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.
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