Builders Share

Tiling Two

The tile work continues.  I've finished laying them all and am now waiting 24hours for the thin-set to cure so that I can add the grout.

The rest of the job of laying the tiles went pretty well with no panicky calls to experienced neighbors. I did run into a few problems, two of which were in my layout plan.

I decided to go against convention in laying out the tiles because the tiles are mosaic and I didn't need to be concerned about odd-sized tiles against the walls.  I was concerned, however, about the sight lines in the "walkable" area of the room.  It would be important to keep the grout lines parallel and perpendicular to the north wall that abuts the walkable area of the room.  The bathroom walls in this 18th century house are by no means square, so I want to make sure that any diverging grout lines (ones that start a half inch away from the wall and then 8 feet later disappear under it) are hidden by the toilet, tub, and vanity.  I figured if I started tiling along the north wall, I would be assured of a neat looking floor.

This plan worked well for the most part.  The problem came as I worked along the west wall that was not quite square with the north wall.  When one of the mats didn't fit square with the last one laid, I had to nip the edges of the tiles.  I shouldn't really call this a problem because it's just part of tiling, but I wasn't quite prepared to start nipping tiles at the same time that the thinest was ready and waiting.  It would have been better to have had the nipped mats ready for installation ahead of time.

The other layout problem came towards the end of the job when I wasn't able to maintain the spacing between some of the mats.  If I had been using tile spacers I might have seen the problem coming and been able to head it off, but I was eyeballing the job.  There's an eighth of an inch between each tile, and this is pretty easy to eyeball for laying the tiles but in the course of 10 feet, if you're off 1/32nd here and there, it adds up. I plan to use a light colored grout so I don't expect the error to be noticeable, if at all.

The other problem I ran into I'm afraid is more significant.

The radiant floor mat was difficult to tile over.  The thickness of the wires causes a perceptible rise in the tiles between the area of the floor that's heated and the area that's not.  The unheated area is, for the most part going to be covered by the vanity, tub and toilet, so what's perceptible in the empty room should go unnoticed later on.  However, there's one point, at the end of the heating mat run, where the wire is even thicker than the rest of the mat.  This point just happens to be right at the entrance to the bathroom, and here there is a small cluster of mosaic tiles that got bumped up.

I'm hoping that this small bump will be less noticeable after the work is grouted, and I have my fingers crossed that this imperfection doesn't lead to cracked grout or tiles.

If I had it to do over, I would've poured a layer of floor leveler over the entire floor to bury the radiant heat mat and create an even surface before starting to tile.  I had considered this originally but it would have cost another $50-$100 dollars extra and extended the job for another day. The instructions for the radiant floor mat are very detailed but they make no mention of the possibility of running into this problem.  Too bad for me.

Overall, I'm happy with my effort.  For a novice, I can't be disappointed with the results. The proof will be in how the it holds up over time.

handyman

DIY on the Killing Floor

The tiling has begun.  For several days I've been nervous.  I knew I had to get started on this task, and I had done all the study and how-to reading that I could reasonably do, but this is something I had never done before or even seen a demonstration; and it's the kind of thing that if you screw up badly, there's no easy way out.

Having plenty of experience in making mistakes on unfamiliar tasks, I had reason to be nervous.  Where errors in painting can be painted over, or errors in carpentry can be ripped out and redone, errors in a tile job would require either years of looking at a botched job or a major expense to redo after a messy demolition.  I'm a worrier. I can't help it.

I got all my tools together and mixed up a small batch of thinset.  I just want to get a feel for it and lay a few tiles to start.

The instructions say the thin-set should be the consistency of peanut butter or toothpaste, mine was the consistency of both on a 100 degree day.  It was runny.  I was afraid to make it too thick and have it set up too fast but I erred on the thin side and this created a problem.

As I started laying the mats of mosaic tiles, the thin-set oozed up through the grooves and started getting all over the top surface of the tiles.  I panicked a little.  How was I going to clean that stuff off?  What if it set up on top of the tiles, would I ever get it off then?

The first mat of tiles was a mess so I pulled it back up off the floor and tried to clean it off.  I was afraid, though, that the thin-set I had spread on the floor would start to set up while I was trying to clean off the messy tile so I called my wife Cybele and asked her to come clean it while I tried to lay down another.

I was more careful with the second, but the stuff still oozed up through. I cleaned out the grooves as best I could and wiped up most of the excess thin-set and then went about laying the next mat.  In the meantime Cybele had cleaned off the first mat. 

I told her to call my brother for advice as to this oozing problem.  He had laid mosaic tiles in his bathroom so I figured he had encountered this.  It didn't matter.  He wasn't home.

I kept cleaning out the tile grooves and wiping up the runny thin-set.  Then I remembered my neighbor Greg Gorman, a stained glass artist, does mosaic work as well.  "Honey, call Greg!"

Well Greg was out too.  With the phone cradled in my neck while my hands cleaned up oozing thinset, I chatted a bit with his wife hoping she may offer some insight.  Who knows, maybe she looked over his shoulder enough to know what I was confronted with.  She didnt'.  But soon Greg walked in the door and took the phone.  His advice was, clean the thin-set off the tiles.  Don't let it set up.  And keep the grooves clean for the grout. Well, this is what I figured but hearing someone with experience say it was helpful.  He also said not to worry about the runny thin-set; it would just take longer to dry was all.  And, oh yeah, read the cleanup instructions on the thin-set bag.  Ah! Yes! Read the instructions!  This I had done earlier but in my state of panic had forgotten.

Talking to Greg got me to calm down and just work at taking care of the few tiles I had laid down. When those were looking good, I spread a little more runny thin-set and laid down a few more tiles. 

There was only one more problem. The runny thin-set did not spread well over the radiant heat mat; nor did it seem to provide enough support to hold the mosaic tiles stably over the heating wires.  Some of the individual tiles were wobbly on top of the radiant heat mat and I was worried that there were voids in the thin-set.

I went to bed that evening a little worried that I'd have to perform some kind of repair on the tiles that seemed wobbly.  It was all for naught.  The morning proved that once the thin-set had set, the tiles in question were not wobbly.  It was only that the thin mix was misleading me.

So all that drama and only a few square feet of tile down.  But the worry is done. I've made my beginners errors and got my feet wet (and a little muddy) in the process.  I'm ready to get on with the rest of the job.

handyman

No Cold Feet

The clock is ticking on getting the upstairs bathroom in shape for guests that are due in August.  The house layout is such that to get to the downstairs bathroom (the only one currently), you must pass through the two office/guest rooms.  I'd like for that bathroom to be a private one for guests when they're staying, but that requires having the upstairs one functioning.

The rough plumbing for the upstairs bath was completed over a year ago, but before I can install the fixtures, I need to tile the floor.

At various intervals over the past year, I've done work towards preparing the floor for tiling.  I cleaned up the sub-floor by replacing some of the weaker planks with 3/4" plywood, and I leveled it as much as possible shimming here and there.  Around Christmas, I installed the Durock cement backer board and with help from my brother temporarily installed a toilet so there were two available in the house over the holidays.  (The toilet came back out when I was plastering the walls.)

Last week I installed an electric radiant heat mat so that our toes will stay warm in the winter.  This heat mat goes on top of the cement backer board and gets covered with thin set mortar when the tile is installed. It runs off a 120V circuit and has its own thermostat/timer to control its operation.

When I wired the upstairs, I hadn't planned on installing radiant heat in the bathroom so I needed to cut a hole in my newly plastered wall for the electrical box that houses the thermostat, and then fish wires through the wall from the floor up to the box.  I'll grab power from the bathroom's receptacle circuit that is protected by a 15amp breaker and a GFCI switch.  The circuit itself can actually handle 20amps but the radiant floor mat specifies no more than 15.

Once I had the box installed and the wires pulled, I layed out the mat and stapled it to the Durock to hold in place.  I then chiseled a trough in the Durock to route the wires from the base of the wall to the mat, and used hot glue to fill the trough and hold the wire in place.

Now, when the tiles arrive, I'll be ready to start mixing mortar.

handyman

Time for Hot Water

Having done a weekend repair job on the hot water heater reminded me to take care of something I've been wanting to do for a while... Add a timer switch to the unit.

The electric hot water heater keeps a tank full of water at 110+ degrees 24 hours a day while we use it only a few hours in the morning and a few in the evening if that.  It's always felt like money ill spent to me.  It was especially frustrating when I'd wake up a 2am to go use the bathroom and in the quiet of the night listen to the hiss of water being heated for use by no one.

Adding a timer was not big job but with so many other tasks waiting, I was able to put it off.  But  at the building supply store the other day, I was picking up receptacle face plates and ran across the shelf of Intermatic Timers.  Now, with the parts in hand, I had one less excuse for not getting to the task.

As I mentioned in "Hot Water Detour," the water tank is an heirloom from a power company lease deal which means it's on a separate electric meter and has its own main line coming into the house.  A switch box with a single double-pole breaker controls the power source.  Adding the timer switch simply meant interrupting the circuit between the breaker switch and the water tank.  The problem I had was where to mount the timer.

I wanted to avoid having to replace the entire run of cable between the breaker and the tank, but that meant I'd most likely have to add a junction box along the way in order to splice into it.  The only logical place to mount the timer switch was next to the breaker box, out of reach of the existing cable.

After mounting the box for the timer switch, though, I realized there was just enough room in the small box that held the breaker, to make the splice there.  That worked out well, however, I found working within the confines of that little breaker box especially stressful.  The 100 amp live main was always within a few inches while stripping wires and making connections.  Working in the large breaker box that serves the whole house is stressful enough, but the main is easier to avoid just by virtue of the size of the space.  The little box seemed to be shrinking while I worked, trying to remain extra conscious of every move I made with strippers, pliers and screw driver.

After a few days of using the timer, we've found we only need the power on from 6-8am and 5-8pm, 19 fewer hours per day.  There's a manual override on the timer switch for convenience but I don't expect we'll be using it.  Even when I come home in the middle of the day, the water from the tank is still plenty hot from its last heating cycle in the morning.

Installing a hot water timer switch is helping to shrink my carbon footprint but what I'm really looking forward to is comparing our electric bills after a couple of months.

handyman

Redo for Ramon

Just when Ramon thought it was safe to settle down in his room, we had him moved back out and sleeping with Mom and Dad.  The reason?  The floor needed fixing.

When I painted the floor in his room I made use of almost a gallon of leftover paint from our missteps in choosing a color for the master bedroom (see May 29, Color Wheel).  I knew I was taking a chance on it not working out because the paint was latex, matte finish, intended for the wall, but I figured "what the heck, it was going to look better than what was there so give it a try." 

The paint went on OK and two coats seemed to be enough, so after it was sufficiently dry, I called it done and went ahead with other things.  Well, after he moved in it became clear that the matte finish was just not going to work on the floor.  Dust and dirt clung to it so easily that the room just looked filthy all the time.

I figured I could paint it again with more latex but this time with a kind intended for the floor, or I could clear-coat it with a finish that was easier to keep clean.  I chose the latter.

He hadn't gotten too settled after moving in so there wasn't much to move out, and within a few days I had a couple of coats of high gloss, water-based urethane down.

We're ready to move again...

Electric Finish

You would think that installing receptacles in a bedroom is a small task that one might knock out in an hour or less.  It's just a matter of stripping wires and screwing them onto terminals right?

The task is not difficult in terms of skill but it has a high nuisance factor.  First of all there are the 12 guage wires.  If working with this stuff is not something you do everyday, your fingers get mighty tired bending solid copper this way and that to get it lined up, attached, and then stuffed back into the box. Our master bedroom needed 9 receptacles to meet the code; by the third one I was already feeling it.

Then there's the task of getting the receptacle screwed into the box.  Again, no big deal except that the wires are acting like springs trying to push the receptacle out while you try to keep the driver blade from slipping off and drawing blood from your finger that's trying to guide the screw into hole that's hiding in a blind spot.

Oh, and then, because you decided that veneer plaster would be more appealing than plain old sheetrock, you now have to chip away at the excess plaster to make room for receptacle.  Oops! Chipped away too much!  The faceplate's not going to hide that. Damn!

Am I complaining?  Actually, installing the receptacles was pretty satisfying.  A task with a clear beginning and end, and a nice pay off: power when you need it and where you need it.

And while I had the electrical toolkit out, I figured I should install the ceiling fan and finish wiring the three-way switches that control the lights and the fan. My plan was to have two separate three-way switches control the fan and fan's light individually. I had it all worked out some time ago, and the wires were all in place.  All I needed to do was to hook up the fan and the switches. 

Well, when I consulted the instructions for wiring the fan, it looked as if I didn't have enough wires going to the ceiling box.  Mild panic set in as I followed my instincts of second-guessing my prior work.  "Oh no!  Am I going to have to fish another cable through the wall?"  "How could I have screwed that up!?"

The answer was, I didn't screw it up.  The wiring diagram for the fan was based on the "optional wiring kit." My original plan was sound. After confirming my existing wiring layout, I hooked up all the switches and the fan and was in business.

Installing the A/C powered smoke detectors was held up briefly, however, by the annoying lack of mounting screws.  You would think that for $50 the manufacturer could include a couple of #8 screws for attaching the mounting bracket to the electrical box.  I was able to install one and run it on battery power in the interim.

handyman