What a week! Daniel and I decided on Monday to tile our previously carpeted dining room, and 8 days later we were finished!
On Tuesday we decided on and bought all the slate and supplies at Floor and Decor. And that evening we took up all the carpet. Here is a before picture:
And here is after we took up the carpet. This is the carpet pad underneath (gross! So much dirt):
After we got the carpet pad up, we tackled the baseboards and nailboards on the floor. We used crow bars and pry bars to get them all up. Check out this original linoleum!
One thing I learned is that you should cut along the baseboard before trying to pry it off, or else you'll pull up a lot of the paint just above the baseboard.
Like this:
Underneath the carpet pad was a ton of sand and dirt. So we cleaned all that up with brooms and with our Shop-Vac:
Next we found the center of the room with chalk lines and laid a row and column of slate, so that we could be sure we wouldn't end up needing a 2-inch piece of tile along one wall (b/c that's hard to cut!)
And sure enough, this placement showed us we would end up with about a half a tile at each wall:
Next we started laying the mortar. This is tricky to do, but we sort of got the hang of it after a while:
It's best to use these little spacers so that the tile stays semi-consistently spaced. In retrospect, we wish we'd used larger spacers to better accommodate the irregularities of the natural stone.
We rented a wet saw to cut the tile. It looks like this:
Daniel did most of the sawing, so that I could continue laying the mortar and tile. If you take too long of a break, the mortar hardens and is a PAIN to scrape off the floor. Anyways, here's Daniel cutting tile:
And here is our work, in progress:
You have to let the mortar set for 24 hours before you can start grouting. Personally I was really dreading the grouting part, because I've had some disappointing results with mosaics. But my MIL came over to help, and wow! She and Daniel got a great start while I was at work on Saturday.
The way you apply grout is to get the tile wet first (with a big sponge or a spray bottle), and then smush the grout between the tiles, starting at the corners. Then you have to wipe away all the excess grout, which is the most tedious part.
One thing that is very helpful during this part of the project is to have somebody refilling buckets of water all the time, so that you always have some semi-clean water to dip your sponge in. My FIL took up this position:
Here we are, wiping away the excess grout on Sunday:
After allowing the grout to set for 24 hours, it was finally time to seal the stone and the grout! Daniel did this on Tuesday night after work, and it was a pretty quick business with the spray bottle and the sponge. We got a sealant+enhancer, so it makes the slate look a little darker:
Then just another 24-hour period later, and the slate is completely finished! The reason we rushed to do this project was because we learned our beautiful Amish dining table was coming (ordered 4 months ago), and wanted to have the floor all taken care of before it arrived. Here are two before and two after pictures of the dining room:
And after!
The dining room, like the house, continues to be a work in progress. For the dining room, we plan to put on wainscot panel, paint the walls, and swap the chandelier. Check back to see our progress!
On Tuesday we decided on and bought all the slate and supplies at Floor and Decor. And that evening we took up all the carpet. Here is a before picture:
And here is after we took up the carpet. This is the carpet pad underneath (gross! So much dirt):
After we got the carpet pad up, we tackled the baseboards and nailboards on the floor. We used crow bars and pry bars to get them all up. Check out this original linoleum!
One thing I learned is that you should cut along the baseboard before trying to pry it off, or else you'll pull up a lot of the paint just above the baseboard.
Like this:
Underneath the carpet pad was a ton of sand and dirt. So we cleaned all that up with brooms and with our Shop-Vac:
Next we found the center of the room with chalk lines and laid a row and column of slate, so that we could be sure we wouldn't end up needing a 2-inch piece of tile along one wall (b/c that's hard to cut!)
And sure enough, this placement showed us we would end up with about a half a tile at each wall:
Next we started laying the mortar. This is tricky to do, but we sort of got the hang of it after a while:
It's best to use these little spacers so that the tile stays semi-consistently spaced. In retrospect, we wish we'd used larger spacers to better accommodate the irregularities of the natural stone.
We rented a wet saw to cut the tile. It looks like this:
Daniel did most of the sawing, so that I could continue laying the mortar and tile. If you take too long of a break, the mortar hardens and is a PAIN to scrape off the floor. Anyways, here's Daniel cutting tile:
And here is our work, in progress:
You have to let the mortar set for 24 hours before you can start grouting. Personally I was really dreading the grouting part, because I've had some disappointing results with mosaics. But my MIL came over to help, and wow! She and Daniel got a great start while I was at work on Saturday.
The way you apply grout is to get the tile wet first (with a big sponge or a spray bottle), and then smush the grout between the tiles, starting at the corners. Then you have to wipe away all the excess grout, which is the most tedious part.
One thing that is very helpful during this part of the project is to have somebody refilling buckets of water all the time, so that you always have some semi-clean water to dip your sponge in. My FIL took up this position:
Here we are, wiping away the excess grout on Sunday:
After allowing the grout to set for 24 hours, it was finally time to seal the stone and the grout! Daniel did this on Tuesday night after work, and it was a pretty quick business with the spray bottle and the sponge. We got a sealant+enhancer, so it makes the slate look a little darker:
Then just another 24-hour period later, and the slate is completely finished! The reason we rushed to do this project was because we learned our beautiful Amish dining table was coming (ordered 4 months ago), and wanted to have the floor all taken care of before it arrived. Here are two before and two after pictures of the dining room:
And after!
The dining room, like the house, continues to be a work in progress. For the dining room, we plan to put on wainscot panel, paint the walls, and swap the chandelier. Check back to see our progress!
Looks awesome Kimie!!! You guys are very talented :)
ReplyDeleteWOW! I'm SOOO impressed. It looks great. I thought you were so brave to take on such a project yourselves, but you're obviously more than up to the task. David and I are going to start picking out our next tiling project so we have all the supplies ready for when you make it to Houston again. ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm catching up on the blog, in case you haven't noticed that all these comments are coming from the same night.
ReplyDeleteI must say I have a totally new respect for the tile floor. It was already impressive, but after looking at ALL of the work you put into it, I am in awe. Good job!