City of Bloomington, MN Home Improvement Seminars, 20 Aug 2014

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From YouTube: HRA Seminar: Choosing and Installing the Right Tile for Your Home (2014)

Description

Learn how to choose and install the right tile for your home. Whether you are tiling your bathroom floor, installing a backsplash in your kitchen, or turning a mirror into a focal point, you will obtain knowledge through a hands-on workshop with an expert.

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I will turn it over to Pat and Andrew they're from home people they've been wonderful in helping us out with not only these seminars, but they.

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With our home improvement fairs that we have every other year in February and.

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The next one will have.

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2016 so it'll to see you there. Thank you. I am.

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Ready um I is my third one, this summer participating in it's great to see such a huge turn up. My name is cat mcdonald.

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And this is andrew, andrew this impressive household I just want you to know that he is trained to be a fireman.

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Second start with many outlets apartments, so.

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I'm, an attorney knows Andrew, let you take it away. Okay,.

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Good afternoon, um Andrew blegen I've been with home depot for coming on two years now, I started out in flooring because my I've worked my dad many years doing all sorts of different things from flooring to building full houses. So I got a very good dodge of installation of flooring and the prep and maintenance of stuff like that.

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I currently work in the deliveries and orders department right now, so you place an order online I'm, the guy that pulls it or drives it out to your house I'm, going to start out by just explaining some of the products that we have that are necessary for installation of tile and then get into some of the details about the tiles themselves. So, starting out with the tools we have what are called trowels. They are what you use to spread the mortar or the adhesive that holds the tile down. We have different styles and different sizes.

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Each one has different operations, so, like one is made for more larger tiles. So like we have square notch trowel, this is going to be for bigger tiles, from 12 inches up to 18 by 18, and we got the v-notch trowel, which is more for small little grout, our mortar lines that are going to give you more adhesive. So I like you, got backsplash our backsplash tiles. These guys I mean a little more adhesive because they're me sitting at a horizontal side on the wall.

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Well, then, we get into the floats growth floats are what you use to fill in the graph, the gaps between the tiles after you set them. We have different kinds of floats. We had real, cheap ones which get a lot of contractors to come in and they'll buy the cheap ones just because it's easier for them just to use it and throw it away and spend 20 minutes trying to clean, not the grout, because it is kind of sticky. Sometimes this one is a premium. Grout float very great.

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It's got rounded edges, so you can get those nice concave gaps in between the tiles inside is getting like a flat surface. This makes great for that M.

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Some of our small hand, tools, I've, used these far more than I've ever used. My tile saw tile cutter. This works great for ceramic tiles own or little guys like this cuts them right down the middle. You just got to make sure you get a good straight scoreline on it to make that cut straight compound tile nipper, these are more like, say you got just got done, cutting a tile and there's a little jagged edge.

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We use this and it puts light /, put small pressure with very little compression to the handle and cuts that piece right off at that sport point final. One is glass tile nipper! This one is great for if you've got tiles like this, you don't want to get down and really getting real your hands, real close. That tile saw blade. So you use this and you just put the the glass piece right in between it squeeze and it cracks it right down that middle line.

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Then we get into some of the tile spacers spaces are meant to make those gaps between the tiles um everyone's got more of a preference on what they want. If they want really low or thin spacing lines grout lines, it's going to make it more a little more unison, you're, not going to see big gaps between the tiles. It's more.

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That aesthetic look is what it does, but if you get into large tiles, 18 x, 18 tiles and it's an entryway or something you didn't want some kind of gap in there, so I usually recommend anything above quarter of an inch to bigger just because what grout lines actually will do is like you step on that tile, it's going to allow that gap to or that compression that movement happen without cracking any tiles or movement of the tiles popping out or anything. So we don't got big gap grout lines in high-traffic areas.

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Then your tile is going to fall apart after a few years.

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Some of our other tools, the mortars and grouts there's big difference between mortars and grout. Mortar, like I, said it is the glue it's that adhesive that holds a tile down. We are different kinds of mortar. Each bag has got specific jobs like this one. Here this is flex bond, probably my favorite. It is great for high-traffic areas on places where there's that possibility of the changing in temperatures so basement bathrooms right in an entryway. We got cold gusts of air constant coming in and Minnesota our weather is constantly up and down up and down.

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Flex bond is great for any kind of job like that can even use it outside, because it allows that expansion and contraction to happen without without cracking the tile. We're like use some of our other ones, a versa bond, which is another same company custom building products, but it's more just basic. So like say you wanted to do a backsplash in the kitchen can use that puts right on or you just wanna get something done.

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Real quick verse bond sets fast and gets you down everything though I still recommend after you've set the mortar down on the ground, and you set your tiles, give it 24 hours to fully cure before you start grouting or you start walking on it, because it needs that time. If you start grouting that mortar it starts to want to shrink or can track and pull the title to the ground.

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If you put grout in there, it's not gonna have enough space in between the or the grout is going to start to separate from the tile, because that tile is getting pulled. Then we have different routes. We have sanded grout and non sanded grout sanded grout is more four large tiles or any kind of porcelain or ceramic or even stolen. It fills in gaps a lot better.

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So if you get big grout lines, it's going to fill it in a lot better and it's going to last a lot longer because it's got more strength built into it. Non sanded is for small grout lines, for like say our backsplashes, it's great for glass tile too, because it's not going to scratch the tile. We're sanded will scratch up and you're not going to have a very good job finished at the end, and then we get into our pre-mixed stuff. We have our premix grout, which it's sanded grout.

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So still, if you're going to use it for backsplash make sure it's not a glass tile backsplash, but it's great because it's already mixed in there saves you a lot of money and a lot of hassle on having to sit there with a an auger and mixing the stuff yourself yeah, and then we get into our pre-mixed mortars. Omni grip is my favorite because it holds very well and you can use it almost any area. We have two different kinds of pre-mixed: Omni grip and acrylic pro crilla pro.

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You can't use in any area where there's possibility of moisture because it doesn't hold the tile to the wall once it that moisture hits it on a grip. On the other hand, I've used this stuff on shower floors and it holds great once again premix, so you don't have to worry about having to mix it yourself. Another note 2 with the mixing it yourself ones. When you do, you want a consistency of a peanut butter.

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So just we sell an auger or like a paddle spinner, you just hook it up to your drill, fill in the bucket with a little bit of the mortar or the grout powder add a little bit of water. Just till you start getting that consistency of that peanut butter and you're just going to start agha it or picking the auger and mixing it up, and then we get into this stuff right here. This is what's called grout shield.

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What you do is when you, you can only use it with the pre or the mix it yourself once you add it in with the mix in the grouts that you have and it puts a chemical in there. That makes it so you don't have to seal your tile afterwards.

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So it saves a lot of time and as mentioned into the lady here, that with tile there's certain kyle's that need to be sealed over span of 12 to 18 months, every 12 to 18 months, stone is one of the big ones zone is very porous, so you want to use a sealer, that's going to fill those pores this.

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On the other hand, you put this in there it's going to seal the grout lines, so it's not gonna work too well with stone unless you coat it all over the stone and then wipe it off later, but that's a lot of grout that you're me wasting there, but these are the two spray sealers. This one is just your basic sealer, it's more for ceramic tile and porcelain, because they are even though porcelain and ceramic are both man-made tiles. They still have very tiny pores in them that you still have to fill.

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So you spray this on, give it about a minute to two minutes of letting it sit on there and take a soft cloth, a microfiber cloth and just wipe off any kind of haze. That's left over this one is more for the heavy duty tiles a lot of stones, this one's going to fill in the gaps and those voids a lot better than this one will another new product is the simple Matt. This is for those that don't wanna get their hands dirty with all this stuff.

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What it is, it is I'm Matt, pretty much that.

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You take it double-sided, peel off the white side. Stick it to your wall, just line up your whole entire wall with it or your area. You want you back splash done and when you're ready to tile you just peel off this plastic side and expose the beads and you line your tiles up and place it right on there rings with that. You can go right to grout in right. Afterwards, you don't have to give it that 24 hours of waiting.

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So it saves you a lot of time and doing it and we have two different sizes. We got the box here that covers I, believe nine square feet, yep nine sheets and this one is 30 square feet on price. I. Think this guy runs probably about fifteen to twenty dollars or this one's looking about thirty to forty dollars, so definitely yep, yep, I, wouldn't put it in the shower or any area with. Is that possibility of that moisture? Just because it it's just like a pea yep more of the backsplash. That's right! So.

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What's the strength comparison between the symbol, Matt and enough water I.

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Hands down mortars going to be your best bet, all all around it's going to be because the mortar is a concrete base mix. So it is going to grab on that tile and it's going to hold it very well. This it's very sticky but I've, seen after five six years that this stuff starts to kind of want to peel away just because over time that weight will start to peel away or if you put it on sheet rock. The paper will start to peel, whereas the concrete it's going to be a solid previous.

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A solid wall built right there that it's not going to topple over.

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Next up is the pre mixed up as flexible as fun.

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And as a kind of attitude in it, no.

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Does not the flex bond is going to once again it's going to have that that polymer modified additive in it? It gives it that strength that it's going to hold? No, the premix is more just a glue is what it is. So it's.

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Yeah, hands down I'm, going to always say mixing yourself if you're doing something, that's you want to last it's going to be there for your time of the house, then premix or mixing it yourself is always being the best.

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Any other questions about the tools.

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Yeah lets you see a savior see.

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Is that okay, oh yeah,.

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No and that's one thing: I was saying: with ceiling um certain tiles, mortar or stones stone tile on every 12 to 18 months. You want to reseal a stone tile with ceramic and porcelain. You can usually go to three years without having to reseal it, but I still recommend doing it every year. Just because say it's in a shower some that constant water coming down its gonna.

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Think of like a piece of glass in the ocean that constant water going over it and it starts to smoothing out that's what happened with a shower hitting the wall of about or the water hit in the shower water hitting the wall of the bathroom erica. I knew I was gonna get it, but with that constant water hitting it it's going to wear that sealant away. So once again, every 12 to 18 months, I still recommend resealing it and the bottles are I, think $13 and they can usually cover 23 years of sealing is.

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It worth doing no, no.

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Definitely not a sec yep. No, like it's I'm, you can look at certain tiles and you can tell um like a lot of ceramic and the porcelains they will last. They will hold up to that water and stuff, but I would first clean it with a good cleaning solution. We have tile cleaners, but a lot of like tile x, I wouldn't use that on most tiles because it does wreak havoc on that the grout it starts to eat it away a little bit.

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The acid solution end, but the CR cleaners that we have at the store or any of your hardware stores for tile they will be specifically designed for grout and for tile. So I would use that on those on the tile that you're looking to reseal and then come back and seal it up and should be golden to go now, I'ma getting two differences between the tiles one. You guys may know subway tiles, they are been around for ages. They are still very popular people still love this. Look!

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It's that little 4 by 4 square tile, look ceramic tiles. They aren't best for cold environments, because ceramic the way they make ceramic is they have little beads that are compressed real tight together. That changing in temperature is that constant up and down I say you can't use it outside because Minnesota, like I, said up and down weather for us that changing temperatures it doesn't allow that expansion and contraction to happen very well with beads that I made it together so tight.

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So after a while you'll just see a lot of those ceramic tiles, just crack right down the middle, that's because they have nowhere to go they've been so stressed. They just break we're with porcelain. Porcelain is been around for a while it's man-made product once again, but they are make it with large beads that will actually compress against each other and expand. So they actually allow that movement.

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You can even use this stuff outside on deck patio, like a picnic table deck, or so our top like that I've seen people even use them for outside low patios still you'd want to use I'd, recommend patio stones over these guys, just because patio stones, we have a lot more strength, but you can use these outside.

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We have lots of different styles of porcelain and ceramic. Even this is a newer one. It's called premium porcelain, it's just a little bit thicker than most tiles. It's got a little better or more modern designs built through it um and most people. Nowadays, we are getting more to the 12 by 24 people like to see that kind of that law or that brick pattern. The kind of.

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Yeah, that's kind of gotten a little more popular nowadays because it gives a little more aesthetic look over the checkerboard pattern, which you see that checkerboard pattern, and it's just blah it's just there. It's not as exciting kind of then this is another ceramic tile you can tell to the ceramic from the backs of it. This is a red clay, ceramic, it's less strength. You can use it for the floor because it is a 12 by 12. So it's got enough area that it can.

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It expand their disperse that weight when you step on it, where you can't use these guys for the floor because they're just too small you step on them. They don't have enough area that they can spread that weight across it. They'll just start to crack red clay, porcelain or ceramic is a little older. They are starting to use great clay porcelain ceramic now, so it gets a little more strength, but still porcelain is going to have the better durability.

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Hands down with the squares is one way you can tell too compared to the circles on these guys then get into our other two stone. This is slate great great tile. It's been around for a very long time. I love stolen myself.

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Sometimes it can be a little tricky to work with you need a very good tile saw to cut a lot of them so that they don't flake off or chip as easily slate is a pretty easy one to chip and flake, just because it is built in layers kind of our cut from a big, huge stone and more layers where a marble they kind of laser cut it out and give it perfect dimensions all the way around no voids no gaps compared to this guy, but being as they're both stone. They are both very porous.

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So a lot of water on our moisture will get into those voids and that's when we need to seal the tile very well, so that those voids can't collect that water, build mold and mildew over time. So and that's why I said every 12 to 18 months, reseal stone our final one are are mosaics.

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Mosaics are a lot more of the backsplashes. They range from coming in glass to stone to porcelain and ceramic I've, even seen metal too great for the decorative look. You don't want to do a whole tire wall just because it's getting a little busy, but a lot of backsplashes are great for the mosaics I mean you can even use these guys for backsplashes. If you'd like a little area like that, something like this is going to be beautiful. Looking up there, I guess, I can mention like the the saws and the tool of cutting tools.

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This I actually just bought this one myself here a few weeks back um phenomenal saw a little pricey, but if you're looking to do some little more heavy duty, you want to do a full entry way. We do our store, doesn't but I know the Richfield store, has tool. Rentals and I do rent all tile saws like this. Otherwise we do have tabletop saws, which worked great. I've used myself in the past many times.

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If you're looking to salt them a little more powerful, that's going to cut ty left I off the tile with no problem at all. Well, these guys are great, but I've always used this guy, far more than I've used. My sauce. This is a hand, cutting tool branch. You take the tile, you want set it on.

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Set it where you want it, take the school in blade, cut it across and.

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You just push down.

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Cuts it right in half I'm thinking difference between this and that the tile saw is always been cut off an eighth of an inch extra of what you want, because the blade itself is going to rip that section off this. You can get exactly perfectly six by six pieces. If you were looking for that and go San so like right here, this section has a little bit of a chip kind of sticking out.

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That's where I would take my compound nippers and clip that piece and kind of even it out, so it's nice and smooth or you can use, we have files, so you can use to to file it down. I use a lot of times for the glass pieces, just cuz cutting them with the saw glass pieces, get very sharp. You just use that file and just shave it up a little bit.

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No, this is ceramic and porcelain. I believe this one says stone but did I see it. I was just looking at it today saying something about.

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It was on the tag out store then, but with stolen, it's gonna be a little more tricky just because stolen is it's not man-made? It's not set up like these guys. Wear these. You can cut it in that perfect line without any big Jags happen out, because it's man-made, it's got those little beads and they're put uniform all the way across where stone is just a wild mess of the years of the soul and growing together. So you try and get a perfect cut with that.

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With this, it's gonna be real tricky just cuz, you can get pieces that would jag off, and then you have to use those tile nippers to kind of clip it and even it out all the way around so the products on the tiles. Is there any questions about this stuff.

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These um we have its nano scrub as, what's called nano scrub.

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It's a little more heavy duty. Cleaner, you're gonna want to make sure you wear gloves with it, just because it is uh after I think it's not an acidic solution, because those will actually ruin the tiles.

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It's gonna, it's gonna, be a very well.

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No TSP, though, that is a phenomenal product. If you got if you get that that stuff will clean this stuff great, like I, didn't know about that until just recently, another associate was just telling me about it and I'm like it's for paint stripping, I'm like. Why would we use it for tiles so.

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It won't no I use it myself, a bunch of times for the tiles so yeah. If you look at yep yep TSP is it's meant for stripping paint almost but I've used it cleaning tiles I even use it in my dishwasher, because it's it's safe after waters wash it off anything, but it cleans things very well. Yep.

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Alright, so there's no more questions about the tiles and the product.

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We got different kinds of styles of these. This is more the heavy duty one. This is a 24 inch tile cutter. This one I think range is about 150 to 200 dollars. Tala saw is four hundred dollars, but we get the ones that dropped down like this is the mobile or portable jobsite saw we got one, that's a tabletop saw which is um like a table saw, it's got, the blade sticks up and you just slide the tiles right through where this has a base.

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You slide the tile through with that the tabletop saws, one I recommend is the ryobi. It's a ryobi, 7-inch I think it's like ninety nine dollars, I've used it a bunch of times before I got this and yeah it's a little loud and you don't wanna make sure you got your protection just because it's got a nice wine to it, but it works great for cuttin tiles, they're wet, so every one of them you will fill the bottom of them up with water.

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This one has a portable pump to it that sucks the water up from here and kicks it right up through a little hole. Right here and drops it right on the blade, if you we do, sell, handsaw little tile hand saws.

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So it's almost like a little circular saw well gay big with those you just want to make sure you got a bottle of water, something important on the tile as your cuttings, because the blades will heat up very fast tile saws, so there between the tile saw and like a table, saw or any other kind of cutting, saw, tile saws cut with heat, so they spend fast and off the blades have no teeth to them. There are full circle blades that they spin so fast. They will cut the tile with heat.

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Instead of actually like a jagged tooth, one of the other flooring associates, we were doing a job for one of our so states who was injured here recently when we did a full bathroom remodel for him. We're cutting tiles and he told me that, no matter what title I will never cut off your finger might get you a little burn, but it's not meant to cut your finger off still not willing to test it out. But yeah I'm, like huh I, think I figures are good, I'm keeping them away from the blade.

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Patching broken your use of the floor versus you know fresh floor. Put it a little down whistling my whole bathroom floors, a little plants, okay,.

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Armed with that, removing tiles are fairly easy on. If you gotta, we have different tools, we didn't grab them, but they're grout saws, it's a little hand tool. You sit there and you scrape away the grout all the way around. The tile I recommend spending sitting there for a good hour to sit there. With that, grout saw trying to shave away the grout. It's been forty dollars, get a little dremel and then by the tile, saw blade. It's a little drill bit.

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Those dramas work wonders you just rip right through all the grout that you need, and you just take a very thin chisel or a a little crowbar and your pop that tile up I've even taken just like a hammer, broke that tile that you want up broke it up a little bit popped. All the pieces out dropped in the new on with the I mean that's a sign or situation that you can use that Omni grip. Then it's just a little spot.

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You want, and you don't want to spend money and the time to have, to mix up a whole batch of mortar Omni grip or even puts it's tough. It's a power grab, it's a kind of solution. We sell in our paint department. It's like liquid nails are lost well that stuff works great for that kind of thing too. I actually use the liquid nail or the power grab to bind the mirror and stuff on to the board.

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To clean out all up and.

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Then just press it off yep.

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Get like a little coffee can, or some put some of the nano scrub in there I don't believe it has to be diluted with water, but get a good sponge like this. One is a scrub sponge, it's great for it's like our kitchen sink sponges, yes, good bristle side and the soft side use the the Nano scrub and just scrub. The tiles in circular motion just clean them up a little bit the while it should be nice and good, and then you can start sealing it and.

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Then you use the same sealer cuz I got both stone and horse yep.

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You can't so you can use the maximum strength, the dark green bottle on all of them. You don't want to use the light one on stone, just because it's not as strong.

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Girl, that's like looks like it's not.

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Yep you can do that. Okay,.

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You know one no.

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I mean if it's dropped in and I gave it to deep enough that you can get a good amount of grout in there till it sticks in then you don't have to dremel it out door clean out that growth. But if it's a tiny little gap, I would recommend just clean it all out and just getting some more and popping it in there. Okay.

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So you know how I give your fancy cement steps or something outside eventually the news blood patch comes apart me on this episode. Is it crowd? Wolf, new growth, stick to old growth, nope.

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And that's what she was just asking yeah if it's deep enough that the grout line is deep enough that there's enough void in there that the grout will grab onto the tile. Then it's enough! But if it's just a little divot or some I recommend is cleaning that whole thing out and just filling in with new grout.

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Use for cutting tile, if you don't want to cut a hole into and then straight line, you want a nosh curve or something to go wrong at all. Yep.

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We have are called saber saw, blitz blades, they are, you can use a jigsaw and premature just pop it in your jigsaw once again get a bottle of water, because it's going to heat up real fast and you just cut that area out that you want. Otherwise you can use. We have drill bits to that. You can cut perfect circles through tiles, with making a square. I will recommend drill in four corners with a bit and then cutting the lines, because it's hard to actually make that turn unless you pre-drill the spots.

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So you can get that angle in there.

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A drill bit designed for tile, yet once again, it's it's not like normal drill bits. How they're got that little auger look to.

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Can use regular drill what these ones are. They are just they look like a pence, the cap of a pencil or a pen or something, and they just have a little bit of diamond kind of diamond shards at one end, so they're going to burn once again with heat cutting it through it.

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Strobist is their life for good visit, a good dog nope.

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Once these ones get dull, they are finished yep.

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Alright, I am going to move on to showing you how to do a little bit. Tiling and I am going to be using the Omni grip and our pre-mixed grout here another neat little tool, um so I'll pritch these- we just got them at the home depot I bought mine about a week or so on the home people website, and then we get them in the store. So I waited an extra week for them to come in the mail when they were all at store ready. But what it is it's interchangeable kit.

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So you got all the different trawls that you need.

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Even comes with the grout floats, so branch say I'm getting ready to tile come in grab the one I want, lock it in good to go, get done with that, put it back in the bucket grab. My grout float good to go this bucket, so we sell each piece individually or we sell it. In this whole kit, it was like thirty dollars and great tool. Heart is a phenomenal vendor. They've been doing a lot of great, giving us a lot of great new tools at the store. This one has little holes at bombs.

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All you do is you got your blades that are all dirty put them in there take a hose and just spray it down. It cleans them right up. You even close up the just kind of get like something put on the bottom and just kind of shake it around, and it should help clean up the blades a little bit easier to.

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So I'm working with 12 x, 12 tile, like I, said each grout floats, got or trawl has different job. This is a quarter by quarter by three eighths. This is what it's called. So it's a quarter inch high by quarter inch wide and 3 ace on the trawl of the top edge, and we got two sides got the trowel notch side and we got the butter side. Notch side is more for getting those good good, trowel lines built in there.

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The butter side is to spread it out, a little bit more, get it across the table and my favorite tool. These little guys.

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Prints pick up the tile and once you get it set in, you can print use that and shift it around, and sis and they're trying to use your fingers get an element of the mortar or the Omni or the mastic that you got this Oh.

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Suction cup, ba or handled suction cup, I think, is what they had listed, but every store should carry something like this they're meant four times the larger tiles I. Don't even have some of these down in the window department or in the millwork department. So you can like shift, windows and stuff like that. So.

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I said Omni grip, its branches glue, it's like, like Elmer's paste, take off a big glob of it.

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And you just spread it out in the area that you want to do when you're working, I recommend work in a 3 by 3 section, so pull by 12 tiles, you're gonna do three tiles, there's almost nine tiles and then move on to the next section that way: you're not using more film the whole area with the mortar or the mastic and wasting it so see. I'm working here this stuff is starting to dry by the time I'm getting over it to it.

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Furniture spread it across, so you get nice even amount all the way, and then, when you take the the notch side, get it like a 45 degree angle and you'll see certain areas where you need to retouch it up.

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When you're first setting it on there just throw as much on there get it nice and even across, but when you go to cleared away like I, said 45 degree angle, push it right to the wood and it'll make perfect lines. So you get a little exposed areas in the wood. There's like that, and that's enough that it's going to be enough. Adhesive to grab on to the tile.

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I'm bringing to take your tile.

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Just push it right into place.

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Yep so one thing like when you put it in there, I put the glob on I'll, usually start out by spreading across the area that I'm going to be working and then, when it's pretty good point, where I'm ready to start setting tile make like arcs in it.

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It it gives a little more strength, so straight lines on its I. Don't know the whole science in it, but like guys, this is the way I avoid my dad always taught me when I was younger. Is you do it arcs it's going to be less of ah that's what I'm looking for it's gonna, be a little more adhesive and a different shape, so think of it like you are putting a post in the ground.

C

If you put a straight tube, it's not going to have as much strength, whereas if you just take the shovel and you start making wild designs down there, it's going to have a lot more area and different parts sticking out. So this is similar to that and you're going to have a different design than what the tile is. The tiles are straight squares, you're, going to have a lot of designs kind of going through it. It's gonna get a little more strength.

F

What kind of material can you fly with yep.

C

Plywood, um what I recommend so I did we didn't bring any with, but it's called backer board. It's a concrete board. It's meant for high-traffic areas, because it's going to give it a little more strength.

C

So what you do is you put that down or clear out the area you're going to lay the tile you're going to use a mortar and you're going to spread it out same as this, and you put your backer board down on top of that and then you're going to do can either screw it down to hold it a little bit more in place and then you're going to put more mortar on top of the backboard, so say that this is our backer board.

C

I would have adhesive or the mortar or thins the mortar, underneath this to bond it to the floor, and then I'm going to put mortar again on top of it and then put tiles, and what that's going to do is, since the backer board is a solid piece of concrete board any like void. Underneath that board say you step in that spot. It's going to push down that backer board into that hole.

C

So that's why we fill underneath the back of bored with Mort or two, because it's going to fill any tiny little void that might be there. So you don't break your tiles.

F

Have a like a mesh underneath my time? What is that more.

C

Try think chances are, it was like I know they used a lot of that old, almost like they're laying concrete they'd put like rebar through it. Nowadays they used to use like an old mesh wire. Almost it's similar situation gives it a little bit of strength, makes it so like your whole-- for stepping on a spot you're, not just going to be popping that one tile down its gonna.

C

So if you're doing it in an entryway, um as far as you can go down or as your door can open without getting obstructed, I usually recommend I think we have quarter inch and half inch backer board.

B

C

Yep, that is perfect. I recommend back aboard any time in a high-traffic area so as it can give the tile a little bit more strength, because you have that constant coming and going and stepping down in that spot, you're going to want that strength built there and that's the backboard is going to provide a little bit more off too yep.

C

Bathrooms are one of the big areas that we put it because it is moisture, water-resistant board you place it all on the walls and you're going to tape it up. Just like it's going to be almost like, she rock put it on the walls you're, going to tape it all up and then you're going to start putting your tile on that on the walls. You won't have to put mortar behind it dull, because you'll be walking on the walls. So you not to worry about those void spots.

H

E

D

A

About going over um with.

C

Linoleum I always recommend tearing it up first, just because it, the mortar, doesn't bond very well to that the vinyl or the linoleum. So you step in on it. They could pop that stuff right up and linoleum is, has a little bit of compression to it's a little softer and you don't want any kind of movement underneath the floor.

C

That's not necessary for the floor, so you've got that stepping on that linoleum spot it's going to push it down and could cause your grout lines to crack open, because it's going to be that shifting and stuff underneath.

D

C

Can but once again, it's still going to have that compression underneath in spots, so I definitely recommend linoleum. Getting right down to the subfloor can be a little tricky because a lot they used to glue linoleum down so you're sitting there with a scraper scraping it up. I've always told people, it's a lot cheaper and a lot easier, just tear the subfloor up and pop down a new one.

C

F

C

These ones, these were kind of just a clearance tile that we had sitting around that um it's a porcelain once again, but yeah I was just a cheaper one that we had lying around grabbed it up figure to use it for the class.

A

But you're close spaces in there yep.

C

I'm going to show you that right, I've been doing it awhile like a lot of times, I skip over the spacers and I can eyeball. It follow the spacers the way you put them in put two in one at the top and one at the bottom and then you're going to shift your tile. So it fits perfectly with those.

B

C

Yeah yep is there anyone that want give it a shot. I'll say: I got a bunch of tiles. I just cut the other night to that. We can set up- and I give everyone a chance here to at the end of the class, to kind of give it a shot. I laying the tiles in spreading the mortar in the thinset.

C

All right, so you want to come around here.

C

Yep yep can give this guy a shot here.

C

Yep, so we're going to start down here is place. It right again lined up in there and then we're to put the spacers in and we're going to space it out. Yep.

C

So push it down.

C

Ones place it there and one at the bottom and just push it in towards it. Just like that.

D

C

A

And you recommend, seeing all these books measure your room and yeah yep, it's all about one.

C

Thing um they say tiling is easy. As 123 it's set prep and seal. So you set your floor up, get it ready for your tiling job. So that's putting the backer board down ceiling that up, then prep is prepping the work and getting it ready.

C

You're gonna, so I got a five by five area or say five foot by five and a half so I know: I'm gonna have to cut one tile or one row of tiles, because each tile comes in 12 inch sections, so my last roll can either be six inches or I can cut three inches off each side and make the other 29 and then the rest of in the middle 12. So I'd recommend drawing out your floor plan figuring out what your square footage is find out. How much tile you need always add.

C

Twenty percent on to that for cut some the waste that you're going to be using.

C

Then once you come in, get your tile, you get everything ready before you start any of the mortar and the thinset to pay or take your tiles and lay them out on the floor. That way, you can kind of see what it's going to look like see if you're actually going to like that, look on your floor before you throw on the glue and put it down there and realize up I, don't like that color, but definitely layout tile.

C

Lay out the tile and see what it looks like, so you get to a corner that you realize you have to cut some pieces, find out, there's a way that you can adjust the tile. So it's going to be big tiles here and low tiles there, or if it's gonna be in a corner that not even people are to be walking in that out of sight out of mind kind of area um we do like.

C

If you know your floor is pretty level, then you will or you won't have to, but we do sell tile spacers that have a kind of like a little ledge underneath them.

C

What you do is you put it in between the tile and you can kind of lift up one side to kind of level it out or if you find that say this port side here is down too far, but this side is kind of sticking up you're, going to pop the tile up and you're just going to fill that area more in with some more of the fence, s see.

H

What I want to do is I'm under the hole for okay.

B

H

Just a cabinet going on the topic.

H

That's why I'm going to do the whole? You know they normally just.

E

Gradually add yeah, but.

H

It needs to be sort of quick yep.

E

H

So I seen you just press it down and I'm using that one by one. So do I get up my little 6-inch level. If.

C

You're looking like your floor is pretty uneven throughout the most part.

H

Most perfect, okay, then.

C

Yeah you're going to get that level out and you can kind of just set it on the spot, um set your level between the two tiles and finding you got to lift one up, pull that tile out and just fill in a little bit more on the side that needs to go up more. There.

H

It not too far, nope.

C

Like I said working a three by three area: just keep working in three by threes, 3 by 3, 3 by 3, and keep going until you get to those area that you need to go underneath cat.

H

So I get frustrated. I can just pull the glue off and go take a break yep.

C

No and that's nice ink it with your butter side with your butter side, you can scrape it right off. Put it right back in the bucket okay.

H

I'll practice it.

F

Once you lay those down.

C

Probably about 10 15 minutes, depending on what you're, using like if you're using the mix of yourself, you only got about 5 10 minutes on these pre-mixed ones like this Omni grip. I've had this thing open one mine open for good hour to and it still hasn't hardened over. um So we are getting kind of short on time, so I'm gonna jump on to showing you how to grout just.

H

Just giving me.

E

H

Oh, my god, this squirt up there with.

C

B

C

Get just like a piece of wood or something or can even use your spacers just.

H

C

H

C

With grout, you don't have to do the whole tile. You just want to get it n the grout lines, yep.

C

Make sure after 24 hours, you've letting leave let the tile adhere to the floor of the mortar is fully cured. Come back pop all of your tile spacers out.

C

24 hours yep, you just come in and you're just going to fill in the gap line or grout lines. It's.

F

A crowd shrink it off the.

C

Grote will shrink and that's why you want to make sure that you fill in the lines nice. So you can't just kind of boom just like that. Go back, get like a big glob like this and really push it in.

C

And this part can be kind of messy.

C

One thing so I usually say: don't do anything or touch it until 24 hours once again, but I always tell or have people get your sponge and touch up the tile I. This way it saves you a lot of time with having to clean afterwards. You clean the grout off your tile, but steer clear of the grout lines. Saves you a lot of time and hassle. So we have separate cleaners that are meant for cleaning. What's called efflorescence, what it is.

C

It's the calcified grout, it's the grouts been sitting on the title for so long the air has gotten to it. It is turned into a haze. That's going to get stuck to the tile. You got to take that stuff and you gotta scrub, the heck out of it. But if you clean it up beforehand, saves you a lot of time there. What.

F

About the sealer you were talking about the.

B

F

C

Grouchy, oh yeah yep, so with the grout shield, you put that in with only the mix yourself ones, so I won't be able to use it with the pre-mixed but you're gonna mix it in with the powder and then add some water and get that consistency of peanut butter once again and once you spread it on the tile, it's going to seal your grout, so you wouldn't want to use that stuff with stone just because you want to seal the whole job with stolen. This stuff works with porcelain and with ceramic.

G

I notice that spots because I'm using the bigger weights, I have noticed that they we're putting like that bully interest, a prescrip, my overage. They said that was because the tiles were so big inside the shower.

G

C

So a lot of like when you're putting tile on a wall um like our backsplash and stuff, that's what we have is called gravity pulls things down and that's why we use the blue tape. The tape will hold that tile onto the wall and keep it in that spot. So I've used marble as one of the big ones, because marble is real heavy slate, really any stone.

C

The what's called slumped to the thinset will slide kind of to the wall and that's why I use that tape to kind of hold the tile there and keep it from sliding are.

F

You safe clean the tunnel, don't touch the group yep.

E

F

When that dries, if you have it all lumpy I mean don't.

C

I you'll still so before you finish up everything. Just take your trowel you're, a grout float and skim off any kind of lumps that are on there and we're like this one. Has that rounded edge you do? Is you take it and run it right on the grout line, just like that.

D

C

Set is the the mix it yourself. It's a concrete mastic is just glue, that's what is.

D

Actually more difficult to do because of gravity and.

B

Of the small area.

E

D

C

Is easier because of the bigger pieces bigger pieces are easy to work with and set these ones.

D

C

And with these ones, you can't like you, won't really be able to use very many spacers. So it's gonna be a lot more of the eye balling and make sure you get it all lined up right where with backsplashes, it's trickier. Just because you do have that gravity aspect in there, so you're going to want to do probably a row of three foot by say: most backsplashes are about 18 inches high you're, going to be cutting them and nice thing with these guys is. They are very easy to cut.

C

So say: I got my 18 inch section and I need six inches more. Every backsplash is 12 inches, so I'm just gonna get right in the middle knife and cut the mesh backing on the back of it and then use that to put on top of the 12 inch piece to finish up my backsplash and most time you don't have to. If it's I, don't see your backsplash is 19 inches.

C

It's me a little trickier because you can't really cut these in half lengthwise most time the countertops you can have that an inch or so from the from the bottom of the countertop. Just because most people are standing above the counter or the cabinets they're not going to be sitting there. Looking underneath it like that, all the time or you can try and find a tile, that's a little thinner on. For example, we got one here. They are half-inch pieces, so these are a little easier to work with because they're smaller pieces, so it's possible.

C

Then you could get that nine inches out of it.

F

C

With these with the square ones, they are a lot easier. You just want to make sure that you get them perfectly squared to the wall. I mean you get it off a little bit. This one you wouldn't have to this guy is real lightweight on. This is more plastic pieces as what they are on this one. Yep you'll still want to use that tape, to kind of hold it to the wall and keep it from slipping.

H

C

Guys these use the glass tile nipper yep and just find the piece that you want.

B

C

This is a glass tile, nipper.

C

No, it will not metal pieces so say you run into a metal piece. I recommend is cut that metal piece out and find a ceramic or another tile piece and just pop it in that place, little trickier to cut the metal ones. You have to get a either a metal saw or tin snips or something like that to actually get it.

C

So the glass tile nippers, you can pull these pieces right off, pretty much take where you want to cut it cut the right where you got it, it's a little jagged, so I will take the nippers and just kind of trim it up a little bit to get it. So it's smooth all the way across.

D

First yeah.

C

So put the bottom layer on put the second layer and run a piece of blue painters, tape right down the whole thing. Oh and now hold it all up.

D

So you're not really into it. No.

C

It's yep yeah and that's just gonna, keep it from slipping down. We do have mortars that are anti slump, they won't slide and they are made for heavy duty stone tiles, but they get pretty pricey to use it.

F

Mentioned leaving space and, oh sorry, but the cord around and stuff that right up to the wall, but a lot of bathrooms, including mine or tile tile, all over. So how is he so.

C

We have chair rails, what they're called there are pieces that are rounded or so that you can get your wall at I'll they'll fit right in there to kind of fill that spot in. Otherwise you can take the tile and run the tile up like that and just drop down the other piece and kind of do something like that and just grout right in this section there. So.

F

C

All right on looks like my time is coming up. um Thank you guys for coming any kind of questions. I am I working with every day at the home depot stop on in. If you guys got any questions, I am more than willing to help out and OH.

F

C

Right out of american bowl.

G

Great job Andrew.

G

G

B