Tile installer wants to know: start in corner or center??
theresse
13 years ago
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peteinsonj
13 years agotheresse
13 years agoRelated Discussions
Shower Install start to finish
Comments (5)"as we start to lightly chisel at the tile the concrete underneath literally crumbles and falls apart in our hands...you can tell the builder never let the concrete cure properly." That's not "concrete". It's "deck mud". Deck mud is a very lean portland cement mixture, it's about five or six parts sand to one part of portland cement, half the amount of cement that's in concrete. It's made to be more sand so that any water that gets below your tile can percolate through the deck mud and eventually go out the secondary weep holes in your drain. The membrane being flat on your subfloor plywood, that's a problem. That membrane should have been placed on a sloped layer of deck mud. But enough about that. The Kerdi Tray and Kerdi board, it's an excellent system when done correctly. Just follow the Schluter tutorials. Go step-by-step. Make sure you cover any fastener heads and board seams so the system as a whole is water-tight. Your old plumbing might be a 1-1/2" drain. The Kerdi drain is 2". You can upgrade your waste plumbing to 2", or you can use an adapter to make the transition. Also, match the Kerdi drain material to your waste pipe material; ABS or PVC. Sorry in advance if too much info....See MoreStart from the center? Hand Quilting...
Comments (11)If you do a good thread baste you should be fine working out from a corner. Pull enough tension into the baste that you get some light compression and things won't be able to shift much. I'll warn you though, it's hard to keep up the motivation with basting. My stitches started out nice and proper, but they ended up looking like I was taking shots of tequila with each new needle. Actually, a little wine might not be a bad idea. ;) I basted by taping onto my hardwood floor and it's extremely, incredibly awkward, even with my knees padded. I'd rather have carpet! It's like a cruel pilates class. I wound up lying face down with two couch cushions under my belly. My back could relax and my arms hang down. Nest time, I need to rig up a couple of skateboards under myself, too, and maybe video the whole thing to blackmail myself onto a diet. Sharon Schamber demos a nice basting technique on YouTube that would work easily for a small quilt. The only thing is she talks about starching the back as a stabilizer for machine quilting--you won't want to do that for hand quilting. Much starch makes it harder to hand quilt through. One of my books talks about a well known elder quilt teacher-type who thread basted and PUT ON BINDING before beginning to hand quilt. She must have really basted WELL! Here is a link that might be useful: Schamber bastes on You Tube...See MoreI want to install a steam shower with jets. Where do I start?
Comments (7)Hi Sophia - thank you for the links. Wow that is quite comprehensive. Do you think I could spend less if I purchased a prefabricated shower? 12-16 is more than I thought (by a lot) - especially because I also need a larger water heater too I think. I only have a 28 gallon heater and it is 9 years old, so even my regular showers at 2.0 GPM don't provide heat very long (12 minutes max at this point). With jets, a rain head, and handheld, I might only get 5 minutes in there. So, that's another 3-5k if I do a tankless (probably the best option given the space I have in that room - a bigger tank wouldn't fit). Also, one person apparently had to upgrade their wiring and fuse for the steam generator. I'm not sure if I would have to do this as well (1970s house - maybe)...so that's TBD. Here's what I am thinking about with regard to prefab... though the complaints are that it is extremely hard to install the wall with all the plumbing because you almost need to get behind the enclosure while pressing the enclosure against the wall simultaneously... so installers / plumbers hate it. Some seem to have better reviews than others but I thought this might be an option. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003XZ2RKA/ref=psdc_6810473011_t3_B00D4B2UFK Thanks again for your links. I have a lot of reading to do!...See MoreI want to install all porcelain tiles inside my home, where do i start
Comments (5)I would get myself over to Yelp, and research local flooring stores that sell product AND do installation. Read through all the reviews. Get a comfort level that you can work with the folks in the store, and that they stand behind their products and work. Even more important when you're doing the whole house--it's a big project! When things go wrong, and you can read through many, many threads about that, the manufacturer points at the installation, and the installer points at the manufacturer. It is an uphill battle, it can get $$$legal$$$, and when I put flooring in our whole downstairs, I was (rarely for me) less concerned about saving $1/sf than I was concerned about not having anything go wrong, and in the event something did go wrong, having a long-standing store with LEVERAGE over the manufacturer to reduce my risk. I'm glad I went the way I did, and after all my questions, I went with the decades-old family-run store with the great reputation across town. They made great recommendations, and made sure to offer me all my options/upgrades up front, and didn't try to talk me out of anything that was important to me: (e.g. I asked for no quarter round to have a sleeker look of baseboard meeting flooring). Be sure to ask about additional costs for moving furniture, and which crew they will send. In my case, they sent their "best" crew (most experienced), and I agreed to wait for them. They picture-framed our hearth (mitered corners-looks great), and "beefed-up" a stair step that leads to our front door, making it wider/safer--at no extra charge. There are things that a homeowner might not know about (cheap glue?), moisture issues if you're on a slab, etc. These are just my thoughts and experience. You can also read through a lot of threads in this flooring forum to see what goes wrong for folks, and get a better idea of what questions to ask. Good luck!...See Morepricklypearcactus
13 years agoCircus Peanut
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13 years agoSharon kilber
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