A New Tile Surround

Today, I finished up a job for some clients in Inglewood who are selling their house and wanted to upgrade their surround to tile. Here's the before and after picture:


I ripped out the old acrylic surround which was made up of around 5 large pieces that were glued to the wall. Overall, it did a pretty good job keeping the water in the bathtub, but it didn't match the tile that filled the rest of the room.

For this job I used 4 1/4" square white tiles and white unsanded grout. With 1/16" grout lines, unsanded grout was the recommended choice. They add sand to the mix whenever your grout lines are larger, say 1/8" or more. The sand helps the grout stay firm in the larger gap.

The unsanded grout also has a different feel to it even though the process is the same. It feels more like a gooey slime while the sanded grout feels more like mortar. I actually found it easier to work with and it wasn't quite as messy as the sanded grout.

Anyway, the project turned out great. There were some interesting transitions to old tile and trim that had to be caulked with silicone, but it came together well.

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Cutting a Notch in Tile

I got started on another bathroom surround today. My clients have a nice older home on one of my favorite parts of Inglewood. They are actually wanting to sell their home and have decided to upgrade the tub surround to 4 1/4" square tiles.

I spent most of the day tearing out plaster and installing Hardibacker in preparation of laying tile, but had time to get the first couple of rows finished. I had to cut a notch in a few of the tiles to make room for the shower faucet and thought I'd show how I handled that.

If it's in the center of a tile I like to use a carbide-tipped hole saw. However, in this application, the notch was at the edge of several tiles. You could make the notch with the tile-nippers and that works fine. Today I thought it would be quicker to instead use the wet saw.

After marking an outline of where your notch needs to be, make a series of cuts to the depth of your mark. After making the cuts, the small pieces easily break off by hand, or with the nippers.

This process works well for both small tiles and large ones.

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

How to Extend a Tub Drain Stopper

This may be a trivial post, but somebody out there will be really happy to have this info...

Last week I was installing the tub drain stopper for my Inglewood bathroom renovation. The problem was that we had decided to install a slightly deeper tub than normal. (Great for soaking, more difficult for tub stoppers!)

The stock tub drain stopper from Home Depot was just slightly too short to stop the water from going down the drain. Here's a solution that I've used to fix this problem a couple of times now:

1. Install the normal tub stopper as directed.

2. Pick up a 1/4" turnbuckle from the hardware store. You can check the diameter of your tub stopper shaft, but most are 1/4".

3. Cut the tub stopper shaft and insert both ends into either end of the turnbuckle. This will allow you to adjust the shaft length as necessary and will extend the tub stopper to fit!

The other alternative to this is to install a pop-up drain that doesn't need the flip-switch mechanism to close the drain. That may be easier, but if you like the switch, you'll need a turnbuckle... :)

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Finishing Up the Inglewood Bathroom Renovation

The past two days have been packed full of final details at my Inglewood bathroom renovation. I've touched up paint, sealed grout, installed the last of the trim, tested all the plumbing and cleaned up my mess. Whew!

Let's remember what it looked like when I started:

It's stepped back a few decades to include wainscoating, pedestal sink, hex tile floor and a subway tile surround. Here are some pictures:

It's fun to see the finished project! Now on to the next... :)

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Built In Bathroom Cabinet

As part of 'trim day' yesterday I not only took care of the wainscoating, but I also built a small cabinet to fit in a small alcove behind the bathroom door in my bathroom renovation.

I had been designing this in my head from the beginning. I thought it would be cool to have a counter with an outlet where the homeowner could put electric razors or a hair dryer, etc- a place to contain the mess. Below the counter I built a two-shelf cabinet with doors.

The cabinet is actually only a cabinet face. The sides and back are just the drywall that was already there. I mounted supports on the wall to hold the shelves and just attached everything to studs that I put in just the right spot when I was framing.

I made the front of the cabinet out of higher-grade pine and the doors are nice plywood. At the bottom I put a 3" toe-kick to give the feeling that this is more like a piece of furniture than just some storage cabinet. It turned out great and looks even better with paint.

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Beadboard Wainscoating for the Bathroom

Today I watched my bathroom project transform. It was trim day which is always one of my favorites. The owner wanted all the old house charm in this bathroom- subway tile surround, hex tile floor, and beadboard wainscoating.

The wainscoating I used actually comes in 4x8 sheets. They call it "ply-bead" at Home Depot. (It's in the plywood section not with the paneling.) It achieves the look of beadboard without the associated cost. (Also great for porch ceilings: see this article for more.)

QUICK NOTE: The "bead" in beadboard refers to the little rounded ridges. HardwoodInfo.com says that it's a "narrow, half-round moulding".

I started by deciding on the best height for the beadboard. From the beginning of this project I've been considering this so I would keep the outlets out of the way of the top trim on the wainscoating. Mine ended up around 43 1/2" off the floor. I cut my panels at 43" because the baseboard will cover the bottom and this will give me plenty of wiggle room.

Many times people use a height of around 32" because you can get three panels from each sheet of plywood and they even sell these pre-cut at the home stores. However, I think the higher height has more old house character.

The first piece had all the holes for the plumbing and an outlet. It's very important that the edges of your panels are on studs so think about this before you place the first one. Also, the panels are made to overlap- one side has about a 1/2" lip. You want to place your pieces so that you do the receiving piece first and the one with the lip second.

I add a little liquid nails to the wall and put the panels up next. Since they'll have trim covering the top and bottom edges, I'm mainly concerned with getting them level vertically so that the beads don't lean.

Home stores actually sell a paneling cap that is made to go along the top edge of panels like this. It works fine, but I thought it wouldn't fit the look of this room. Instead, I wanted to have a small ledge around the top of my wainscoating where the homeowner could put stuff if they wanted.

To make the ledge, I bought some 1/2" x 2" squared trim pieces that I found at Lowe's. I ripped it to 1 1/2" so that it wouldn't interfere with any switch covers. (You have to think about this stuff!) I put this basically flush with the top edge of the panels, but made sure it was level all the way around. On top of this I added my small ledge that was actually some door stop trim with one rounded edge. I mitered the corners and attached it with wood glue and brads. It looked great!

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Seal the Unglazed Floor Tiles

After finishing laying the floor tiles this morning I took care of some fun tasks like installing the long-awaited shower fixture and the bathroom light fixture. It's so cool to finally start seeing a finished product!

The floor tiles are unglazed 1" hex tiles. Unglazed tiles are great for a bathroom floor because they will be a little less slippery than glazed tiles. The downside is that they don't have a protective coating and might absorb some of the grout. White tiles stained with grey grout is not a good thing.

To take care of this issue it is widely recommended that the tiles are sealed prior to grouting. The sealer manufacturer suggests two coats before grouting and each needs a couple hours to dry. So, I gave my floor the first coat this afternoon and will do it again in the morning.

Of course, after the grout sets up, the floor will get another coat of sealer to protect it from stains, etc.

In the meantime, my brain is starting to think about getting some wainscoating on those walls and designing a small built-in cabinet for behind the door. (Yes, I wake up at night thinking about this stuff! It can be a problem... :)

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Cutting a Sheet of Mosaic Hex Tile

This week I finally got started laying the unglazed 1" hex tiles for my bathroom renovation. Having done the prepwork beforehand to have a solid flat surface to tile over, I was ready to go.

Before I mixed up the thinset I noticed that I would have around 5 sheets of tile (each around 12" x 12") that would need to be cut as they bordered the tub. I thought I would share how I made these cuts:

1. Measure and use a straight edge to mark the tiles where you want to make the cut. (Not that the sheets of tile must be positioned a certain way to connect correctly.)

2. Next, I put a big piece of blue painter's tape across the sheet so that the edge was on my pencil line. This will help to hold the little tiles in place as I cut them and be my cutting guide when the pencil mark washed off from the spray of the wet saw.

3. I supported the tile sheet with a piece of scrap Hardibacker I had laying around. You could use plywood or anything stiff to support the sheet as you cut.

4. I slid the sheet past the blade on my 7" wet saw. It helps to have a scrap piece of tile or wood to press on the tiles as you slide it through because they will want to move out of line when they get to the blade.

5. After cutting, take the tape off and see how it looks. Once in a while a tile will break where you don't want it to. These tiles can be individually replaced with other small scraps.

I used this method for all my cuts and it worked fairly well. If you have to make cuts on individual tiles, use the ol' tile nippers for that.

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Preparing for the Hex Tile Floor

With the surround nearly finished at my bathroom remodel in Inglewood, it was time to prepare the floor for the unglazed 1" hex tiles that would add to the period look of this bath.

Thankfully, the floor was fairly flat and level already. This is important, especially when using small mosaic tile because they'll show any unevenness and make it impossible to keep your grout lines even.

The subfloor in this bath consisted of two layers of 3/4" tongue and groove pine so it was sturdy enough. I just went over the top with 1/4" Hardibacker cementboard to add more stiffness and cover all the seams between the boards.

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To lay the Hardibacker I first cut it to fit by scoring it and snapping it. Then, I spread a bed of thinset with my 1/4" notched trowel and nailed it in place with 1 1/4" galvanized nails. Once it was nailed, I covered the two seams with mesh tape and filled them with thinset as well, trying to keep it as flat as possible.

The final preparation is to mark a few layout lines to guide us as we go. I like to make one that is perpendicular to the door and parallel with the tub. This is my main line to follow. I made a few others to use as reference points as well.

Tiling the floor is coming right up!

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com

Grout for the Subway Tile

I got the subway tile grouted today. I used a color called Delorean Gray. (Like "Back to the Future", I guess..)

The gray looks great next to the white tiles. Before grouting it's important to try to scrape most of the hardened thinset out of the grout lines. The grout needs to fill the space between the tiles so the thinset has to go.

I again covered the tub really good with plastic to catch all the falling grout debris. Here's a tip for mixing grout: It takes less water than you think. It's not like mixing pancake batter! :) It only takes 5 pints of water to mix the entire bag of grout, so if you don't need that much, it will really not feel like enough. Just add enough powder to the water so that it's not runny.

After applying the grout with my rubber float, I got ready for the 'sponge-off'. By the time I finished the surround, the part I started with was dry enough to wipe off. By this I mean that you get a sponge and wipe off the excess grout that is streaked across your tiles. Have a bucket or two of clean water available and clean your sponge out very often.

At this point, it's imperative to keep changing out your water for clean water. Otherwise, you'll just keep streaking grout everywhere. If you've got a lot to do, you might enlist a helper to keep refilling your buckets while you do the sponge work.

After a dozen trips down the stairs to refill my buckets, my tile was looking really good. Once it started drying I just wiped them down with a rag to get the last haze off. Later I'll go back and caulk the corners and edges with a special caulk that matches the grout color.

Done right, you'll have a durable surface that may last for decades, so it's best to do it right the first time.

-Peter

www.CarpentryGuy.com