I Did That

I found my camera!  There are tons of pictures on it and I can’t wait to get them posted on my various websites.  The bad news is I can’t find the USB to Micro end cable that I use to download the pictures.  I guess there is a run to a store that carries such things in my near future.

More good news:  we got the sunroom tiled.  The quarry tile looks great out there.  More bad news:  the grout haze has been a nightmare getting off.  Good news:  I found something that takes it off.  Bad news:  it’s vinegar. Phew!

The slight acidity of the vinegar loosens the grout that is stuck to the top of the tile and it wipes right off after sitting for half a minute or so.  The problem with that is that you have vinegar sittting on the floor for half a minute or so, per tile.  Lots of tiles = lots of stinky.  I will have it finished today, though and once it dries (and airs) out, I will put a high gloss acrylic sealer on it for a nice “wet look”.  After that, it will be rock and roll time and my wife will finally get to decorate the sunroom.

There is an area of the floor tile that is starting to pop loose.  It is unfortunately in a very heavy traffic area very near the back door and dining room door in the kitchen.  I’m not entirely sure what the problem is, but my initial guess is that the mortar was either spread too thin or was too wet/dry at that point.  It is near the area that I stopped for the day at one point, so I’m leaning towards the dry mortar explanation.

What I will do to resolve the problem is pick a square area that encompasses all of the popped tile (I think there are five of them) and remove all of the tile in that area and scrape away the dried mortar and grout.  I will then relay that entire area and regrout it.  That should take care of it.

It is entirely possible (but not likely) that there is a problem with the floor at that point that allows the tile to flex too much, but I never noticed much deflection when walking across it previously, so I doubt it.  Once the tile is up and everything is scraped away, I will examine it closely to make sure.

Other than some minor odds and ends, the tiling of the Laundry Room, Kitchen and Den is finished.  The tile has raised the floor height somewhat, so the doors have to be shaved down a little to clear the new height and I need to put down quarter round to finish off the edges of the floor at the baseboards.  That’s it though.

If you noticed, my goals involved finishing the tile in the kitchen today and installing the Hall light fixtures. In reality, we got halfway through tiling the kitchen. Period. Nothing more, nothing less.

Shocked? Me neither. It does look great so far though.

Sahara Beige Tile

Originally uploaded by jaslusher

After much procrastinating and wasting of time I’ve gotten about 2/3 of the way through tiling the laundry room. My original goal was to have been done with the laundry room, kitchen and den at this point.

Didn’t happen.

Thursday (Thanksgiving day, yes) I am going to hit it hard again and try to get through the kitchen at least. That is, if I don’t find some minor piece of nothing to occupy my time.

Leveling The Floor

Originally uploaded by jaslusher

The floors in parts of this old house have a bit of droop to them. 40 years of settling have put almost 1/2 an inch of drop from the front of the fireplace to the corner of the shelves/window. There is currently linoleum on the floor, but since I don’t know whether there is any asbestos in that vinyl, I decided to encase it in leveling compound and/or plywood depending on the area. Asbestos is only a problem in things that are disturbed, so by going over the top of it, I kill two birds with one stone, I level the floors and seal off any potential asbestos.

When I’m done, the floor in the laundry room, kitchen and den will all be ceramic tile layed on a diagonal.