set in stone: diy tile (Part 1) :: laying it out
. . . To steal a phrase from my artist friend – Jack Pierce; Meta-History
I really do not have much formal training; here’s the resume:
1. My grandfather (from the very first post), a machinist and boat mechanic by trade, with whom I worked in my teens – taught me how to try to think and, well, to try.
me
2. I worked with a small general contractor in and around San Jose, CA; I was a punch out guy in the late ’90s. While I did do a little bit of work with drywall, and doors, on plumbing & electrical, and with wood, what this job really taught me was how to fix some things on the quick.
3. I worked with a production builder as an asst. /finish-end construction manager; they taught me the basic construction process – about selections and scheduling, about frustration and expectations. This job taught me how to overcome challenges.
The rest of what I know about houses comes through trial and error learned doing not insignificant work on four properties. Combined, there is really no home system that I have not performed, at least, a repair on. And I will admit — some tasks have been accomplished with more success than others.
. . . Out on the tiles
client Karen R. bath
At this point, and I did occasionally watch the work of experienced tile setters when I had spare time with the production builder; I have left my signature on five tile floors now.
Still – I don’t know and I pray for the day – that I get a floor where I could put down backerboard or equivalent underlayment – and set some tiles without a thought to level, plane or other horizontals that the eye may catch.
client Carolyn A. bath
My signature – though at times sloppy is still readable. Yes in each case, I can find slight imperfections in all of these floors. The thing that gets me isn’t the layout, the cutting, or the grouting. It is the setting of the tile. Probably the most mindless of all the tasks; and I ask myself – why is this? I am perfectionist – but I am far from perfect almost every time.
client Joan W. bath
I always wonder, too – what I might learn if I were to attend one of Home Depot‘s free weekend how-to clinics. I always see it on the board. How-To Tile: Floors and Walls – every weekend for years; I see it on the board outside the store – 10 to 11 . . . Saturday.
Me – I learn (yes present tense) how to install tile, as I do with most things, by, one, reading an article online, in a mag, or in a book, and, two, by just trying it. Here, I spin back up to the last paragraph; would they show me how to monitor myself in the process of an installation? In an hour, too, could I expect that they would cover all of what might be encountered during the process of laying a floor of tile?
My houses always seem to have floors/substrates that require lots and lots of prep. And as they say with everything, it is all in the prep. Would this be covered?
More to come on my floor soon.
