So Saturday, Jan 31st the project began. Laying wall tile is vastly different than floor tile in difficulty. First, you have to make sure your line is level. In this case I started at one corner and started throwing up tile and using little wedges to make it level. I got two tile down the length of the tub and lo and behold my gap is about 3/8" or more. So suddenly I'm ripping tile off the wall and changing my plans. If you do not know, I've been cutting tile in the garage in sub-zero weather. I use hot water in my cold saw, collect a few cuts together and throw out the water before it turns into a less liquid state. Well with this project I changed my cutting plan. The large family room downstairs is finally clear of most of the contractors equipment so I moved the saw down there and then hung a tarp between two light holes in the ceiling (in some weird way) and cleared the room around the tarp and saw.
The setup is great, and warm. Laying from the opposite corner is much easier and the cuts are fairly easy as well. Between each one I spend a good 20 minutes leveling and shoving wedges in to make sure it stays that way.
Around the faucet of the tub I was hoping to poke a hole through a tile. After a trip to the store to get a drill bit to cut through tile or glass I started to drill four holes into the corners. No matter how much I pressed the bits just would not poke through. Finally after pitting the entire area and poking 2 holes I tried to knock the piece out with my trusty hammer. *CRACK*. I try again on another piece this time with less success. Now let me try to convey how few tiles I have to work with.
We have been shopping around for tile for some time when we came across some overage sales. Returns or out of stocks where there is less than 200 sqft of each kind. This has worked to our favor as each room is fairly small. We wanted to use big tile around the tub because it looks nice and it is easier to throw up. Of this tile we had about 100 sqft, which should be enough for the tub wall. But I do not want to stop there. I want to tile the bathroom walls from around chest high at the tub to knee high by the door. This requires more tile. so to make the tile go farther we have employed some other complimentary tile to use as runners. During my first calculation using I was 4 tile short. So I fenagled some and with some compromises I was able to estimate using just under the amount we had. 3 tiles under and that isn't 3 whole tiles will be left over type of deal, it is scraps that add up to 3 tiles.
Okay I am frustrated I admit. But I can still use those pieces as the cracks only broke off about 4" of each tile. I decide at that point to just cut the 2 tiles and bracket the faucet with a small square notch. 1st row up, I am done for the day.
Sunday, (Stake Conference, Super Bowl Sunday, etc.). I got up at the crack of 11ish and start laying the coral in my first runner. I love this stuff. What is great about it is the vast colors, designs and it changes color in water (especially the red ones). My plan with these when I go to seal is just to seal the grout lines and leave the coral as is so a person enjoying the shower can also enjoy the show.
In the closeup there is one tile that is my favorite. Guess which one.
After I got the coral row up I quickly threw up the next row of 18" tile and called it quits for football. Yeah I thought the Cardinals had that one.
Monday, (The day of the groundhog). I threw up the mosaic runner. That turned out to be interesting as I did not trim the edges to a standard width. There is going to be some large gaps between this row and the 18" tile above it. We will see how that goes. I let that dry for a couple hours before returning to it and forcing Kori to spend time in the same room as myself. We finished up around 11:30 with the next row of 18" and the coral runner on top. Tuesday I may get ambitious and remove the tape from the mosaic. I'll take pictures at that point and post them in a new post.
...More to Come...
-Blake
2 comments:
looks good!
You are a pro......I didn't know you guys had left last night. I had some things to give you and you left the nutcracker!
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