Bathroom Tile

Minor detour

This weekend Oceana and I came up for another working weekend.  However, on our way up we made a detour through Flagler Beach.  Just a wee bit (3 1/2 hours) out of the way but sometimes that’s how it goes.  I found a deal on a large chainsaw that is set up for milling logs.  It has a massive 60” long double ended bar that bolts into a mill.  A double ended bar means that you mount two chainsaws to it.  Pretty nuts!  So we picked up the chainsaw mill and arrived at Lake Byrd just after trick or treating had finished.

Time change

Sunday morning was the time change.  The saying below kind of sums up how I feel about the time change. But I digress.  The goal for this weekend was to get the tile installed on the bathroom floor. 

Water Test

First things first – I did a water test on the fiberglassed shower pan to make sure it holds water without leaking.  To check this, I installed the drain assembly and then inserted an inflatable plug into the drain.  Once it was inflated, I filled the shower pan up with a few gallons of water and let it sit for a while.  Later I checked in the crawlspace and there were no leaks or drips anywhere.  Good.  I pulled out the plug and let it drain.

Leveling out the floor

Next up was leveling out the floor.  As we knew from installing the shower floor last week, the bathroom floor is not level.  Similar to the shower floor, I cut strips of varying thickness lumber and glued and screwed them in place to get the floor level.  On top of that I added a layer of ½” plywood.  Normally you could just measure and then cut the plywood to size.  That assumes that the bathroom is straight and square.  It’s not.  So I templated the floor area and used the template to lay out the cuts on the plywood.  It fit perfect the first go.  With the plywood down, I was now able to set the toilet flange in place. I had been waiting until the final floor height had been determined before setting the flange. The flange is the part that bolts the toilet to the floor.

Uncoupling membrane

With the plywood installed, it was time to install the Ditra uncoupling membrane.  Sounds fancy, right?  It’s a product that goes on top of the subfloor and under the tile.  It allows the floor to flex a bit without the tile breaking.  It also acts as a waterproofing membrane but I’m not too concerned with that in this application.  I spread out the thinset and then set the Ditra in the bed of thinset.

Tile

Time to fit the tile.  I started out laying out full tile sheets across the floor and then worked on the cuts.  Once I had the entire floor laid out, I made a supply run to pick up a 3/16 V-notched trowel that I needed for the install that I didn’t already have on hand.  Once I got back, I mixed up the thinset and got the tile set.

Oceana is making it happen

While I was working on the bathroom floor, Oceana was staying busy too.  She got a privacy screen installed along the opening in the back fence where you could see the house from the sidewalk along 27.  Looks good!  She also go the Jamaican cherry and lychee trees planted in place of the dead avocado trees.  Once that was done, she started working on the exterior trim around the new sliding door on the front porch.  I got this trim installed last week while my parents were here. 

Prepping the trim

Oceana got the old caulk removed from where the original trim pieces were and then scraped off any loose paint.  Next she filled in the nail holes with putty and sanded them smooth.  The last bit of prep was caulking the trim in to the door and to the siding.  With the prep done, she got a coat of primer on all of the new pieces.  Looks great.

Cooler weather

Monday morning was chilly!  It was really nice.  It was quite windy out also.  I’m a fan of cooler weather so this was very welcome weather indeed.  After our morning coffee, we got to it early.  I cleaned off any thinset residue from the tile and then mixed up a batch of grout.  I applied the grout to the tile and then let it sit a bit before washing off the excess with a damp sponge.  I washed down the tile 3-4 times with a clean sponge each time which should leave just a bit of a haze to be polished off after it’s cured. 

Oceana the painter

While I was grouting, Oceana got the first coat of blue paint on the sliding door trim on the porch.  It now looks like the rest of the trim on the porch!

That’s all folks

That’s all for this weekend.  As always, thanks for following along!