Day Four: Tile
01/10/08 18:04 |
Construction
Sorry for the long absence. It looks like we were off
in our projections by about four or five days...four
or five will-sucking days.
But now we look back to the time when we had a room with a tub, a new mixer, and a very bare, very concrete floor...
When it comes to tile, our experience can be summed up in one project for the house on Beachwood Drive -- the one very large but very rectangular room on Beachwood drive. Our current bathroom, while smaller, lacks those other defining characteristics which makes us happy to have (a) access to a tile saw and (b) access to Andrew who has tiled three bathrooms, and recently at that.
Jenn lined 'em up and Andrew laid 'em down. I learned all kinds of new terms like "field tile" and "bullnose" which, for some reason, everyone else seemed to have in their vocabulary.
I have an MFA.
Jenn spent a good long while laying tile out in order to find the best pattern. I was surprised this was necessary seeing as it looked random before she went to work and it looked random after she finished. But I was assured that there was some benefit (though the exact nature of this benefit is still in contention).
Andrew started by doing something that I wouldn't have thought of. Instead of starting the shower tile with the lowest row, he measured where the lowest row would end and screwed in some wood braces on which the rest of the tile would rest as they were mortared in place. This kept the whole wall of tile from sliding down into the tub which I thought was a neat idea.
Andrew and Jenn applied all the field tiles in the shower and then moved on to the floor where they did the same thing. Then they carefully measured all of the spaces for which tile needed to be cut, recorded those measurements in a complex but efficient database, and trucked some uncut tile and the list of measurements over the Jhenn and Andrew's house where the tile saw was set up and ready to rock. Andrew showed me how to cut a tile and I did about three quarters of the rest until I could no longer reliably use my hands to hold anything (the tile saw does a good bit of vibrating).
We returned home with the newly cut tile, Andrew and Jenn mortared in the pieces according to the master plan in both the shower and the floor and we stood back to admire the work.
Next up...grout.
Since the gallery now contains pictures that document the process for the next several steps, I probably won't be adding any more pictures until we get to something new. Just FYI.
But now we look back to the time when we had a room with a tub, a new mixer, and a very bare, very concrete floor...
When it comes to tile, our experience can be summed up in one project for the house on Beachwood Drive -- the one very large but very rectangular room on Beachwood drive. Our current bathroom, while smaller, lacks those other defining characteristics which makes us happy to have (a) access to a tile saw and (b) access to Andrew who has tiled three bathrooms, and recently at that.
Jenn lined 'em up and Andrew laid 'em down. I learned all kinds of new terms like "field tile" and "bullnose" which, for some reason, everyone else seemed to have in their vocabulary.
I have an MFA.
Jenn spent a good long while laying tile out in order to find the best pattern. I was surprised this was necessary seeing as it looked random before she went to work and it looked random after she finished. But I was assured that there was some benefit (though the exact nature of this benefit is still in contention).
Andrew started by doing something that I wouldn't have thought of. Instead of starting the shower tile with the lowest row, he measured where the lowest row would end and screwed in some wood braces on which the rest of the tile would rest as they were mortared in place. This kept the whole wall of tile from sliding down into the tub which I thought was a neat idea.
Andrew and Jenn applied all the field tiles in the shower and then moved on to the floor where they did the same thing. Then they carefully measured all of the spaces for which tile needed to be cut, recorded those measurements in a complex but efficient database, and trucked some uncut tile and the list of measurements over the Jhenn and Andrew's house where the tile saw was set up and ready to rock. Andrew showed me how to cut a tile and I did about three quarters of the rest until I could no longer reliably use my hands to hold anything (the tile saw does a good bit of vibrating).
We returned home with the newly cut tile, Andrew and Jenn mortared in the pieces according to the master plan in both the shower and the floor and we stood back to admire the work.
Next up...grout.
Since the gallery now contains pictures that document the process for the next several steps, I probably won't be adding any more pictures until we get to something new. Just FYI.