Paul Ryan: Well if you wandered into empty this empty kitchen right now, you might not think with that a lot of work. But you’d be surprise, so far weve let down all the old cabinets, tore out the counter and the old cast iron sink. Lead in floor feeding and cover it with a layer of thin set modern and quarter inch cement backer board.
Well, the next big step on our process is to lay down the tile floor. Well here is the tile that you’ve chosen. This is actually an Italian made porcelain tile that’s looks like slate. Its from the company called Cross film is a nice choice.
Farry: We really like to look at it, its look like a natural stone. From what I told, it is very easy to care for and it’s a chip resistance so I can’t hardly wait to see it lay down. So what we going to do is layout three tile and that we are going to go ahead and take the measurement from the left side of this breadline to the right of this pipe. And that’s going to determine the square size of our grit
Paul Ryan: So, each individual square will be the size than the got. What is that 24?
Farry: Yes, 24 and quarter.
Paul Ryan: Alright, well go ahead and snap some lines and get our good.
Farry: Yap.
Paul Ryan: We start along the longest wall, which we will establish as our straight wall. We make a mark 24 on a quarter inches from the wall, which is the whip, the two tiles with grout joints included. Once we have, our marks put our first line down with the chalk line going the length from the first wall. Next, we marked 24 in a quarter inches from the back wall. Now, that we have our first two lines down we can mark out our grid points. How there? Great as laid out and go and start laying our tiles.
Farry: Great, where do I begin.
Male 1: Let’s start over on this corner over here, what I’ve done here is I set up four tiles and just lay them loose into our grid. And what is this is meet to show is what were going to do is were going to hole our tile to this line and that line down into that corner all the way cross the floor.
Farry: Is that to eliminate the need for spacer?
Male 1: It sure does, when you do a set up like this one here and then you set in to each individual square and hold it to the same point. It going to set our grout line automatically and it will be the same all the way across the floor.
Paul Ryan: Your will be using thin set tools, the same as we use for the backer board right?
Male 1: You back Paul, it the same stuff that was going to use this same trolley as well. It’s a quarter by three each deep square notch trolley
Paul Ryan: Alright, let’s get to work. Mix the thin set moderate to the consistency of pick menace and then apply a thin layer using the notches on the trolley to set the thickness. Try to get nice even cover but be careful not to cover your grid lines. When it’s time to put down the tile applies a thin layer of molder on the back of each tile, spreading it with the flat edge of the trail. Once the tile is down, apply thin even pressure with both hands to set a tile on place.
There is no need to bang on it with the mallet just make sure all the tiles are set of the same level. And there you have it, one tile floor a major step toward on you contemporary kitchen. When quite down yet do, we still have to grout the seen, you know grout is a major design component and anytime of job and there are tan of different colors. Now the color that Marshall and Janine have chosen is right here. It’s a mocha color, it’s a darker colored grout it will act as the tiles but because it’s a darker color, it will also hide the dirt and with two kids and the dog, it will only make sense.
Well, we have to let the tile set up for about 24 hours and after that will come back and start on grouting. Two days later, time for after shine and the homeowner Janine are back to the grouting. Start by starting the grout mix to about the same consistency is the thin set we mix for the under limits. Grout dries quickly so don’t mix too much at one time. We’re using a sanded grout for this floor that sand add body to the mix and will help keep the grout from getting walk down of the groves. The trick to applying grout is to use a special tool called the Float. Hold the float at a 45-degree angel and then spread the grout across the tile. The float forces the grout gently into the seams. Don’t over do it, remove molds to the grout on the first cast so there is only a little left to clean off.
Let the grout set up for few minutes until its starts to set up. And then go back over with the sponge. If you sponge over whip grout, too quickly you can pull it by out of the seams. Grout should dry overnight before you walk on in but this really makes the floor look great doesn’t it? Well, we waited the day and the grout is nice and dry now with that quite ready for a first big dinner party in here. What we’ve mean a lot of progress since we started to this project.