Floor Tiling

[mikethebike]

Well, after the shower was sorted and the new floor tiles looked so good, she who must be obeyed decided that I was so good at floor tiling, I should also do the hallway!

Now that's a good idea until I realised that the hallway (in a bungalow) has all the doorways to every room.  Now the flooring adhesive (very expensive sand and cement and some sort of PVA additive ) instructions says that it takes 48 hours to harden and a further 7 days to fully cure.  Yeah! Right!  So I end up having to tile some, leave some, grout some, leave some and so on, whilst we play hopscotch every time we want to eat, use the bathroom, go to sleep etc.

I've come up with an ingenious way of marking the tiles that you can't stand on by using those cross shaped spacers on the tiles that are a no go area!  The hard part is getting evrybody to remember that the crossed tiles are the ones you CAN'T stand on. DOH!
 

[montmil]

... Now the flooring adhesive (very expensive sand and cement and some sort of PVA additive ) instructions says that it takes 48 hours to harden and a further 7 days to fully cure.

BikeMike,  I've used this same tile adhesive and can assure you that the "7 days to fully cure" is a corporate CYA thing. I tiled my son's kitchen and butler pantry in their Austin, Texas, home and we were walking on it -gently, but on it- after 36 hours.

Hopscotching on the way to the head? You've got stronger bladder control than I do!  [smiley=Oscar.gif]

[mikethebike]

Disaster last night!  She who must be obeyed fell on the hopscotch playing area.  Luckily it was mild bruising only.  I did point out that she could have sued the contractor - if she had got one in!!!

[montmil]

Disaster last night!  She who must be obeyed fell on the hopscotch playing area.

Dead man walking!   [smiley=behead.gif] [smiley=whip.gif]  [smiley=Oscar.gif]

[mikethebike]

It is finished!  ....and on the seventh day he rested......  until she noticed that whilst the tiling had been done, the garden had run wild!

[Justin B.]

Dude, it sounds like you need to find a place to hide for a while or she's gonna work you to death, collect the insurance, and retire to an island somewhere...  

[mikethebike]

...and the vinyl floor in the w.c. is shown up by the new tiles and needs to match............. new boxes of tiles ordered...........

[montmil]

Dude, it sounds like you need to find a place to hide for a while or she's gonna work you to death, collect the insurance, and retire to an island somewhere...  

"...to an island somewhere" ... With the tile salesman and all your money!  [smiley=thud.gif]

[Justin B.]

... quite likely...

[nhmaf]

Hey, don't laugh !

We're completely renovating our upstairs bathroom, and guess what my wife shows up with in the back of the car - boxes of discontinued italian marble floor tile !
Of course, she says "Guess how much I saved on buying this tile ?"
I respond with "I'd rather guess how much you SPENT!"
Great !!!!      
At least I managed to get the  floor level with some self-leveling cement, but its going to be mortar and grout with that natural stone stuff now - hope that my tile wet saw is still working...

[drewboid]

So,
Home depot rents wet tile saws - of course they don't fit in the trunk of your car. - That's the excuse for buying that motorcycle trailer you had your eye on!

Look for the silver lining in every cloud!

[nhmaf]

SO, I was all set to start with the floor tiling.  The ante had been "upped" as she had also found these contrasting colored, 1" square tiles that she wants me to make a border all around the outside edge of the bathroom with.  Ugh.   Being the sort to lay stuff out first (measure twice, cut once), I determined that there was simply NO WAY that I could do the job with the amount of tiles that she had bought, as she didn't even consider "Wastage" from having to cut tiles, etc. to fit around corners of stub walls, etc.   I did mention that these were discontinued and out of stock, right ?


I went back to the store to try to find some other 12" floor tiles with a suitable contrasting color that I could use to make some sort of "pattern" with the tiles to stretch my pink marble tiles far enough to do the whole floor.   After much searching in the warehouse, the guy comes out with 20 more of the original Italian marble tiles.    A miracle !!!     Now I don't have to worry about making the pattern come out right - but this also means that I gotta get ready to mix mortar and spend the weekend on my knees...... this is going to take alot of Advil..

How did your tiling end up, Mikethebike ??   Any pics you want to show us for braggin' on ?

[Turbo_Crash]

Hello guys I'm a flooring installer mostly tile and wood/laminate. I tell mrs she can walk on the new tile the next day. Just dont move a fridge across it. Marbles need a special adhesive or else thay do strange things like cupping. Set the border first then the next day set the field, much easier Hope that helps

[nhmaf]

It was a VERY LONG WEEKEND putting in the tiles just before thanksgiving.    While I have done better on some tile jobs, I've also done much worse.
These came out not too badly, especially considering how wacked the subfloor was and all that I did to try to get it somewhat level.   I'll post some pics
in a little while - now that we're mostly done with everything else in the new bathroom, it's looking pretty good.

[Justin B.]

Interesting tip, Crash...