Where's the level (aka I'm not quite ready for the painful and humbling truth)
There it was, game day, time to lay my tile. The first step, as with most projects, consult with the misses.
What I had in mind was to lay the tile out, straight and simple. I did already have one box of a second porcelain that probably would have filled in nicely for any shortage, loosing/using that tile in the laundry room’s closet or as an inconspicuous border somewhere.
Well, I ran this plan by my better half, and this is what she said. “Since you are already saving money on this floor, why don't you add a border to it . . . to make it pop?”
She probably did not have her head around how much I had actually spent on leveling this subfloor. And though I do think she sometimes overlooks these kinds of costs, I did not put up a fight. Like a good husband – I shook my head up and down, took a quick measurement and carted myself up to our local discount tile center, sample tile in hand.
This jaunt yielded a couple of acceptable choices. I bought enough to complete a border in one of two ways. Option one -- a 12x12 glazed slate-like porcelain (which would need to be cut). Option two -- a 4x4 alternative. Both reasonably priced, and there in Home Discount Tile, I warmed to the idea of a border.
Let the race begin
I raced home, and started laying out. I was eager to get it started that day. Now, you may ask – why I didn't stop to draw out my layout on paper? Well, answer – as with some jobs – I didn’t really know what I was going to do until it was time to actually do it.
I figured first that I really liked the slate, the 12x12, so I started by cutting a few into perfect 3rds.
Something told me, too, that I had to square up working lines for the border, and then go from there. I mean, old houses are renowned for their precariously out of square walls. Couldn’t count on them; so I sat some cut border tiles as Ls in the corners, and took diagonal measurements across the floor. I used my framing square to make perfect right angle pencil markings at these locations.
Later with caulk lines snapped corner to corner, I began the layout of the field. Now remember – I knew I was going to be pushing it with the porcelain I had originally, but hey, the border would alleviate some of that problem . . . right?
Soon after beginning to place them, I had an idea. Those 4x4 tiles that I had bought for the border potentially – I thought to myself, “Why don’t I alternate them in the field to create a pattern.”
The pattern I picked ultimately came from a reference book that I had on hand; it was sitting in the office adjacent to this space.
Tile floors are in the eye of the beholder
I centered on the most prominent opening – the point of “introduction” to the laundry was the doorway at the office. I laid down a few tiles in my picked pattern using a 1/4 inch grout spacing.
If I were running a straight and simple field, I would have run one row up and one row over to make a T. In this case, a little different -- I set a few tiles down, stepped back and looked. I had to ask myself – how was this pattern going to fall when it nears the most visible areas of the room? Further, how would it look at the far end of the powder room, and/or at the base of the cabinets here in the laundry room?
I didn’t have this layout drawn on paper, and I am certainly not great with advanced mathematics. I felt, these points considered, I had to run the pattern all the way out to where it would be going. So I did, and I was glad I did – because on the first attempt, my layout fell as very thin slivers near the laundry cabinets.
I had to make an adjustment, three inches toward the powder room.
If at first you don’t succeed try, try again
Just so you know - accounting for time to discuss with my wife, pick up and pick out the tile (as I place it), and the time to cut some, I was now into my second day of layout.
After my adjustment, I found that I didn’t now like the way it landed on the side wall of the powder room. I was going to have to compromise, split the difference. In the end, and the third time is a charm – I moved the whole pattern back into the laundry room by about an inch and a half.
And there it was; I had might layout -- nailed. Now, as is the case almost always with me, I was working alone. Sure, I grabbed my wife for approval on the layout, but that’s it though – me and me alone. She liked it, the layout, but she did admit that she couldn’t quite totally visualize it. No fault to her really, most folks can’t fully visualize how something will look unless they have a drawing, or until it is all done.
I have to admit too – in this case – I really didn’t see it just yet either. So . . . I spent the rest of this day laying it all out, cuts and all. When I was finally happy, I was ready then to set it in stone.
Setting in Stone
I mixed up some thin set, and installed the powder back into the hallway, damn. . . and there it was -- my hump/dip. Perfect so far, and it looks great. . . but what to do about that hump.
More to come on my floor soon. Final installment: or is it?
More Moxie:
Shouts to Tile City (for providing us cyber surfers such great graphics) & to Robin at Home Discount Tile Center (for help with planning for my border).
My two-tile pattern. Home Discount Tile calls it Pattern 89 (or thereabouts). Tile City calls it Pattern 2-A:
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