Project #3: Tile (Part 1)

A week ago on Friday night, Heidi and I

started our tile project in the laundry room.

Here are some pictures of the project:

A 'before' picture looking into the garage.

That's part of the hardwood floor in the

foreground. We put that in earlier

this spring.

Here is a 'before' picture looking the opposite

direction in the laundry room.

Here is a 'before' picture of the small pantry

that is in the laundry room.

First, we had to take off the quarter-round

along the bottom of the baseboard.

We then cut and dry-fit the backer board.

After the backer board is all cut and fit,

We put mortar on the floor and lay down

the backer board. The backer board is made

from cement and fiberglas. We have to screw

down the backer board at least every eight inches.

The mortar levels out the floor and gets rid

of any voids, and the screws attach it to the sub-floor.

We left the vinyl floor installed and mortared

right on top of it. It doesn't matter about the vinyl

floor because the screws go right through it and

anchor to the sub-floor below.

Then we chalked some lines on the floor to

get perfect 90-degree angles to follow for

laying the tile. We then dry-fit the tile in

the whole room.

We used two different ways to cut the tile.

This is a tool that scores the tile, then snap it apart.

This was by far the fastest, easiest,

and cleanest of the two methods we used to cut tile.

We also used a tile wet-saw for those tiles with

angle cuts that the other cutter couldn't make.

Here is a picture of the spacers we used to get the correct

space between each tile. Spacers can be bought for

different widths between tiles.

We used 1/4 inch spacers.

Here is a picture of all the tile installed.

A different angle of the tile all installed.

The tile has to dry several hours before

you can walk on it.

After waiting a few days, the grout was put on.

The grout is put all over the floor and rubbed into

the joints at roughly a 45-degree angle.

All grouted and time to clean up the tiles.

After letting the grout firm up a few minutes,

it's time to wipe up all the mess left on all the tiles.

After the grout is cured for a few days,

it gets sealed so it won't absorb water.

After the sealer is cured, it's time to paint the

quarter-round and then install it along the baseboard.

Then install the washer and dryer, doors,

and put the pantry back together.

Compare the next three 'after' pictures

with the first three 'before' pictures

of this post:

An 'after' picture looking toward the

the door to the garage.

Here is an 'after' picture looking

the opposite direction.

And an 'after' picture of the pantry.

Now it is time to do a weeks-worth of laundry!

We started on a Friday evening and finished a week

later on a Saturday morning.

Our next project is to put the same tile in our kitchen.

That will have to wait until the end of the summer

because we are going out of town for a few weeks,

and then having family visit for a few weeks.

This project had several stages to complete,

but I think it was much easier than installing

the hardwood floor. (Pictures of that

project are on an earlier post.) The tile job turned out

very well and we are quite happy with it. We are even

looking forward to getting the tile in the kitchen finished.