| Our crew of Mexican tile
layers has been really busy the last week laying our cement tile on the
top floor and a couple of places on first floor.
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David was our primary tile setter. He spent days on his knee-pads and
was still smiling at the end of the day. |
We went thru a whole lot of sacks of thinset while putting down the
magnesium oxide board underlayment and then later , the cement
tile.
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The first floor to get tile was the downstairs bathroom. I
knew that we would be making cuts due to the irregular shape, so I told
David to center the Sailboat
"Sunnyday" tile design on the doorway and to use solid Light
Turquoise in the threshold area. We had a bit of a language barrier, so I
lay the tile out to show him.
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We could see that we might run out of tile so I told
David to use some less than perfect tile in the area where the sink
cabinet was going to go. I wanted it tiled wall-to-wall in case anyone
ever wanted to remodel the sink and cabinet but there are areas near the
wall that I am pretty sure wouldn't be easily seen no matter what kind
of sink was there.
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Back in the corner, under the eventual cabinet, I told
David it was OK to use an non-matching section of tile. It will be covered
anyway. We used some of the early strike-offs that the tile factory has
sent. The yellow in the sunshine didn't show correctly and the color
choice had to be adjusted. I was getting scared that we might not find any
more boxes of this Sailboat 'Sunny Day' tile. Every day I kept moving
boxes in the container and looking to see if more was buried under other
tile.
On the left is Adrian measuring to cut a
tile. The wet saw was out on the first floor porch and the mess didn't
matter. Adrian ran back and forth mixing thinset and w/ cut pieces of
tile.
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The next day, I was there when Jorge and Louis
started putting the tile up on the wall over the tub. I was doing a
zillion other things besides taking the occasional photo of their
progress. I did not stop to read the instructions on the adhesive they
were using to put the tile on the walls. I don't think they did either.
Maybe it wasn't in Spanish, but I doubt that.
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When I got back the next morning, I saw that one of the
special corner tile at the end of the Trellis
Shell "Aqua" border was not set. I found the tile
broken in the next room. This shows why it is imperative that one orders
extra tile for any job. Luckily I had 2 more of the corner tiles, as this
same border is suppose to go around a floor that is not laid. I will have
to make sure to order extra for the floor in my next order.
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I still had high-hope of
using the beautiful gleaming aqua toilet that I had found after
Hurricane Ivan and stored for four years. Dave had spent a whole
afternoon scrubbing the three toilets I had salvaged. They were covered
in layers of rust and gooey wax residue from the seal. |
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I also saw that something was strange about
how wet the tile looked. I put a little space heater in there on a plastic
tub and had it blowing around hot air in the area. My first realization
was that the men had used a white mastic, not thinset, to attach the tile
in this area. I also realized that they had soaked the tile prior to
installation just like they are suppose to do when using cement based
mortar like thinset. This stuff they used here is some plastic-y mastic
and I am sure the tile should not have been wet. I do not even think they
should have been using this mastic. I did some Internet reading and it
said not to use it in showers and baths in wet areas. The article
also said not to lay the tile closely set (as mine are) since it was
impossible to get grout adequately in the tight joints and water would
eventually get behind the tile and mold...oh great !
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I had originally planned to use the aqua
toilet that I found on the side of the road a few years ago in this
bathroom. Dave pointed out to me that it was a great match in the
upstairs half bath and I would see it every day, unlike this one
downstairs. Also, when I asked for a white bathtub, I didnt notice until
much later (after it was installed) that the tub is really a bone color,
not white. Of the other toilets I had, one from the house that got torn
down next door, is a great match to the bone colored tub. But, see toilet fiasco for update. |
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Meanwhile, David was up in the living room
laying the Villa Lagoon Tile Surf
'Agua' which goes bumper to bumper up there. It is a big room and we
did a little preliminary dry layout to see what would result in fewest
cuts and still look good.
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I think the living room/kitchen turned
out great. I love the energetic feel of the tile floor.
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| The upstairs
main bathroom is getting Foliage
Corner 'Antique' cement tile as a field tile bumper to bumper--no
border. I told David where I wanted full tile to go and where the sink
cabinet would be and cut pieces would be hidden. This tile is really a
corner for a border pattern, but just as most corners do, it makes a nice
filed tile when used in 4's and rotated 90 degrees each time.
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Here the tile is still wet
from the soaking prior to being laid. It also has some haze from having
mortar wiped off. The tile will have to be clean and dry before a coat
of penetrating sealer is applied prior to grouting. I have to be careful
to not let the sealer run over the edges of the tile or the grout will
not adhere properly. Sealing prior to grouting makes the excess grout so
much easier to get off. |
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We are using cement
tile Ribbon Border "Caribbean" in the hall half-bath. I showed Roy, the boss of the tile layers,
how I had calculated the tile layout to use five whole tile (almost,
some cutting on edges) across in this bath. I wanted to lay it out to
minimize the number of tile we used.
I also printed out a colored computer
layout to show him what I wanted. This is almost a necessity when you
have a language barrier and also it is a kind of tile they have never
laid before. All my Mexican tile guys were familiar w/ cement tile from
their homeland, but I do not think they had worked with it before. |
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We laid the cement tile on the diagonal
and I love it. The half-bath is a perfect match for the aqua toilet. This
is actually a border tile called Ribbon
Border 'Caribbean' and we just used the straight border pieces and
laid it side by side. The aqua potty is a great match and I am excited to
be using it in this bathroom. Opps--see update, toilet fiasco.
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| It was a huge job to dig out the tile we
needed from the storage container. Every box of tile weighs just under
50 pounds, so they are really difficult to move around. Plus there is an
open isle of about 8 inches between the right and left stacks. I am sore
in muscles that I did not even know I had. Dave is too. He has
been a huge help in dealing with this massive tile project.
MORE
CEMENT TILE FLOOR PHOTOS
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