Lego and Sawdust

While I’ve been doing tile, Jennifer has been sanding drywall, painting, fixing drywall bits that I damage, sanding again, painting again, fixing paint that I pulled off with tape or damaged with grout, sanding and painting again.

Drywall is done!

First the ceiling...

Looking awesome

Smooth as a baby's bottom.

We’re going with white, because it looks quite nice with the green tile:

Painting all finished.

We chose Zinsser Perma-White Mould and Mildew Proof Interior Paint as an added precaution. This bathroom had a mildew problem before we put the fan in. We haven’t had any issues since then, but for roughly the same price it’s worth it. It’s semi-gloss to make it easy to clean.

I bought trim for the door, caulk for the tub, sealer for the grout and masking tape to help with caulking at Home Depot today.

– $42.53 – Zinsser Perm-White Mould and Mildew Proof Interior Paint (4L)
– $10.39 – 2 large rolls of low-stick masking tape
– $21.76 – Door trim
– $16.77 – 3 tubes of Mono Ultra Silicone Caulk
– $34.71 – Grout Sealer (1 pint)
$126.16 – Total with taxes

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Grout, Day 40 and 41 of the project.

I was pretty nervous (again) about the grout. I’ve read some disaster stories about poor grout jobs, and water leaks and ruined walls and all that sort of thing. But, once more into the breech.

I don’t have many action photos because I was concerned with getting the stuff up and not having it dry before I was done. There are always warnings about not letting the grout haze dry on the tiles, so I was determined not to let it happen.

The grout goes on much wetter and softer than the mortar did. If it’s properly wet enough, grouting isn’t so much about packing grout into each line as much as it is smearing the stuff around and wiping it off. I’m such a micromanager that things like this are hard for me to do. I want to finesse each single joint into place, when the best way to do it is just smear the stuff on in large swoops. I learned quickly, and I found that I really like grouting. It goes on easily, and then when you use the sponge, it forms itself into perfect little lines automatically.

After it has been applied and let to dry a few minutes is the time for finesse. I wiped the walls with the large wet sponge in big strokes, but I also traced out each line and removed lumps and filled in holes

Lesson: Keep a bit of leftover mortar stirred and soft while the stuff on the wall dries, and use your finger to blop some on to a spot that doesn’t look right and use the sponge to wipe it into shape again).

Remember last post, when I said that I was a little unimpressed with how my tile job turned out? Well:

GROUT IS “WOW! THIS TILE IS AWESOME!” IN POWDER FORM.

Every place that I thought the tile looked a little bad is gone. Grout evens out the bad spots, hides the tiny chipped corners, levels out the low spots and makes the whole world seem shiny and full of rainbows. Grout is my new favorite thing to do.

Before...

... and after!

I was so happy, I went and gathered the whole family to come look. I even put the tub fixtures in place so we could dream about what it will look like soon:

If you squint your eyes, you can see what it will look like finished...

On a practical note: one 10 pound bag of caulk (the smallest size they sell) was exactly enough for our tub. The tiles are 8 inches square and the grout lines are 1/8 of an inch wide. I had about a half cup of grout left over.

None.

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Days 3 and 4 of Tiling, Days 32 and 33 of the project.

More tile cutting. I installed the bottom row of tiles, a few of which needed an 1/8 of an inch taken off the bottom, and the tiles around the faucet and shower head.

I was in such a rush to get to the tiles around the faucet that I forgot the plan. I started measuring with a full tile in the corner of the tub, marked out the location of the large hole and spent an hour carefully nipping out four tiles. They fit perfectly. Then I realized that we had planned the front wall of the shower to start with a full tile on the outer edge and a cut tile in the corner. Unfortunately there is no way to move the hole in a tile a few inches left. I had to garbage them and start again. Lesson learned. Have a plan, and check it constantly.

I did get the tiles up though:

Holes cut

Time for more cutting.

Cutting and more cutting

Lesson: There was more chipping happening, so I read a bit more and learned that this can be a sign that the water level is low and the blade is heating up. I used a plant watering can to top up the reservoir every few cuts. No more chipping.

Did I mention that using a wet tile saw is messy? That’s not a shadow, that’s the part of me that’s wet through because of the spray coming off the saw. The tile is red adobe underneath, so the water is tinged red-pink. That stain is never coming out…

It's nice to be damp when it's below freezing...

That afternoon I did a count and realized that I was going to be a few tiles short (thanks to a few mistakes and the crummy blade in the saw). I also ran out of mortar with about 15% of the job left. Rona bound! While I was there I managed to find the dehumidistat that we’d been looking for.

Tip: Install a dehumidistat. It automatically turns that bathroom fan on when it’s above the set humidity and turns it off when the humidity drops. Lots of people use timers, but you never know how long it’s going to take to dry out, and people often forget to turn the timer on. The dehumidistat is totally automatic. No brainer.

While I was at Rona, I saw a large sign informing me that the tile that was on the shelf was all that there was. Rona is changing tile suppliers, so the stock they have is all they will ever have. I decided to pick up a box of 40, rather than just a few more. This way I’m sure to be able to finish the tub and have a stack left over to put away. If we ever have to do any plumbing work I want to be able to patch the repair with the same tile.

I saved some tile, though, because I needed some thin slivers and I was able to cut one off of each edge of a single tile.

Two cuts per tile

The tile is now finished. Looking at it, I think I’d describe the job like this: It turned out worse than I’d hoped, but better than I’d feared. There are some minor variations in the plane of the tiles (some are in a smidge further than others) and at the corners a couple of lines don’t meet up by about 1/16 of an inch. I’ll reserve judgement until after the grout and caulking are done.

Two trips to Rona

$19.98 — Broan Humidistat
$39.99 — Bag of Mortar
$11.34 — 6 tiles (saw the sign, went home and discussed with Jennifer)
$75.60 — 40 tiles (came back to buy more)
$164.54 — Subtotal with Taxes

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Tiling Day Two, Day 28 of the project.

With all of the full-sized tiles up, it was time to do some tile cutting.

I was pretty unimpressed with the chipped edges that this cheap tile saw generated, so I looked online to see if others had the same problem or if that was just how tile cuts. General consensus that some minor chipping is expected, but the edges of my tile were pretty bad. The solution seemed to be twofold: get a new blade (the ones that come with the saw stink) or get an expensive saw. Most amateurs seemed to be impressed with the improvement that a new blade gave, so I tried it. I was a little hesitant to buy a $50 blade for a $70 saw, but it was worth it. Night and day. The saw makes beautiful cuts with only minor chipping now. Totally worth the money.

Lesson: Replace the blade in your tile saw with a good one. Trust me.

Cutting from both ends to minimize breakage

Lesson: Toss the fence that comes with the saw. Most of the cuts you make won’t be perfectly straight, but at a small angle because the walls aren’t straight. The fence sucks, and setting it up to cut at an angle is an exercise in frustration. Freehand cut the tiles. The blade is an abrasive, so it’s like using a sander. Very little danger. Freehanding a tile cut feels like using a bandsaw. Keep it straight and you can correct mistakes and make angles and everything you need to do very easily.

My first few cuts were nice and straight and smooth, but I broke the last quarter inch off the tile. The blade vibration just snapped the tile at a crazy angle, ruining the tile. I tried pushing the tile with another tile, and with a piece of wood, so that the blade never left the material, but it didn’t work.

Lesson: Cut about an inch from one side, back the saw blade out and start the cut again from the other side of the tile so the two cuts meet in the middle. There is still a little bit of breakage, (see the below picture, the top edge of the tile has that little nub on it) but you can sand/file/cut this off (I used the tile saw to shave it down) and it’s perfect. At least this way the breakage is on the bad side of the cut, not the side you want.

Cutting tile, notice the little bit on the top cut edge that is easily removed.

Cut tiles often need support when you install them, because there are only tiles on 3 sides and it can slide or sag towards the empty side. I used electrical tape, because it’s stretchy. Pull off a long piece, stick it to the new tile, stretch it and attach it to the tile that’s already in place. Nice and solid.

Installing the cut tiles along the corner

Ran out of mortar one tile short...

And, of course, it’s that time of year in Winnipeg. This is the saw the next morning when I got up to continue work:

First snow. Nice.

I brought it inside to thaw, then brought it back outside to use, because it’s far too messy to use indoors.

$55.99 Bosch Diamond Saw Blade, with taxes

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It’s actually Day 24 since the project began, but Halloween costumes and other life-type things interjected. For instance I was ready to start the tiling yesterday, but we had a dinner to go to in the afternoon and Jennifer and the kids were out shopping for last-minute Halloween costume parts so I was looking after the puppy. I also had a few last minute costume parts to work on myself. Such is the way of being a handyman and a dad.

The drywall is now (beautifully, thanks Jenn) done, and I nervously set out to begin the tile. The tub is just under a quarter inch off-level, so I decided to start the tile one row up and fill in the bottom row later (because some of them will need to be trimmed slightly). I made a ledger board out of a very straight piece of laminated pine that I had in the shop, and I cut half-circles out where the tile joints would be, so I could fit the plus-shaped tile spacers in. I screwed the ledger board to the wall using normal drywall screws, making sure it was perfectly level.

Ledger board attached

You can also see that I put a large dropcloth in the bottom of the tub, and then taped a shower curtain dropcloth to the wall. I don’t want to get mortar all over the tub, or to chip the tub if I drop a tile or a tool.

Mixing the mortar was a challenging start, because I had to figure out how to reduce the mix of “50 pounds of mortar powder to 1.5 gallons of water” to a more manageable size. I wanted to work in smaller pieces. I also didn’t want to have to weigh out the powder each time, I’d prefer a volume.

It turned into a nice coincidence that two empty soup cans full of mortar powder weigh exactly two and a half pounds. A bit of math helped me figure out that one and a quarter cups of water plus two cans of powder were the perfect mix. That amount is about enough for six or seven tiles. It fits nicely in an old honey bucket and is easily mixed by hand with a paint stirring stick.

Lesson: Spend the time to find an easy repeatable recipe for your mortar so you don’t have to weigh or calculate every time you want to use it.

I took a deep breath and started tiling. Things went just great. Exactly as planned. I have watched dozens of videos on Youtube, as well as read a number of articles and how-to’s on this, so it all seemed to come together nicely. It seemed to be a bit messier than the professionals in the video (I have little bits of mortar everywhere) but for the most part things are going great.

The size of the batch of mortar means I mix the mortar, wait ten minutes for it to slake (a chemical reaction that helps it harden), put up a half dozen or so tiles and then go wash off my tools and start again. My tools never build up dried mortar, I get a ten minute break to have a drink or consult with a child about a costume, and then I get back to work again. Perfect.

I worked for about 4 hours, with time in between to go to Walmart for some yellow tape for stripes on Wolverine’s jacket, spray paint some rubber boots white for Dr. Horrible, and a few other odds and ends. All in all I was pretty pleased. I have a half dozen tiles left to go and I’m finished the back wall.

Animated progress gif!

The day in seconds

Near the top there were a few tiles that wouldn’t sit properly. There was a very minor correction (a gap was a 64th of an inch too wide so the spacer was loose) and the tile would slide back out of place when I corrected it, so I used electrical tape to hold the tile in position until the mortar set. It’s fine now. I used electrical tape because I had some on hand. Masking tape would have done fine.

Almost halfway done

The almost finished wall at the end of the day:

The end of the day

(Those tiles at the top are all the same colour, it’s weird lighting and me holding the camera at a weird angle to get the whole wall in that causes some shadows, making a few tiles look darker.)

Next comes cutting the half tiles for either side, and then the end walls. Yay! I’m so happy. So far (knock wood, cross fingers) things are much easier than I expected.

None!

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Is is now technically Day 20, but there has been only one activity going on in the bathroom: drywall.

Jennifer has been going crazy in there. She is mudding up a storm. I didn’t give her the easiest job, what with seams from concrete board to normal drywall, horizontal butt joints for the 6 inch piece of drywall across the top of the tub enclosure, and the rest of my mediocre drywall installation. She has been doing a great job though and she is almost finished. We’ve been taking our time to let the drywall mud dry properly, and she’s been going back to do more coats to make sure it’s perfect.

It has reached a point that if you close your eyes and run your hand down the wall you can’t feel where the seams are at all. She makes me look so good.

Above the bathtub (see the shower spout)

I broke a piece of drywall right beside the door so there ended up being a patch about 18 inches square right at eye level around the electrical socket. She’s done a brilliant job of making it blend right in.

Nice patch

The finished corner over the toilet

She says she has one day of final work to do and then I will get in to do the tiling. I’m still nervous, but I spent some time working out a plan (you can see the lines pencilled on the concrete board in the top photo). One end of the tub is just under a quarter inch lower than the other, just enough to make the tile lines look wonky if I put the tile flush to the tub. So, I’m going to lay the second row of tile first, sitting on a ledger board nailed perfectly level 8 inches up from the tub. After the tile is dry, I can fit the bottom row into place, doing any trimming I have to to get the small side in place.

I bought a pair of tile nippers for cutting the hole for the faucet, and I bought a carbide wet tile saw. The nippers are nice, but the tile saw is pretty cheapo. I tested it out on a couple of tiles to see if I could trim them to fit level on the bottom row, and it’s pretty cheesy. The fence isn’t square to the blade at all, so each cut requires me to clamp the fence in place after measuring the front and the back. The only thing I will need it for is trimming a few tiles in half and skimming the bottom off of a couple of tiles for that bottom row, so I’m not too concerned. The next level up of saw was at least a hundred dollars more than this one.

This is about the point at which we usually start to slack off and leave a project “mostly done”, but I am quite ready for a good shower in my own bathroom. I’m also quite ready to not have the only toilet in the house be in our bedroom…

1 trip to Home Depot

– $20.99 – Tile Nippers
– $79.99 – Tile Saw
$113.10 – Total with taxes

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The last day before I went back to work. I finished the drywall installation, after making a few notes…

Messages to the future

I make a habit of leaving love notes to my wife and family inside and major construction that I do. I like to think someone in later years might see them and smile if they ever renovate again.

Finished the walls

Concrete board initial mortar coat

The world's most beautiful drywall contractor

Initial fill-the-screw-holes coats of mud are up, and now starts the process of taping the seams. I think I’m almost lucky to be going back to work…

None.

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