Boy, have we learned a lot about tiling and heated floors as of late! Since there is no heat duct in the guest bathroom upstairs we decided to treat our guests to toasty feet by using a heat mat under the tiles. We considered doing the same in our bathroom, but backed out after installing the one upstairs - we're safe, there is a heating duct in there anyway. So, here are a few of the lessons we learned:
- If you install a heat mat use a glue gun (or strong tape) to adhere the loop ends to the subfloor (even if they say the mat itself is adhesive) - they like to creep up otherwise.
- If you are working with self-leveling cement (the brand we used smelled like bubble gum - yuck!) you have a VERY short window to work. Be well organized before you start. Even with doing that, it was a zoo. Don't use duct tape to seal the holes between the walls and the floors (as the suppliers and or internet suggest), put down a small piece of board the height of the finished depth you want. Pour it slowly and as evenly as possible over the surface and use a hoe or some other LONG handled tool to push or pull the cement to that height before it settles. It looks great when it is done and it's easy to work on.
- Laying Hardiboard (TM) isn't really any easier than pouring the self-leveling concrete...... in fact it may be more of a hassle and your arm will be really sore afterwards from spreading all that thinset!
- Let your tools do the work! Those little margin trowels are great for cleaning up excess thinset! That way you don't get it all over your gloves and transfer it to other tiles. And those little 'X' tile spacers are great for cleaning out excess thinset/mastic that in between the tiles. Your grout needs that space!
And the tiling just goes on and on and on. We gave the house a good cleaning yesterday afternoon (that felt good) and didn't go in this morning!!! My arm was too sore (now I understand Bill's taking 2 ibuprofen at a time!) and we had a lot of organizing (our thoughts as much as anything else), ordering and paperwork to catch up on, so! It felt great to get that accomplished. On to the pictures......
 |
| Here is the result of Bill and Paul's hard work in laying the oak flooring. They did a great job and it is beautiful (just ask Alfred)! It looks so different in the two rooms because one (the dining nook) is on the west side (left) with windows surrounding it and the other, the "den," is on the east side and it is afternoon! Bill's planning on building some cool built in cabinetry in those two holes in the wall in the dining nook. |
 |
| The master bathroom shower is starting to take shape.... can't wait until the room flooring is in so I can wrap it up. Each of those tiles on the shower floor( about 3" x 3") was hand cut, because they don't make that specific style of tile in anything less than 12" x 12"! |
 |
| Bill placing the Hardiboard (tm) after I spread the thinset. Then he attached it with screws and I taped the seams. After tiling the bathroom floor upstairs in the morning, we tackled this in the afternoon. Besides the fact that you are supposed to wait 24 hours to work on top of the Hardiboad, my arm hurt so much this morning that we gave ourselves a day break from the "hard" labor. Boy, did it feel good. |
 |
| Our master bedroom has become tool and materials central! I wonder if we will ever get to move a bed in! We have a great view out the back now that we removed that questionable sunroom! |
 |
| The guest bathroom floor now that it is tiled! What a job. See that little ring in the upper right? That is where the toilet will be and getting the tile to fit around it was just about enough to get me to think outdoor toilets aren't such a bad idea! Okay, so that might be a bit of an exaggeration! |
No comments:
Post a Comment