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Splitting the difference
Since we already laid-out our design on paper we pretty much know how long our connectors will be on the outside edges of our walls but there are always variations in your walls so don’t sit and cut all your pieces and try to install them.
You should install a few tiles in your grid as we were talking about earlier and this will square your grid up. You can pretty much install all of the tile right now but since that takes time you can get away with a few in each corner and a few in the center.
Check the alignment of your center grid with your walls and at this point you can make any adjustments by sliding the whole grid up-to about an inch to get it in place.
Just like when you were putting up your main rails you will need to cut the clips off of your 2 foot pieces to get them into the perimeter molding. However since we are splitting the difference between each side of the room you should leave the clips on that way you can use the cut piece on the other side of the room.
This doesn’t always work out but if you cut the clips off of your 2 foot pieces now there will be no way to use them in other areas of the room.
Aligning your first edge.
Start in one corner of the room and place your first cut piece in place and use your string line clip to secure it to your perimeter molding.
Now move to the other end of the length of wall you are working on and install a cut piece in that area and secure it in place with a clip.
Finally insert another piece mid-span in the center of the length of wall you are working on and secure that piece to the perimeter molding with a clip.
Now you should double check all of your distances on the other three walls that you have not started working on. They should all be aligned and square with pretty much equal distances. If not this is your last chance to make an adjustment to the Grid before you start cutting all your outside connector pieces.
Once you are happy with the position secure the three first connectors you installed by drilling through the perimeter molding and the connector and insert a pop rivet to hold the connection secure. You do not need to pop rivet each outside cut piece to the perimeter molding you only need to do a couple of them to hold your grid in place.
You will now move to the opposite wall that you were just working on and repeat the steps of securing and pop riveting in cut connector pieces at each corner and one or two in the center that will secure the grid in place.
And again you will follow the steps for the other walls before you begin to cut all of your connectors for the outside.
This is an important step the 8 to 12 first connectors that you pop rivet in place around the room will set the distances for all other connectors that you cut. Skipping this step will lead to a lot of headaches later.
Next we will discuss cutting tiles to fit into the smaller spaces.