Recovery from house-rehab project ; Turning to our tile installation
(posted from home)
(This post covers 13 – 23 January, 2011)
------------------------------
Sunday, 23 January-
This morning I began checking out a new-to-us type of vinyl plank flooring. Labashi had brought home a sample of Mannington's Adura Vintage Oak 'Loc-N-Go' plank. That's the first vinyl plank flooring I've seen that looks good enough to try. But how tough is it to install?
After watching a few YouTube videos and scanning for any end-user or installer complaints about it, I think I like it and would be willing to give it a try. Labashi is interested in this for the bathroom floor and I think we can simply put down an embossing leveler over the current vinyl for a base. The planks snap together and there's even a method for removing a mid-floor plank if one becomes damaged in the future. The biggest complaint so far is about the surface scratching too easily but the comments are very mixed. Some people say it scratches easily others claim they've used it for a long time with kids, dogs, even in a day-care facility without problems. But I think it would work for us.
I also decided it was time to address the problems with our Bosch 'Multi-X' oscillating tool. I bought it in May and we used it heavily on the house re-hab project. But recently it had become virtually useless because it was running so slow. But when I checked on getting two new batteries for it, I saw they were $40 each!!! That led me to decide to buy a pocket-driver since, for $100, I'd not only get the two batteries I need but also a spare charger and a very nice little driver. Unfortunately, after charging up a new battery and putting it in the Multi-X, it operated exactly the same.
So you can imagine my surprise when I found the problem to be a simple switch setting. We had always used the Multi-X on one speed but apparently the variable-speed switch had gotten bumped to a lower-speed-- that's it! No problem after all!
And though it seemed I had wasted $100 on the pocket driver, that pocket driver turned out to be a godsend when we installed the HardiBacker board. We were under the gun to get them in quickly as (we thought) the underlying thinset was hardening as we worked and they were bears to get in. But the new pocket-driver had the additional torque needed to drive them in flush. Bottom line-- my screwup on recognizing what was wrong with the Multi-X got us the tool we needed for the project! I love when a plan comes together!
------------------------------
Saturday, 22 January-
This morning I did some more cleanup with the new small-projects vacuum cleaner. I had filled not only our work area but also much of our living room with a very fine sawdust when I had to use my ZipSaw to flush-cut some of the plywood underlayment. A seam had an eighth-inch mismatch I had to cut down and the 12,000 rpm ZipSaw kicked up such a fine sawdust that it carried up on air currents into the living area above the foyer.
Later in the morning Dad called Labashi and said he couldn't get the answering machine to work so I went over to check it out. Apparently it had been zapped by a static electricity discharge but it came back up normally after I went through a power-off/on cycle. Dad also mentioned that the car radio was showing an odd message ever since the battery had been accidentally discharged. Fortunately I had seen this before and knew it was a theft-deterrent feature on the radio so all I had to do was contact the dealer for the code and key it in. Voila!
While I was there Mom was reading through a family-history clippings file and started telling me stories of her childhood during World War II. I knew Labashi would be interested so grabbed some paper and began taking notes. I ended up with 11 new family stories!!!!! Very cool!
As I drove home I realized that the roads were clear enough of ice for me to take a motorcycle ride. The high today was only 18 but the sun was out and we had no wind so the 18 felt more like 30-- good riding weather!
I rode down I-83 to York and then over to the East York Starbucks for a coffee and Times. And there I struck up a conversation with two guys I've seen there before. We talked about the weather and riding and wanted to know how I could ride in such cold. I just said I keep the heat turned way up!!!
------------------------------
Friday, 21 January-
This early-morning-wakeup is a pain. Today I again woke at 0400 and couldn't get back to sleep. Labashi was also awake around 0500 so we got up at 0600 and I went out and cleaned off the cars from the overnight light snow. We left the house at 0700 and drove in to Home Depot to buy a portable shop-vac (I should have done this rather than rent the other day) and the thinset we'll need for the tile. On the way home we shopped for groceries at our local Giant and were home well before noon.
We mixed up the thinset and finished screwing down the Hardibacker in about an hour. Curiously, the thinset didn't seem to be setting up. Documentation said the thinset had an 'open time' of an hour. But two hours later there was no indication of the thinset setting up. I called the tech support line and learned it has a 'pot life' of four hours (so what the heck is 'open time'?). That meant I not only didn't have a problem with my installation, I could also use the leftover mix as a patch material atop the HardiBacker. I went ahead and patched three low spots before the material set up. After another hour I noticed the thinset had hardened dramatically and we declared it a success. I LOVE this Megabond (actually it's “Mega Bond”). It mixes easily, trowels easily, sticks well, and gives you plenty of time to work.
-------------------------------
Thursday, 20 January-
Last night I was awake at 0230 and couldn't get back to sleep until about an hour before dawn. I had thought I'd sleep well after a bad night last night and indeed did sleep heavily from about midnight until 0230.
I didn't feel worn out; I was just awake. Later in the morning we drove in to Lowe's and bought the HardiBacker, special backer-board screws, thinset modifier (for the Megabond), a transition strip, and a ceramic-cutting jigsaw blade for the project. We rented a HEPA-filtered vacuum cleaner to clean up well before the installation.
That afternoon we started the backer-board project. I screwed down the existing plywood subfloor and cut and fit the Hardiboard and gathered everything for the thinset mix tomorrow.
-------------------------------
Wednesday, 19 January-
For some reason I woke at 0400 and couldn't get back to sleep. I read awhile but that didn't help so the night got very, very long. Once daylight came I continued prep for the underlayment install. I'm amazed at all the factors to be considered and how much time it takes to get answers. Time after time I find myself poring through technical info for what should be a simple answer. But by the end of the day I felt I had a good handle on it.
-------------------------------
Tuesday, 18 January-
Yesterday I decided I'd prefer to go with HardiBacker so I spent much of today learning about its installation requirements and determining which thinset I'd use under it and then for the granite tiles.
------------------------------
Monday, 17 January -
Today I began work on the preparation of the foyer subfloor. It didn't take long to find that my plan was falling apart. I had intended to put the DITRA coupling membrane over the existing vinyl floor. But that's only possible when the sheet flooring is tightly adhered to the subfloor. As I worked today I found areas which were only superficially adhered. That will not work.
I tried cutting away the loose stuff but soon decided I may as well take it all and put down a concrete backer board as the base for the tile. I spent an hour or two researching WonderBoard, Durock, and HardieBacker
-------------------------------
Sunday, 16 January-
Today Labashi and I went shopping for tiling supplies and tools at Lowe's and Home Depot and we picked up the four cases of special-order granite tile at Lowe's.
This morning we decided to narrow the project to the upper foyer for now and to do it with a Schluter-DITRA base over plywood. The floor deflection calculations indicate the joists and subfloor should be fine for a natural stone project. The DITRA technical info recommends a second layer of plywood for natural stone but granite is one of the strongest natural stones and is as strong as some ceramic tiles which, as a class, do NOT require the second layer. So since we don't have enough vertical space for another layer of plywood, we're going ahead with the existing subfloor as is. We'll see.
-------------------------------
Saturday, 15 January-
I'm still in recovery mode today but am starting to turn my attention to next week's project-- putting down granite tile in our foyer. Today I starting learning about self-leveling concrete (SLC), cementitious backer boards (CBB), Schuler-DITRA uncoupling systems, and substrate requirements for natural stone tile.
--------------------------------
Friday, 14 January-
I spent much of today looking for new music on Pandora, iTunes, and YouTube. I'm not getting a lot out of Pandora, though. I don't like the user interface but then again I probably don't have more than two hours total with it so perhaps I just need to be a little patient. It's nice that I can listen to music of the same 'genome' but it's a slow process. There's got to be a better way.
Once I find an artist or group I think I may like, I can sample their catalog with iTunes but because it only gives a 90-second sample, I often switch to YouTube and see if a promising cut is available there. But then I also have to wade through a lot of junk 'tributes' getting to the real thing. So all in all I spend an inordinate amount of time --- like all day --- and only end up buying five or six new songs. But it's still much better than the old days of having to buy an album just to get a cut I liked.
-------------------------------
Thursday, 13 January-
Today I spent much of the day on the web taking it easy. It's such a relief to be out of the house-rehab business for a while.
I'm still looking at online videos about Digital SLR high-definition video production and the various gear associated with it. I'm drawn both to the gear and to the spectacular results.
****** END OF POST ********
(posted from home)
(This post covers 13 – 23 January, 2011)
------------------------------
Sunday, 23 January-
This morning I began checking out a new-to-us type of vinyl plank flooring. Labashi had brought home a sample of Mannington's Adura Vintage Oak 'Loc-N-Go' plank. That's the first vinyl plank flooring I've seen that looks good enough to try. But how tough is it to install?
After watching a few YouTube videos and scanning for any end-user or installer complaints about it, I think I like it and would be willing to give it a try. Labashi is interested in this for the bathroom floor and I think we can simply put down an embossing leveler over the current vinyl for a base. The planks snap together and there's even a method for removing a mid-floor plank if one becomes damaged in the future. The biggest complaint so far is about the surface scratching too easily but the comments are very mixed. Some people say it scratches easily others claim they've used it for a long time with kids, dogs, even in a day-care facility without problems. But I think it would work for us.
I also decided it was time to address the problems with our Bosch 'Multi-X' oscillating tool. I bought it in May and we used it heavily on the house re-hab project. But recently it had become virtually useless because it was running so slow. But when I checked on getting two new batteries for it, I saw they were $40 each!!! That led me to decide to buy a pocket-driver since, for $100, I'd not only get the two batteries I need but also a spare charger and a very nice little driver. Unfortunately, after charging up a new battery and putting it in the Multi-X, it operated exactly the same.
So you can imagine my surprise when I found the problem to be a simple switch setting. We had always used the Multi-X on one speed but apparently the variable-speed switch had gotten bumped to a lower-speed-- that's it! No problem after all!
And though it seemed I had wasted $100 on the pocket driver, that pocket driver turned out to be a godsend when we installed the HardiBacker board. We were under the gun to get them in quickly as (we thought) the underlying thinset was hardening as we worked and they were bears to get in. But the new pocket-driver had the additional torque needed to drive them in flush. Bottom line-- my screwup on recognizing what was wrong with the Multi-X got us the tool we needed for the project! I love when a plan comes together!
------------------------------
Saturday, 22 January-
This morning I did some more cleanup with the new small-projects vacuum cleaner. I had filled not only our work area but also much of our living room with a very fine sawdust when I had to use my ZipSaw to flush-cut some of the plywood underlayment. A seam had an eighth-inch mismatch I had to cut down and the 12,000 rpm ZipSaw kicked up such a fine sawdust that it carried up on air currents into the living area above the foyer.
Later in the morning Dad called Labashi and said he couldn't get the answering machine to work so I went over to check it out. Apparently it had been zapped by a static electricity discharge but it came back up normally after I went through a power-off/on cycle. Dad also mentioned that the car radio was showing an odd message ever since the battery had been accidentally discharged. Fortunately I had seen this before and knew it was a theft-deterrent feature on the radio so all I had to do was contact the dealer for the code and key it in. Voila!
While I was there Mom was reading through a family-history clippings file and started telling me stories of her childhood during World War II. I knew Labashi would be interested so grabbed some paper and began taking notes. I ended up with 11 new family stories!!!!! Very cool!
As I drove home I realized that the roads were clear enough of ice for me to take a motorcycle ride. The high today was only 18 but the sun was out and we had no wind so the 18 felt more like 30-- good riding weather!
I rode down I-83 to York and then over to the East York Starbucks for a coffee and Times. And there I struck up a conversation with two guys I've seen there before. We talked about the weather and riding and wanted to know how I could ride in such cold. I just said I keep the heat turned way up!!!
------------------------------
Friday, 21 January-
This early-morning-wakeup is a pain. Today I again woke at 0400 and couldn't get back to sleep. Labashi was also awake around 0500 so we got up at 0600 and I went out and cleaned off the cars from the overnight light snow. We left the house at 0700 and drove in to Home Depot to buy a portable shop-vac (I should have done this rather than rent the other day) and the thinset we'll need for the tile. On the way home we shopped for groceries at our local Giant and were home well before noon.
We mixed up the thinset and finished screwing down the Hardibacker in about an hour. Curiously, the thinset didn't seem to be setting up. Documentation said the thinset had an 'open time' of an hour. But two hours later there was no indication of the thinset setting up. I called the tech support line and learned it has a 'pot life' of four hours (so what the heck is 'open time'?). That meant I not only didn't have a problem with my installation, I could also use the leftover mix as a patch material atop the HardiBacker. I went ahead and patched three low spots before the material set up. After another hour I noticed the thinset had hardened dramatically and we declared it a success. I LOVE this Megabond (actually it's “Mega Bond”). It mixes easily, trowels easily, sticks well, and gives you plenty of time to work.
-------------------------------
Thursday, 20 January-
Last night I was awake at 0230 and couldn't get back to sleep until about an hour before dawn. I had thought I'd sleep well after a bad night last night and indeed did sleep heavily from about midnight until 0230.
I didn't feel worn out; I was just awake. Later in the morning we drove in to Lowe's and bought the HardiBacker, special backer-board screws, thinset modifier (for the Megabond), a transition strip, and a ceramic-cutting jigsaw blade for the project. We rented a HEPA-filtered vacuum cleaner to clean up well before the installation.
That afternoon we started the backer-board project. I screwed down the existing plywood subfloor and cut and fit the Hardiboard and gathered everything for the thinset mix tomorrow.
-------------------------------
Wednesday, 19 January-
For some reason I woke at 0400 and couldn't get back to sleep. I read awhile but that didn't help so the night got very, very long. Once daylight came I continued prep for the underlayment install. I'm amazed at all the factors to be considered and how much time it takes to get answers. Time after time I find myself poring through technical info for what should be a simple answer. But by the end of the day I felt I had a good handle on it.
-------------------------------
Tuesday, 18 January-
Yesterday I decided I'd prefer to go with HardiBacker so I spent much of today learning about its installation requirements and determining which thinset I'd use under it and then for the granite tiles.
------------------------------
Monday, 17 January -
Today I began work on the preparation of the foyer subfloor. It didn't take long to find that my plan was falling apart. I had intended to put the DITRA coupling membrane over the existing vinyl floor. But that's only possible when the sheet flooring is tightly adhered to the subfloor. As I worked today I found areas which were only superficially adhered. That will not work.
I tried cutting away the loose stuff but soon decided I may as well take it all and put down a concrete backer board as the base for the tile. I spent an hour or two researching WonderBoard, Durock, and HardieBacker
-------------------------------
Sunday, 16 January-
Today Labashi and I went shopping for tiling supplies and tools at Lowe's and Home Depot and we picked up the four cases of special-order granite tile at Lowe's.
This morning we decided to narrow the project to the upper foyer for now and to do it with a Schluter-DITRA base over plywood. The floor deflection calculations indicate the joists and subfloor should be fine for a natural stone project. The DITRA technical info recommends a second layer of plywood for natural stone but granite is one of the strongest natural stones and is as strong as some ceramic tiles which, as a class, do NOT require the second layer. So since we don't have enough vertical space for another layer of plywood, we're going ahead with the existing subfloor as is. We'll see.
-------------------------------
Saturday, 15 January-
I'm still in recovery mode today but am starting to turn my attention to next week's project-- putting down granite tile in our foyer. Today I starting learning about self-leveling concrete (SLC), cementitious backer boards (CBB), Schuler-DITRA uncoupling systems, and substrate requirements for natural stone tile.
--------------------------------
Friday, 14 January-
I spent much of today looking for new music on Pandora, iTunes, and YouTube. I'm not getting a lot out of Pandora, though. I don't like the user interface but then again I probably don't have more than two hours total with it so perhaps I just need to be a little patient. It's nice that I can listen to music of the same 'genome' but it's a slow process. There's got to be a better way.
Once I find an artist or group I think I may like, I can sample their catalog with iTunes but because it only gives a 90-second sample, I often switch to YouTube and see if a promising cut is available there. But then I also have to wade through a lot of junk 'tributes' getting to the real thing. So all in all I spend an inordinate amount of time --- like all day --- and only end up buying five or six new songs. But it's still much better than the old days of having to buy an album just to get a cut I liked.
-------------------------------
Thursday, 13 January-
Today I spent much of the day on the web taking it easy. It's such a relief to be out of the house-rehab business for a while.
I'm still looking at online videos about Digital SLR high-definition video production and the various gear associated with it. I'm drawn both to the gear and to the spectacular results.
****** END OF POST ********
posted by Bezabor&Labashi | 23:59
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