Hi onlychange, Welcome to Garden Web and T Plant Seed Exchange I thought you might like to know there is no email link on your member page, thus no way to email you. Please see addressing newbie and newer member issues for complete instructions on getting it set. While you are there editing, you might want to place your state abbreviation in the one box provided for the garden zone (and Location). You will find it is often beneficial if members know where you are located......even more so, when trading plants. Some members, myself included do not respond to trade posts if the state location is not known. It is a postage cost, days in transit, temperature/climate thing to be considered. Happy Gardening and trading. Sue

You're better off using towels and sheets (not as likely to blow away or become compromised), if the plants are small enough, though frost cloth is better for lightweight plants that can't tolerate much weight. Best protection of all for small plants is corrugated cardboard boxes, as long as rain is no concern. The corrugation provides excellent insulation and you're guaranteed maximum benefit from captured ground heat by a good, snug fit to the ground. You can get all you want for free from USPS.com. Most large/larger plants are too difficult to effectively cover, IMHO. Just say no to large tender plants.

At the risk of obfuscating communicative efficacy of this electronic missive Talk about self provocating! :-) Tile, directly on plywood, can peel off and cracks easier Short answer-- I disagree. Longer answer-- If done properly, it's actually a much stronger installation. However, the person doing the installation must be VERY familiar with the procedures for installing over plywood. I wouldn't even trust most pros. All it takes is one shortcut or missed spec, and it can cause the floor to fail. something so small as the species of the plywood is all it would take. So, for all intents and purposes, you're better off with the CBUs and membranes available today. It is best to use concrete backer board - but it is very thick (3/8" ?) There are two thicknesses of cement board (CBU)-- 1/4" and 1/2". So long as you have a 3/4" subfloor (for ceramic, or 1 1/8" in two layers for stone), you can use 1/4" CBU. The 1/2" is for walls. Another alternative that I've found is hardy backer board (gypsom board) -- half as thick as concrete backer board but very rigid and works well with mortar. Completely wrong. First, as I just stated above, cement boards also come in 1/4" version. Even with Hardi, it should be 1/2" version used on walls. Secondly, it is NOT a gypsum core product. It's a cement/ fiber board. The only gypsum core product approved as a tile backer is Denshield, and for that very reason, I don't like using it. is the gypsom board rigid enough for floor use? Perhaps... but I wouldn't test it with natural stone. Assuming you're again talking about Hardi, it's MORE than strong enough. Keep in mind (and this is why I said setting tile directly over double layer plywood is a stronger installation)-- ALL CBU's, whether they be gypsum core, cement/ fiberboard, or cement board, are there as nothing more than a bonding surface. The subfloor gives you all the strength. Try putting a piece of even 1/2" CBU across a pair of 2x4's set 16" apart, and step on it-- you'll see what I mean. It has practically no structural strength at all. Now do the same thing with a piece of 1/2" plywood. You'll see a HUGE difference. The only strength the CBU needs to have is strength of bond. I have used gypsom board for the backsplash behind the sink and stove as well. For any place other than wet areas (those areas where direct constant water spray is imminent), sheetrock is sufficient to tile over, even using the heavier stone tiles. OKAY!! What else have you learned? :-)

Update - Conversation with the contractor went well yesterday. He reviewed the work and agreed that it all needed to be torn out and redone. He ended up firing his tile worker and assigned "one of his best" to do the job and stated he would be with him each day to supervise the work. He apologized profusely and said he would cover the cost of all new material and wants to ensure we are getting a quality product and are happy with the end result. While I appreciate his apology and willingness to cover materials, I'm still very skeptical their combined ability to deliver. None the less, with the new found knowledge I've gained from this wonderful community, I will monitor the work throughout the process very closely and post photos of the progress to this thread. There is one comment our contractor made that has stuck with me so I'd like to ask it here. He stated when installing a tile application of our size (12x24 porcelain), it is normal for there to be somewhat of a gap between the tile and wall. This is primarily due to the sheer size of the tile and that in order to have it perfectly level, there will be some mortar build up. Is this true? It seems to me like if they get the durock hung correctly, no matter the size of tile, it should be applied with minimal "gap" from the wall.