my skill level with a tile cutter :). I can easily work with the architraves, so that's going to be a neater job.

[heavytrevy]

6mm trowel will be perfect.
10mm will be way big with too much adhesive bulging up in the grout lines which will need to be removed before grouting, increasing labour and the chance of damaging the tiles.

As for the Arc lay a tile flat in front of it and scribe a line with pencil 2mm higher than the top of the tile, cut this bottom section of with an small angle grinder or a mutlitool (renovator)

Regards

[Overkill]

Thanks again, I will use a 6mm trowel. I dry laid the tiles and they are a perfect fit without cutting any tiles except at the doorway :). Rather than scribing a line on the architraves, I like to make a plastic spacer that acts as a guide for the multitool; it cuts down on mistakes.