Let's Tile!

Another weekend, another project at Wallpaper Acres!

This weekend we tackled the downstairs half-bath and laundry room. Way back when, we purchased grey large-format ceramic tile...well this weekend was finally the weekend to lay them! This post will be a little shorter as we have not finished the tiling process and will have more take-aways next week once we grout and put our space back together.

Adam came over both Saturday and Sunday to help with the process and we were very grateful for his help. My extensive tiling history only dates back to a kitchen backsplash...with Adam's help. John and I have never done a floor so we wanted to make sure that we had our bases covered! On Saturday, we started with the process and spent the day dry-fitting the tile so that there would be no surprises when laying them. Yes, this step seems redundant but both John and I preferred to do it this way and I am glad we took the extra time to make the cuts. We were not rushing to make sure that the mortar had not set while trying to trim a tile to fit.

We used a bright orange product called Schluter-DITRA which is a waterproofing membrane (remember that the bathroom had a major leak...). This product was very easy to cut, measure, and install. We did not buy the joining tape as this room is not a wet bath so we are not too worried of major leaks and what we have will do the trick if we happen to have a small leak in the future.

John and Adam worked together to measure and cut the tiles and I provided a high level of entertainment for them and was on top of reminding them to use the spacers! On Sunday, we were able to lay the tile and the process went very smoothly with only a few minor fixes and special cuts that had to be made. We also used a self-leveling system which also made the process go very smooth. See below for our progress this weekend and everyone have a safe and happy Thanksgiving! (More to come next weekend!!)

(John cutting the Schluter DITRA membrane to be the base layer on the floor)

(We used a thin-set mixture to bond the membrane to the plywood sub-floor)

(Adam measuring the tiles, we used a 6-inch overlap as large-format tiles should not be laid in a brick pattern)

(End of day Saturday, we had all the tiles dry fit and were ready for Sunday)

(John laying tile in the back corner, we made sure that we did not tile ourselves into a corner!)

(The finished product, next step is to grout!)