Tiling Tips

I think I've figured out the problem I described here with the tiles lifting up. I believe it happens when the mortar has a higher spot in the middle than on the corners. The lifting always started as a hollow sound when you knock on one corner. Sometimes when spreading the mortar a high ridge can form between two passes with the trowel (similar to when you're shoveling your driveway ...). Sometimes this ridge will hold a corner of the tile up. Now that I've figured out what was causing it I can hopefully prevent it in the future.

Other tips I've learned while laying around 750 sq. feet of tile (only 150 left to go!):

• Mix more mortar than you think ... mixing mortar is one of the most time-consuming aspects of laying the tile. I always kick myself when I only mix enough for 4 or 5 tiles.
  
• After you lay the tiles, try and go over the grout lines (that don't have grout yet) with a wet cloth to clean them out as much as possible before the mortar dries. This saves so much time if you're messy like me.
• A guy I met who is doing his apprenticeship to lay flooring of all types said the best way to know if the mortar is the right consistency is to lay a tile, lift it, and check the bottom of the tile. I think he said somewhere around 80% of the tile should have mortar stuck to it. The method I use now is: when I'm mixing it with the drill and the drill hole mostly retains its shape when I pull it out of the mortar I know it's about right.
• Pay more for the good gloves :) Pick a set of clothes to tile in and expect that you will throw them out when you're finished. Likewise with the rags.
• Make sure to change water often when grouting - it really does save time in the long run. I always go back to the start after grouting and just shape the grout lines and scrub off the harder grout on the top of the tiles. Then the next day I'll go for a second wash and start working on the haze.
• The best thing I've found for shaping grout lines is dollar store sponges :) The ones sold in the home improvement stores aren't flexible enough to get the grout lines right (or at least that's what I've found).
• A good score and snap saw is worth its weight in gold. I think tile nippers would have been helpful, but we don't have any.
  

Anyone else have any good tips for laying ceramic tile?

On Saturday I got all the tile behind the stairs laid (yay!). Last night I got it grouted and washed it once. Tomorrow night my goal is to wash it a second time and get the laminate finished to meet the tile. I can't wait until that's done!

Peter has been working on the pantry and oven cupboard. Despite running into several glitches (we won't talk about those ;) ) he's ready to bring it into the house. He's going to build the section over the fridge in place as well as attach the face frame to the boxes. It will be too hard to move after it's all together.

I'll try and get some pictures - I think we've done lots of flooring since the last ones.

The monster list ...

Big Items Left to Finish

• Urethane on stairs
• Hang drywall in third spare room
• Hang drywall in back closet
• Hang, paint and install doorknob on door to half-bath
• Crack-fill, prime, and paint third spare room and second spare room closet
• Crack-fill, prime, and paint master closet
• Crack-fill, prime, and paint back hallway
• Finish laying and grouting tile in kitchen
• Build and install pantry and oven cupboards
• Build and install upper cupboards
• Build and install shelves and drawers in kitchen cupboards and master vanity
• Build window returns
• Install trim throughout

This is just a reminder for myself about what our "short-list" looks like for the next couple of months. Anything not on this list is just gravy. Things like telephone jacks, cable jacks, fixing little things that aren't quite the way we want them...

90 Percent!

Just a quick post before work starts for the day :)

The assessor came out last week at the bank's request to get an update on what we had finished. We knew going in that we didn't have the 98% done that was needed in order to get our third and final draw of money. The assessor echoed that sentiment as she was leaving, which was fine.

When we got back from vacation on Monday there was a message on Peter's phone at work that she had set us at 90% complete and the bank was offering to release 2/3 of the remaining money. I'm so excited! It was totally unexpected but will be very nice to pay down the line of credit.

Other than that good news, things around the house have been moving very slowly. It doesn't look like we'll get to do much more until Saturday this week due to various commitments. Last week I tiled the rest of the entryway (yay!) - it's waiting for grout along with a small section of tiles by the stove. I guess I'd better get some more grout. I'm going to try and get those two sections grouted before Saturday and then spend Saturday laying the tile behind the stairs. Peter is working on the face frame for the pantry and oven cupboards - the unit looks so nice even without them!

Paint Transition

I ran across a question from someone on the www.houseblogs.net forums about a way to transition paint colours between two rooms that share a common wall. Since we dealt with this issue last fall I thought I'd post a few pictures of the "finished" product. Please disregard the mess - we're still spending more time building than we are organizing and it shows!

The door in the first two pictures is the same ... it's impossible to get the whole wall in one shot...




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Frustration

We managed to put a good night's work into the house last night. We cut the bottoms off the two doors, Peter put the wall up, and I started to clean the mortar off the tiles in front of the wood stove.

I got about halfway done the tiles when I noticed that one of them was cracked ... very strange. I figured I'd have to take that tile up, remove the mortar, and retile it on the weekend. Well ... once I got that tile up I noticed that the tile next to it was loose ... this spiraled into 6 loose tiles and more on their way. Has anyone ever had this problem or have any ideas on what's causing this? We laid it in the late fall, when the concrete was cold and before we turned the radiant heat on. I thought maybe we weren't mixing the thinset properly. I found some places online that said if the thinset is too wet or dry this can happen (they sound hollow when you knock on them). However, I don't think I've changed anything and all the tiles I've laid recently have been fine. Anyway, we got the 6 tiles up, we're just going to grout over a few others that we should probably lift (I figure it's not much more work to take them up after grout than it is now), and we're really hoping the rest of the tiles are good and solidly stuck. Our other thought on why this happened is that we didn't grout it right away...

So ... I didn't quite get all the tiles cleaned and ready for grout, but that's ok, because I'll spend Saturday replacing the tiles we took up as well as laying some more in the entryway. I'll probably lay some more tiles on Monday and then grout everything on Tuesday.

Enjoy your long weekend all you NBers!

Weekly Schedule

I was reading back over some older posts and I am completely amazed at what we managed to accomplish in an evening. I think this was due in part to having a plan posted so that we had to be accountable if we decided to just sit on our butts and do nothing instead of what was on the list ...

So here is our plan for the next few days:

Thursday

1. Cut bottom off doors to master bath and office (they are too long now that the hardwood is in place). Hang doors
   
2. Clean mortar off tiles by stove. Get ready for grout.
3. Paint 1 coat on door to master bath.
4. Finish framing closet in back hall.
   

Saturday

1. Lay tiles we removed and some in entryway.
2. Hang remaining drywall in spare room and back hall. That's all for drywall - yay!
   
3. Cut remaining panels for pantry and oven cupboards.
4. Start putting together boxes for pantry and oven cupboards.
   

Monday

1. Lay more tile.
2. Put together boxes for pantry and oven cupboards.

Tuesday

1. Grout tile.
   
2. Work on face frames for pantry and oven cupboards.

I have purposely made these goals very attainable so we can feel a sense of accomplishment by actually completing our list ;) Maybe we'll even be able to exceed our expectations!

Back in the groove

After a few unproductive weeks, Peter and I are ready to get back in the groove of finishing up the house. I've noticed we tend to cycle like that and I think it's necessary for our sanity!

We did manage to finish up the hardwood last week (yippee!) and we also cut out some of the panels for the pantry and oven cupboards before we ran out of plywood. We have an order in for 3 more sheets that will hopefully come sometime this week. We took some time on Saturday to clean up the garage and move the remaining plywood from the kitchen to the garage.

This week our focus turns to tiling downstairs and finishing up the pantry and wall oven cupboards. If the wood doesn't arrive on time I may be able to convince Peter to do some crack-filling. We shall see ...

Tomorrow night I plan on cleaning off some of our tiles that were never grouted in the kitchen (they were hiding under the plywood). I think just getting the mortar off will take all night. We laid these tiles before we got into the habit of keeping it neat in order to avoid the painstaking hours cleaning the mortar off the tiles ;) Thursday night the plan is to actually grout those tiles, and then on Saturday I'll get back to laying tile in the entryway. We're on vacation next week and will have several full days to work on the house - look for progress pics!