It starts out with pictures of the original walk-through and measure of the space. Base-grade builder carpet was installed for the previous owner in the master vanity and it didn't hold up well as you'll notice in the photos. There are three areas to be tiled on this project; two bathrooms and a laundry room on the second floor of a two story home.

The laundry room is about seventy square feet, and presently has basic sheet vinyl installed directly adhered to the wood sub-floor. The laundry room also has a drain pan that's designed to accommodate a standard clothes washer. The client's new washer is a front-load machine with a separate pull-out storage drawer below. Since the drain pan would interfere with the operation of the drawer the client decided to have me remove the pan. The pan is practical for a second story laundry room using a traditional top load washer due to the possibility of over-flowing the tub.

The drain pan isn't required with the new modern, sealed washers as they can't over-flow. If a washer supply hose bursts, having the pan in place would actually be a detriment as the gushing water will wind up on the floor and never be able to make its way to the drain. So with some discussion over possible disaster scenarios it was decided to lose the pan and keep the floor drain. This will better help drain water in a flood situation. After figuring through some diagonal tile layout options in the laundry area it was clear I wasn't going to be able to arrange it so two or more tiles intersect over the drain. It's much simpler to cut curves in two or more tiles to form a round hole then it is to try and cut a full circle out of one tile, especially so close to the brittle edge. It worked out much better than anticipated but I knew going in that particular cut being under the washer wasn't going to be highly critical.

You'll notice in the photos that the hole in the subfloor was originally cut too large to work for our new floor so I needed to cut a section of the sub-floor away around the drain pipe; add bracing and fill the void level to the existing floor; and of course cut a more precise opening for the floor drain. Unfortunately, I neglected to get photos of the sub-floor repair so forgive me and I hope you get the idea.

I decided to leave the existing fully adhered sheet vinyl floor in place in the hall bath, laundry room and water closet in the master bedroom vanity area. Not only is removing it more trouble and costly then it is worth, but it provides an additional damp-proof membrane that will protect the sub-floor, ceiling and space below from moisture intrusion. People are sure to ask, "is that right, can you do that"? Yes it can be done properly as long some precautionary procedures are followed.

1. The sheet vinyl floor covering should be clean and well bonded.
   1. It was well bonded except for the perimeter where it was originally caulked against the baseboard moldings. I removed the baseboard molding and cut the curling edge of the vinyl away to a point that was secure.
   2. A mopping provided a clean enough floor for our purposes.
2. You must additionally secure the sheet vinyl to the wood sub-floor using nails.
   1. I used galvanized roofing nails every six inches and around the perimeter.
3. I used Ditra tile underlayment on this project which is an uncoupling membrane that allows the wood structure to move as it needs to and doesn't affect the integrity of the tile installation.  Ditra requires use of a rapid setting modified, thinset mortar to secure it to the sheet vinyl sub-floor underlayment.
   1. I  used a modified thinset with a rapid set mixed together. This allows the Ditra bonding agent, (in this case the mortar) to dry without the need for ventilation; as it is sandwiched or trapped between two impermeable layers, the sheet vinyl and Ditra. 

Installation of Ditra is much less labor intensive than is cement board underlayments. I won't go into the advantages here except to say that it's more expensive as far as product cost but less expensive to install. All things considered its about the same installed cost as CBU. Click to learn more about Schluter Ditra.

The carpet pad and tack strip was removed from the master vanity area, as was the staples that secured the carpet cushion. The sub-floor needed to be sanded to remove paint and other contaminants and establish a good bond between the sub-floor and Ditra membrane. I used a Milwaukee 7" angle grinder equipped with a Blastrac 16 grit silicon carbide abrasive disk , dust shroud and vacuum; attached to accomplish this task. At the same time, this process will smooth any unevenness or  irregularities between wood sub-floor panels that might affect the finished product.  This process is a very clean and efficient operation. Unfortunately, again I neglected to get photos of the process as I forget sometimes when I'm in the middle of the task at hand. I promise to try and do better.

To wrap up all this talk on preparation, the baseboards are removed because there always needs to be expansion space left between dissimilar building materials that expand and contract at different rates. If your tile guy says he can cut and grout your tile to your baseboards- he is giving you a recipe for failure. The door jambs and casings are undercut so the underlayment and tile is finished underneath.  Toilets are removed and re-installed with new, thicker gaskets and/or closet flange shims. You'll also notice that I extend the Ditra underlayment to the outside of the door jamb, beyond where the tile is supposed to stop- underneath the center of the door. This allows me to create a ramp or gradual slope from portland cement floor patch to allow a smooth and flat transition between the tile and new carpet. I also use a metal trim product from Schluter for edge treatment, called Schiene. Closet wardrobe doors and tracks are removed and re-installed on top of the underlayment, again to create smooth, level transitions between flooring surfaces.

We're using 13" porcelain tile set on a 45 degree angle also called diagonal or diamond pattern; in the laundry room and bath, as well as in the inside area of the deco in the master bedroom vanity.  The tile is a complimentary set manufactured by Marazzi tile. For our purposes it includes the 13" & 20" square tile plus the 4" X 13" complimentary deco and 4" X 4" corner piece. The 20" tile is installed straight around the perimeter of the master vanity, in its entry way and in the water closet. I put together a number of different layout options for this space and presented them to my customer so we were both clear on what to expect as far as quality, quantity and design.

The latest and greatest Tavy tile spacers are used to control the size of the grout joint. We decided on 1/8" gauge spacers to minimize the width of the grout joint as much as the tile size and layout will allow. The one-eighth spacer renders an actual joint width approximately 1/32" larger or 5/32". Even though the thickness of the spacer is exactly 1/8" the tile's side-edge is not exactly vertical. The tile is slightly larger on the bottom than it is on the top so the depth of the spacer actually gauges the 1/8" grout joint width at about two-thirds the tile depth. That leaves a little tighter joint on the bottom and a little larger grout joint on the top. My customer understood this wasn't a rectified product (except for the deco) and the size tolerance of the tile dictated what could reasonably be expected and accomplished when it came to how close each tile could be set against another. The decos are rectified (cut to exactly the same size with square edges) and were set with a hairline grout joint to mimic the tile's pattern.

 What's interesting about the decos is that they have a distinctive left and a right side to each piece. Because of the fact that one side doesn't look like the other side when it came to the corner we would inevitably have two pairs of dissimilar corners of our insert.  What I decided to do was to cut about one inch off of the two decos that intersected with the corner piece (left picture). This made them match the two corners in the right picture. My personal preference is the aesthetic appearance of the corner on the left; except that I would have to cut the deco back three inches to achieve that but we weren't willing to sacrifice three inches of overall width on our design. This is just one of the reasons to hire a professional installation contractor as a pro can turn on a dime when issues arise; make adjustments as necessary and produce a pleasing finished product.  

After the tile was set and the mortar had cured overnight I proceeded to install the grout. To note, the laundry room and hall bath were completed to their entirety before the floor in the master bedroom vanity area was started. Even though there is a powder room on the lower level I always try to leave access to one bathing area in the living space overnight. So the master bath was left fully functional until the hall bath was completed. That's just one more reason to use a professional instead of the crew from 3-boys-&-a-truck who work solely to produce a high volume in as little time as possible. It's supposed to be about the customer's comfort and convenience.

To get back to the grout there were a couple of things we wanted to achieve. If there are any cons to living with porcelain tile the biggest one is probably grout maintenance. When I was there the client has a professional cleaning crew come in and clean the cement grout on the lower level. Were talking $1 per square foot to clean the grout ($600 in this case)...and they had to come back a second time because they did a poor job the first time in the 45 minutes the cleaning crew was on site.

To help alleviate some of those maintenance problems; first we installed grout joints that were smaller than average.  Three-sixteenths to 1/4" is an average nominal width. Remember, as with the 1/8" spacer- grout widths are going to be a little larger than the spacer used. Smaller joints means less surface area to clean. Secondly, a cement grout was used but I didn't use water to mix the grout. I used a grout admix which is basically liquid latex with no water added. This make the grout stronger and denser. Stronger means less cracking and denser translates to being less porous and more stain resistant. The absence of Arizona water which tends to be hard and contain more than the average amount of calcium  means a more colorfast grout that is less prone to efflorescence (the minerals in water and cement that come to the surface as a white, powdery residue) and mottling.

Finally, after the excess grout is cleaned from the tile and the grout joints are groomed to a consistent height and smoothness I apply a grout sealer. This is a solvent based sealer so it should be used with good ventilation. It's a spray on type and can be applied when the grout is still damp for maximum penetration. I do two coats, the second after the first dries. One coat is supposed to have an expected wear rating of twenty years. You'll notice that some of the photos show a dark wet-look along and on both sides of the grout joints. Those pictures were taken after the sealer was applied and you'll notice in the later pictures the consistent grout coloring and no sealer residue shows up on the tile.

Grout technology has come a long way, especially over the past decade. There are all types of new grouts on the market but not a single one has emerged as a superior standout replacement for cement grout. Till then I'll use the best known and proven methods for superior grout performance.

I mentioned earlier in this article that expansion space should be left between the tile and and any obstruction. That means no grout up to anything that might move. For instance in this particular case- the acrylic tub and shower base. Plastic or fiberglass doesn't seem like it will expand and contract very much to be a problem but consider that when a person occupies those areas they will move under the weight and cement grout will eventually crack when finished to them. Wood or wood composite cabinets- wood expands and contacts according to its moisture content. In bathrooms there is large swing in relative humidity on a consistent basis. That means wood materials are going to move around a lot and often. Cement grout finished to wood will crack eventually. In the master vanity there is a metal floor track for the mirrored wardrobe closet door. There won't be much expansion and contraction from that unless it gets to some crazy temperature which i doubt is going to happen inside the house but again, this is going to be something that is stepped on very often and cement grout will crack in short order.

The way these situations should be handled is with a grout caulk. This is a siliconized caulk that is color matched to the cement grout and often includes sand comparable to cement grout. The tile joint is first filled with a foam backer-rod that is designed to take up the bottom two-thirds of the joint, the rest of the space is filled with the grout caulk. The fact that the caulk is siliconized gives it adhesive qualities beyond that of portland cement grout. Cracking and separating is virtually eliminated making for a long lasting aesthetically pleasing finished product.

At some point I'll link the labor proposal to this page and you'll be able to see what a project like this really costs. Until then I hope this article helped you in some way and if you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me.

Ken Frango