I took off the whole week this week (of course the thurs and friday holiday) and did some tiling in our guest bathroom and laundry room/garage entry way. I used slate tiles as we have slate tiling in other areas of the house. This was my first time laying tiles, and I gotta say, God bless those that do this stuff for a living. You earn every penny What a pain in the ass..err, back actually...

So far I've just set the tiles. I still have to seal, grout and install new trim. Here are some pics...enjoy...


Bathroom Before:



During (in progress):





Entryway:

 

Lookin' good.

I've always been afraid to do any sort of tiling!

 

Looks good...

How are the knees? I found tiling to be tough on the knees, but I did about 150 sq.ft with lots of cuts.

 

I bought a cheap set of knee pads so their alright My back is whats killing me

 

Yea, I was apprehensive about the whole process, espically since good slate isnt exactly cheap ($4.00 a sqft.). But like doing anything else, I did a lot of reasearch and it paid off. It really isnt as hard as it might look.

Amazingly, I didnt break any tiles when cutting and I had 4 left over...

 

Looks good . The only thing i would have done differently was lift up the linoleum and put durock down.

 

Thanks. I actually bought a thinset and mix that works with the vinyl flooring, so its not going anywhere. I didnt want to deal with sanding off the adheasive.

I grouted yesterday. scrubbed of the haze this morning and put a second coat of sealer. Now I need to go buy some new base board, paint it and install it and I'm done...I'll get some more pics up soon...

The biggest PITA about this process is waiting for shit to dry!

 

Looks great! What color grout did you use?

 

Funny, I just started working with a friend of mine last week who does tile and hardwood while I'm laid off, and damn my back hurts

I'm don't know much about it yet, but it looks pretty good. Post some more pics if ya get the chance.

 

Nice job Joe. Looks good. You're lucky you have straight walls.

 

Just curious as to how many actual hours it took you to finish. I have two bathrooms which need to be retiled before we sell our home this spring and am debating as to how much work I'm willing to do on my own or just hire it out.

Very nice work!

 

 

Nice work Joe.

 

good job. i'd have to say that tiling is the easiest thing to do. If I had a lot of time on my hands, I'd do tile work as a side job.

 

Looks good.

I'm hoping to do that next year with the master bathroom. I'm planning on changing everything in the master. Should be a lot of fun.

 

Big improvement!

 

Looks good.

If it were me I would have laid the tiles out first so you had the same size tile for all 4 sides.
Coming into the room the first I notice is the half-tile in the front of the room and the full tile in the back of the room. Same thing in front of the vanity.

 

Thanks everyone! I used a tan grout. I have some more pics. I'll put them up soon.

 

Actual hours...lets see...I started on Tuesday morning and did all the full tiles, plus a few cut tiles. So a good 6 hours there. Next day was only a few hours cutting the rest of the tiles and laying them. Next morning (Thanksgiving) I sealed the tiles and gave that another 24 (only took like 15 mins to apply the sealant). Friday morning, I started the grout and that took about 4 hours. Another 24 hours of drying and then did the baseboard, installed the turlet, and put back the washer and dryer on Saturday, another 4 hours or so.

Based on what I did about a year and a half ago, contracting out about 500 sqft of tile, this job probably would have cost anywhere from $1K-$1,500 (I think I ended up using about 65 sqft for this job). I spent about $500 doing it myself ($100 of that was just getting the tools I needed). I think in the end it was worth it. I'll probably do our master bathroom next year. Theirs tile there now, but I dont like it.

 

Yea, you know I was thinking about starting in the center, but this being the very first time doing this, I didnt want to have to deal with so many cuts. Now that I know that cutting isnt as scary as it sounds, next time I have to do this I'll consider it.

But honestly, most people arent going to notice...

 

True true. I'm just anal about stuff like that, especially when I'm doing it.

Good job, especially on your first attempt.

 

Did you purchase a wetsaw? Fairly easy to use? A buddy of mine has one that I can borrow - I've never used one before though...

 

I actually borrowed one from a friend that had'nt used his yet. Its this one from Harbor Freight:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=40315

Yup, its cheap, but it did the job perfectly. It was very easy to use. There is a tray you have to fill up and then put some more water in after about 4 or 5 cuts. I'm actually going to keep his and just buy him a new one.

 

did you tile right over the existing flooring? I didnt know you can do that. That would have saved me so much time.

 

Yeah that one suprises me too - especially since vinyl flooring is rather flexible. My uncle made sure to rip all his up before tiling. For my bath I would have had to remove the vanity too since I don't plan on keeping the same size or style in the future.

 

Sure you can. The mortar mix I used was made to adhere to vinyl flooring. Its not going anywhere

Next time you're in Home Depot, take a stroll down the flooring isle. You'll see the mortar mix I'm talking about.