Renovating: Tile took a While !

The Ceramic Tile is Done!

From 30-year old vinyl composite floor tile to modern ceramic tile in a flash!  That's what I thought would happen. Oops.
 At Incoming Bytes, all DIY'ers are advised that when you choose to do a renovation project, seven other essential projects immediately line up and get in the way first.  Par for the course. To be expected. *sigh
Loyal readers will recall the ceramic wall protection we installed to keep our wannabe escapee team  --Tilly the Tall  (T.T.T)  and Ebony the Short  (E.T.S.)  from shredding the drywall  and trim around the door (and the door itself!) for the third (or was it the fourth? ) time.
We did it. Turns out it was a fantastic idea!  Uh-huh...
 Don't you think it's amazing how something shiny and new makes everything else look worn and tired?  You got it.
So--we tackled the floor. That was a fantastic idea too, it really was looking kind of dull. A couple of pieces of  the flooring were showing cracks and signs of loosening, -- and the old self-stick tiles had even shrunk just a tiniest bit, allowing water staining of the sub floor plywood.
Onward we went.

The floor managed to go from this;










  It only took seven days.
( to just after grout sealing, tile complete,  but before all of the baseboards were reinstalled.)
  
To This.

Tile's Done! (before baseboard install)

                                                                                                 

 

Tile took a while.

 It seems in any do-it-yourself project there is a lot of digression, putzing around, and injected in-between stuff that can be both necessary and a genuine challenge. 

 This is "all"we had to do to complete  this simple  DIY'er tile project!

•  Measure the area carefully and best-guess extra required for tile cuts.
• Go shopping, choose tile, haul it home. 
• Clear the area of all boots, shelves and closet stuff
• Remove all of the baseboards
• Remove all of the brittle old composite vinyl tile bit by bit
• Cut off bottom of all door jambs, door trim, etc. to allow for tile installation,
• Scrape off  hardened glue lines left by the old self-stick tiles
• Test the sub-floor plywood to make sure it is solid.  (It was stained but perfect).
• Sand the floor and joints, 
• Remove loose nails, set raised nails, add screws where necessary.  
• Procrastination and Delays and Preemptive Strikes: Executive Decision to upgrade insulation in crawl space below floor which required:
• Accessing crawl space by cutting hole in floor (Remove  a section of sub-plywood and plywood)
• Removing old, inefficient, damaged fibreglas insulation from crawl space

• Power vacuuming out all dust, bits and pieces, spiders* and cobwebs.  The garage shop vac worked perfectly.
• Disposing  of all old tile, old insulation and other bits of wood and trash; 
• Re-insulating under the floor and walls
• Closing up the access hole in floor   

  Progress resumes!  

After the minor delay and annoyance created by executive decisions,  we had to:

• Reinstall plywood on access hole:  plywood and sub-floor plywood with screws.
• Prepare floor, screwing down all areas tightly where required, final inspection for squeaks, movement, clean, and vacuum
• Loosen and lift stairs and prop up temporarily
• Contemplate the dry layout of tiles; decisions, decisions.....
• Plan and pre cut to fit tiles
• Forge a mixer blade for the  electric drill on the anvil by heating steel rod red hot. What!?

Making stuff !........a perfect distraction for the quintessential do-it-yourself  tile-worn type!   
About that time I wanted to hammer on something nonchalantly for a while anyway, practice smacking moving targets with BIG hammers, mop the brow,  etc.  
Bottom line,  'a change was as good as a rest '  to  'distract the troops with R&R' ,  to 'use built-in ingenuity',   'create something' --and all that. 
We digress....back to tile for a while eh?  We also had to:

• Mix up a half bag of thin set  (acrylic-modified dry cement, looks like gray, gucky pudding)
• Lay tiles using spacers and straight lines.
• Keep the  T.T.T. and E.T.S.  C.P.B. (curious puppy brigade)   and all curious comers off of the tiles for about 4 hours.
• Clean grout lines of all excess thin set before it becomes set like a rock and was too hard to remove;
• Mix coloured grout (This cool stuff looks like chocolate pudding!)
• Fill grout lines, both floor and wall.  (We pointed (finished) the grout  using my favourite custom  tool made from 1/2" copper pipe.)
• Clean floor tiles using the two-bucket system which works beautifully, for the record.
• Admire floor for 24 hrs as everything sets hard as a rock
• Seal grout lines (including wall tiles,  remember those?)  with special grout sealant
• Set stairs back in position and re-trim
• Reinstall baseboards, including replacement of broken, ugly, or scratched sections.

Finally, we were able to  relax, admire the tile job completed, have coffee and wonder how come it took this experienced DIY'er team 7 days. 
um..........I know. Any excuse in a pinch.
We apparently work diligently and do good work...or something, I bet!

 Hmm....now the next floor looks kind of worn too. *sigh.   Imagine that.

Is that incoming I hear?


 *Worth noting:  A  DIY'er and Homeowners Caution

 
 During the insulation upgrade portion of this project,  I chance-encountered  a *Brown Recluse spider in the  crawl space. They are not supposed to be in this geographical area, but in the last few years, clearly do NOT follow the rules.  
All DIY'ers and homeowners must be aware this is a dangerous North American species of spider. 
Necrosis of human flesh can occur if a bite from this species of spider is not treated in a timely manner. 
The range of  this spider has clearly expanded northward into Canada.
  Also known as the 'violin spider' or   'fiddle back' spider for the violin-shaped marking on it's back,  the Brown Recluse spider is typically found in undisturbed,  enclosed spaces but can be encountered in woodpiles, closets or undisturbed, unused clothing such as gloves or boots. 
Caution is warranted.  If bitten by a Brown Recluse spider, seek medical advice.

T is for Tile and Tired

T is for Tile and Tired  because doing a renovation job with  ceramic tile can be tiring work.
 I'm at it again. Remember the wall?  The wall and door chewed up and scratched away by our mischievous pups Tilly the Tall and Ebony the Short?
  Well, this time it's the floor.
 No, our loyal pups did not  dig holes in the floor.  That old self-stick composite  tile is 30 years old.
 It wore pretty well and used to look nice.  Everything looks nice when it is new, doesn't it?
Some tiles loosened off a bit around the edges and pieces cracked away.  It curled a bit in places too. Old stuff is enough to curl your hair and crack your mind sometimes.
 We have to rip out the old composite tile and install new ceramic tile.  By the time I'm finished this job, I will also be tired.  Good thing I have a wonderful helper who is also the supervisor, planner, coffee-maker and cookie-baker.  
See how nice this old floor was?  It took a terrible beating with water, snow melting and mud being ground into it every day for 30 years. Not bad for being so old.
                                                                                                        

  This was the best section. It almost looked good as new, but not quite.   Heating the tile with a hair dryer to soften the glue was a brilliant idea,, but it really didn't help much, and the exposed glue smelled terrible!  A much better idea became obvious. It had to come off one way or the other.  We chose the other.
Cold, it came off in bits and pieces.  No worries.




 The tile came off in bits and pieces with this handy little thin-edged tool!   Notice how the pattern of the old tile is still on the floor? Don't kid yourself, even if composite or vinyl self-stick tiles are tightly placed, they shrink a tiny bit, and water eventually works it's way into the cracks, staining the floor. Surprisingly, the sub floor plywood is still in good, solid condition.
  

A pile of tile.  Rubble trouble.  Unfortunately, it has to go to the landfill. The brittle old composite tile with it's old glue is not usable for anything.  We do not have a recycling facility for such horrible stuff.




   


  The old glue sure smelled awful! Outdoors it went!
Off to the landfill it will go on garbage day.
Tilly the Tall inspects the trash, but Ebony the Short didn't like that stinky stuff very much! Time to schmooze on that remaining nice cool snow instead.





 We checked  the plywood carefully to make sure it is still solid. If you have any doubt, poke it with a sharp penknife.   The stains look terrible but the wood is still perfectly solid.   I ran the belt sander with #80 paper over the seams to remove any remaining lumps of glue, broken, sticky bits of tile, or other old unidentifiable guck.

Next job is to cut off the door trim and door jambs to allow just enough room for the tile to fit under it neatly. You have to remember space for the thin set tile cement!

Trimming the doorjambs

 That handy little battery-powered  oscillating Multi-tool made short work of that tough job!  We used a short piece of board just the right thickness for a natural guide to get the right height above the floor, enough to allow for the thin set and new tile.





 What a mess! Now the floor has to be vacuumed up perfectly again,  and the new ceramic tile laid out.  I know, this should have been called T for tough job instead of  T for Tile and Tired!  

 The layout and installation of the new tile will have to wait until there's more energy available.
  I think it's time for a snooze!  

 Is that incoming I hear?

Disaster fix: Tile a While

Tile a while...Wall

At Incoming Bytes mayhem and destruction happens once in a while, giving me cause to scratch my head in wonderment at why things happen, mixed in with a bit of    anger and hair-pulling pragmatic rage frustration.
 Savvy and financially strapped homeowners all realize that at times, it seems things fall apart faster   than they can be repaired with  a capable home-renovation crew of twenty caffeine-boosted bubblegum chewing workpeople. 

Such was the exterior drywall surface  right beside an exterior door of mine;  you got it, the door to freedom for my demolition-team  pups.
 The first time it happened, the door trim was chewed off and shredded, the adjacent drywall was almost non-existent, and exterior insulation was torn out--all the way to the exterior sheathing. A chunk of the door jamb itself was missing.
It was midnight, and a major social gathering was scheduled for the next day, so it was a night watch
panic repair -including a careful  cutout of  remaining shredded wood on the door jamb, and the necessary replacement,  fill,  and paint.
  On the wall,  I cut out the damaged drywall completely,  re-insulated the wall cavity,  installed new drywall,  taped, filled, sanded, and top-coated again, sanding  all the way to- perfection.
Objective: To finished painting and trim, included, that is!   Invisible, perfect job, finished  at 3:00 am- or was it 4:00am.
 I am fast and good.   A competent workman when I have to be.   Kudos to me.  Used the wife's hairdryer to accelerate paint drying too.  Cool.    Sometimes it's just good to be handy.
Pups forgiven,  next day, party is  on! 
" Smells like fresh paint in here " someone comments.....

  That was the first time.   The second time, the lower cross-buck of  the $400.00  (1979 price !)   interior cedar door was  also chewed away, damage beyond repair. Door trim conveniently removed,chewed to bits and broken too, repaired  door jamb shredded again,  and drywall again seriously damaged.  After only a couple of hours in absentia.  We're never leaving home again. Haywire pups.    
It is surprising what you learn.  We did not know that interior air so carefully filtered with a modern air-conditioning system  could  turn so  unprintable blue.  I should have pictures or kept a Mason Moonshine jarful of the blue stuff  for proof.

   *sigh.  Sabbatical required. Cool down.  Cooler heads almost prevail.   Decisions necessary.  Replace the whole door unit.  Only seven hundred bucks.   Install the new door unit, jamb, new lock set  and all.   Insulated steel door this time.   Repair the drywall again, prime and paint, install new interior trim,  job well done!  Party on! 

It does, however, seem that  Tilly the Tall and Ebony the Short have OCD  a  psychiatric compulsion history of wanting out NOW, walls in the way, doors closed or not . Why?

 A brief diversion  will reveal to the aware  that whenever  Mr. Buck and Ms Doe,  Willie the wolf,  Charlie Coyote, Peter Rabbit, Mega-moose   or  Bear himself happen to appear close at hand in the  Great Outdoors, things happen.   If they even  smell like they're within a country mile or three,    the friendly pooches want to see which of their friends is invading.
  Human visitors of the door- knocker kind,  a casual pickup truck or  touristy  turn-arounders a half mile away, the curious,  dilapidated lost seeking directions  or not, they all inspire the same effect.
Our research proves that  Sam the Weasel, Murray Mink  and Pierre le Stink  don't help either, five times out of five.   The dedicated dogs  want out  or the innocent handiest wall is doomed.

Off comes the broken trim. Again.  Paint layers scratched off. Again.  Enough of that. 
Tape the joints, sand, prime and paint it, and replace shredded, broken trim. Innocent pups  are required watch judiciously as repairs are made.
 Right, that oughta'  suffice -- until next time. And the time after that!  
What is the answer? High-strung pets may deface walls repetitively.  I have resigned myself to that distinct possibility.     
 

Ka-ching!  Think stainless steel, bullet-proof glass overlaid with ceramic tile. Scratch-proof.  Right over top of the nice, perfect drywall repair. Perfect protracted thought.  I did it.

Ready to Grout!

 Yesterday I tiled a while and put an end to scratches, bite marks and destruction. More than half-way up the wall for good measure.  Ha! 










I can see it now.   I'll be longing for the good old days.   Tape the joints, sand, prime and paint it, and replace shredded, broken trim.  I can do it with my eyes closed and one arm tied behind my back, midnight or not. I've got experience.
 Right, that will suffice -- until next time. And the time after that!  High-strung pets may deface walls repetitively.  May? Will? Did!   Emergency repair withdrawal, cold turkey.
What is the answer?   Remind myself again. Real life. Haul out the wallet. Head to the building center.

Ka-ching!   Ceramic tile. Scratch-proof.  Bite-proof. Woof-proof.   Tile a while and put an end to scratches, *bite marks and destruction.  I'm recommending it to everyone. Party's on!


*Note to myself.  Level surface grout so there's no place  to insert teeth, fangs or claws.  

 I've got'em beat now.  Maybe.


Is that incoming I hear?