This doesn't look like such a big deal scrolling thru the pictures, but it was a lot of work! We are not the most enthusiastic home improvers on the block. Our motto seems to be: if it works, why spend money for something different. However, the floor in the downstairs bathroom (pictured in the firts two photos) was in terrible shape. It was floored with vinyl tile squares, the cheapest, most ugly flooring known to man, and had probably been there since the '90's. And have I mentioned that it was also uglier than sin? So we decided that we'd put in real tile over labor day weekend. We were nervous because it was a really big project for us,and neither of us had done any tiling before.
First step was the demo. Worst and hardest part of the whole thing. I started about 9:30 and worked for two hours. My hands were swollen and bruised by the end of it. I had to soak them in Epsom salt that night. I used a crowbar to break everything up. I think there are floor scrapers you can buy that might make the job easier. It would be money well spent for anyone demoing a floor. When Aaron was ready in the afternoon, we took out the toilet and then he broke out the last three vinyl tiles behind the toet and cleaned up the wax ring etc. Day 1 done.
Day 2. We decided on Mesa Beige 12x12 tiles and biscuit colored grout from Lowe's. We laid out the full tiles and the started the long and tedious measuring and cutting process. We had some delays because we'd missed getting the water pan for the saw from Cindy and Brad and we had to go buy a new blade. Cindy and Brad let us borrow a lot of tiling tools so that made our job costs go way down.
We finally got all the kinks out and got to cutting. It probably took us about 5 hours to cut and layout the entire floor. We"d intended to put the mortar down and set the floor that day but we ran out of time.
Day 3. Took about 2 hours to put down mortar and lay the floor back in. We let it set overnight.
Day 4. Grouting. A messy job, but kind of fun. This probably took about 2 hours as well because we had a o make sure the floor was wiped off and rinsed well so we wouldn't get grout haze.
All grouted and clean. We let grout set for 24 hours.
Day 5. We caulked the baseboards and reset and caulked the toilet. Might have been about an hour of work. We are really pleased with the final result. We have a pleasant bathroom now and the job looks pretty good, especially for our first attempt at tiling. We will seal the grout in a few days and then the project will be complete. We plan to redo the upstairs bathroom floor next.
Comments
brittany