TKS-04Fix a temporary support battenA batten screwed level along the wall holds your first row of tiles straight while the adhesive grips, and comes off once it's cured. Before you drill, find your stopcock (usually under the kitchen sink) and check it turns, and know where your consumer unit is, in case you hit a pipe or cable. Use a cable and pipe detector along the fixing line, but still treat the wall as if something could be there — detectors miss deep cables, cables in conduit, and anything behind metal-backed board. If in doubt, isolate the circuit at the consumer unit before drilling, and turn off the water at the stopcock before cutting into a wall that could carry pipework. In solid brick or block, drill 6mm holes 40mm deep and fit a wall plug with a 40mm screw. In a timber stud wall, drive a 40mm wood screw into the centre of the stud. In a metal stud wall, use a self-drilling metal-stud screw or a proper hollow-wall toggle fixing — never a wood screw or plastic plug, both strip straight through 0.5mm steel. On dot-and-dab plasterboard, use a fixing long enough to pass through the board and the adhesive dab into the masonry behind, typically 60-75mm. On lath and plaster, screw into a lath timber where you can find one, or use a plaster-rated hollow-wall fixing, and work slowly as the plaster can crumble.