Karen's been on a bit of a kick lately when it comes to home improvement ideas and so, being one to continually impress her, I've been signing up for these tasks like a nerdy school kid signing up for extra credit assignments.
Some are easier (hanging new blinds), some require a bit more work (creating the bike rack). Some are technical (setting up iTunes to stream wirelessly from her Mac to the front stereo), and some are primitive: tiling, in this example.
Tiling has been around for God knows how long, I'm sure well into the B.C. range on the calendar, and yet it's amazing to me how many people think it's the most complex thing in the world to do. It's really quite easy and, on the good side, makes you look like more of a man to that woman in your life, or so I am assuming. YMMV.
To the project...
Karen asked if I could tile the fireplace and hearth. Apparently, it had been the target of much scorn by multiple female members of her family when she moved into her lovely 1920's bungalow. It's beige brick was about as interesting as an early 80's Volvo (of the same color or not) and certainly did not do justice to the rest of the home that Karen had so elegantly decorated.We went to the local World of Tile. I had bought tile there in the past when I tiled the bathroom in my condo in 2003. It is a great store and the guys that work there are on par with zappos.com for their customer service.
We picked up a few samples, laid them out on the hearth, and came to our decision. Tan Brown. I know, it doesn't sound too different than the uninspired brickwork that adorned her fireplace. Hang with me - it is granite!
I returned to the tile store and picked up the requisite square footage plus 10% (that's the rule of thumb), mortar, grout, sealant, a few tools, and set off to do the fine measurements.
Problem #1: The hearth had a nice convexity to it where it joined into the actual firebox. Went to Home Cheapo and got a nice heavy mallet and a masonry chisel. Of course, Karen was a bit nervous; I had to lay waste to about a third of the hearth. We were committed to the project at this point. I mixed up some mortar and, along with remaining brick and chipped pieces, created a nice new flat surface that I could work on.
Now back to measuring. In a tiling job, measuring out everything is critical prior to starting, and includes centering, concerns about where full and cut tiles will be placed, etc. After a few hours of work, I had most of the tiles measured and ready to be cut.
Tip #1: Buy the tool even if it is twice the cost of having them do it: I had the opportunity to buy my own wet saw but decided I'd go the lower-cost route and have the guys at World of Tile cut it. In theory it's a good decision, but when you have to make repeat trips because measurements were slightly off and/or previous cuts didn't quite match up with new cuts, it's got to be just easier to have your own tool at your disposal for use.
So, I got the hearth tiles cut first and started laying them late on Sunday night. Mind you, Karen had a bridal shower for a friend in a week's time, so I had a deadline. No problem. It's a breeze once you get the measurements done. Mr. Jack gave me some great guidance on this first part of the job, and he made sure he'd make the photo for credit.
Next, I had to move up onto the fireplace wall. This next part required not one day, but a week. Again, keep in mind that the bridal shower Karen was hosting was a week away.
Tip #2: Really dumb of me, as you tilers will know: Never assume symmetry. Since I was going to be using quarter-round to frame in the tile job, I figured any slight asymmetry would be covered up by that quarter-round. Too bad it was more than 1/4" off, and as a result the tiles I would have cut would be short on the right side of the firebox.
...so back to the tile store I went with new tiles to cut. After returning to Karen's, I started at the top, where I leveled and tacked on a 2x4 to support the tiles while the mortar set underneath. One row up. (Note: bottom left corner were test pieces, they weren't mortared on)
I moved onto the next row, and could only get three out of the five tiles up. The two "L" shaped pieces weren't cut properly (starting to lose it at this point, wishing I'd bought the wet saw). So back I went to the tile store, had new
pieces cut, and when I got back to Karen's after what I thought would be the last cut needed, one of those "L" shaped piece cracked and broke. Argh. Went back the next evening. Got it recut. Got back to Karen's and the Tan Brown batch it came from was very different in color and inclusions from those that I had been working with up to this point. It really stuck out like a sore thumb. Back once more. A trial of patience. I had to reassure Karen that I'd still be able to get in finished by her co-worker's bridal shower.*Finally* I had matching pieces, cut to the proper dimensions. Trust me, I was babying those pieces. Singing songs to them. Row 2 completed.
Moving forward at this point was a breeze. All rectangular pieces, all were cut correctly. All I had to do was mix up mortar, slap it on that poor prosaic brown brick, scrape away the excess with my square-notched trowel, slap up the tile, and thrown in the 1/16" spacers.
I'd completed all the rows save the last one. I saved cutting those tiles until the very end so they would fit properly. After attending a conference for work all of Saturday, that evening and I made the last trip down to World of Tile with a twelve pack of Guiness as a thank-you for all their help (they were quite lenient on their cost-per-cut charges).
The place was dark. Closed for the night! Golly!
It was going to be tight as they opened at 10am on Sunday, and I'd need to add the last row, grout, and frame the entire thing (which was Problem #2; originally I was going to have bullnose cut from the remaining tile, but World of Tile didn't make these cuts, so I had to go with plan B, framing). This all needed to be done by Karen's requested time of 4pm, one hour prior to the bridal shower.
Off to a later start on Sunday morning than I'd hoped for (had to get in a training run for the Philly Marathon), I got the tiles cut and picked up some oak stripping to frame the hearth with. I got back to Karen's and immediately got the remaining row in.
It was almost two.
I started working on the framing which took longer than I had anticipated because I needed to file and plane away some of the backside of it so it would fit nicely against the hardwood and tile, and not get caught on the 1/4" of hearth I left exposed to place bullnose tile cuts on.
It was now after three. Time was getting very short. I'd be going past the requested 4pm deadline, but figured I could still get it all done by 5pm. All that was left was grouting and tacking on the framing.
I mixed up some grouting and started applying and cleaning as quickly as I could. Black colored grouting is a bear. It gets everywhere. 4pm. Karen was reminding me of the time.
I got most of the grout haze removed with a sponge, and went to work on the framing. Framing done. 4:30pm.
Got out the tile cleaner and grabbed a few paper towels. Clean clean clean. 4:42pm. Karen's really reminding me now. Just a few more scrubs, then I'd have to clean up all the tools, chipped off mortar and brick, buckets of water and grout.
4:53pm. All clean. Snap a quick pic.
Oops. Almost forgot the new screen. 4:54. Done.
4:59. Snuck out the back door as Karen's guests were arriving, hopped on the trusty Zubaz, and pedaled over to the local Starbucks to shoot off emails.
So what's left? Just the quarter-round framing where the fireplace meets the bookshelves on each side of the fireplace and under the mantel.
Then it'll be all done. And for now, finally, so is this blog posting!
