Need guidance on grout color
7 years ago
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Building a shower- need guidance please
Comments (17)I would like recomendations of good quality products for this method,... A sheet of polyethylene plastic for the slip sheet on the floor and enough expanded diamond mesh to cover the slip sheet to start with. I tack the mesh down with just a few nails to keep it from flopping around. And band-aids for working with the diamond mesh. Deck mud is deck mud. Portland cement and sand. Handyman-guy will know the mix. Membrane? Chloraloy (CPE) from Noble. Not sure if it's sold at the box stores. I do recall seeing a roll of Oatey membrane at Home Depot. You might need molded corner pieces at the curb. Sealant. Depends on seaming, corners, etc. Stay within product lines and buy what the manufacturer recommends. Everything is available on their websites, but again, your handyman will know. Also be advised that a $1 tube of silicon caulk can not be used in place of of Nobel 150 for example. Thinset? Three most common in my area are Custom, Laticrete, Mapei are all fine. Modified. Grout? The same. Never had a problem with any of those three lines. You mentioned "grout admix", most grouts are already modified in the bag. You'll want "sanded grout" with the pebble tile due to the larger grout lines. All grout and all thinset that you buy will be powdered material, in bags. Nothing "premixed" that comes in a resealable plastic tub. Premixed stuff belongs in a dumpster. If he recommends premixed, fire him. If you buy premixed, fire yourself. If the sales-apron at the store recommends premixed, recommend to the manager that the apron be fired. For pebble tile I'll sometimes increase the pitch of the floor a bit to aid drainage. Minimum and typical is 1/4" per foot, maximum is 1/2" per foot. Pebble tile can sometimes take a lot of grout due to the irregular grout lines. So buy a few bags more than you need, you can always return the unused bags. Make sure the lots are consistent. I'll sometimes dry mix several bags together for an even blend, that way you'll see no differences if your bags are from different lots. Depends on the size of the job though, and by no means is dry-mixing bags a standard practice. If you go to a box store and the bag are firm/hard, or dust covered, look elsewhere. Cement-based products do have a shelf life, so buy from a store with good turnover. Walls? If not using Hydroban, RedGard, or any other topical membrane on the walls, then use 6-mil sheet polyethylene over the studs. I prefer cement board over hardie. Durock first, Wonderboard second. Not gospel, just my preference. 1/2" thick. Some use nails, I use hi-low screws to install cement board. Expensive, but again, my preference. Alkali-resistant mesh tape for the wall board seams. Talk to your guy and see what he prefers. But most everything mentioned there is fairly generic and pretty much interchangeable. Your handyman is the one who should give you the materials shopping list. If you omit anything, you're slowing him down and costing yourself money since you are the supplier. If he omits anything, he's costing himself money. Last word on pebble tile. It's so easy to set the sheets so that you can see the outline of the sheets after everything is grouted. It looks so pathetically cheesy. I blend the sheet edges together by pulling a few pebbles off the sheet edges and resetting the individual stones back in place by hand. It takes a little longer but you end up with a singular-looking pebble floor instead of a floor that looks like individual pebble sheets....See MoreGeometric guidance needed on tile layout
Comments (25)weedyacres, Your tile work is wonderful - I'm so impressed by everything you've done (including your amazing kitchen). When I saw your question here, it reminded me of the same issue I had in my master bath. Figuring out the geometry was driving me crazy! My tile guy's solution was a little different than yours, but he had more space to work with. He cut into the larger tiles so that they'd fit around the "rug", rather than making one of the larger tiles narrower. Here's a picture so that anyone else who runs into this dilemma can see an alternative solution:...See MoreNeed kitchen color guidance!
Comments (11)I've had a blue walled kitchen and family room for 8 years - still love it (but then, my favorite color is blue, so YMMV). The kitchen and family room flow together (great room style), my cabinets are a warm honeyed maple, floor is tawny himalayan cedar and counters are grey granite-look corian; this weekend, I'm putting in a mixed slate mosaic backsplash. My point is, a blue wall kitchen can be very warm and inviting or cool and calming. I think of blue and white as a calming oasis, not cold at all, just cool and calm. I think the tawny color you've chosen for below the rail and the warm wood floor will push the blue wall kitchen to the warmer spectrum, not cold. Blue on both sides of the rail would be cool and calming, not cold. Just my opinion (again, blue being my favorite olor, I find it cool, not 'cold'.)...See MoreNeed some color/finish guidance on my vintage-inspired kitchen!
Comments (11)I got a wonderful 8" black and white matte ceramic tile for my mudroom in a 1914 Greek Revival in Philadelphia. I love it. It's glazed but it looks like it isn't, so nothing stains it. It took me a long time to find it and it wasn't expensive but I can't remember off the top of my head who made it. I had to get it from an obscure supplier but they happily sent me samples. I'll see if I have their info in my construction records. I did see a picture on Gardenweb somewhere of a floor done by someone who cut marmoleum into 8" tiles and installed it on the diagonal. Looked fabulous but that had to be hard work! If you're on a tight budget, VCT can look good and is dirt cheap. It replaced the VAT that came out in the 1930s and wouldn't unauthentic either, but it is harder to maintain than ceramic or marmoleum....See More- 7 years ago
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