Days 26-27: Grouting, More Mudding, Some Fixture Installation
Sorry for the long delay - it's been a whirlwind last few days!
Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty crazy, mostly because of the pressure I put on myself to finish before my mother-in-law came to visit. Because Seth finished the tile at the end of the day, I wanted to be sure to give it plenty of time to set. We ended up waiting until the end of the day on Tuesday (24+ hours after tiling) to do the grout on the shower area. I did that part first, since it was the part that needed the most drying time before being sealed. (Ironically, we ended up not sealing for now - we decided to seal all the grout after we get back from our mini-vacation.)
The first two pictures show the grout job. I'm pretty happy with it. The walls look much better than the floor, because Seth didn't have any excess adhesive pop up between the tiles like I did. The problem with that is that the adhesive (thin-set) is grey, and it's too high up in that joint, it sticks out above the white grout. I had to fix a few spots by digging out the excess, but there are still a couple that show. I went over the entire floor pretty carefully with a Phillips head screwdriver, but I'd recommend being extra diligent and careful with that step for those who might want to try this.
Also, after doing some research online, we ended up going with sanded grout on the floor. The general rule is unsanded for gaps less than 1/8", and sanded for gaps greater than 1/8". The floor tiles were right at 1/8", but the thinking is that they get more use, and the sand in the grout makes those joints more durable. We'll see. It was a pain to do - much harder than the unsanded on the walls - so hopefully it was worth it!
These next two pictures show the bathtub spout. This thing has caused me so much trouble. The installation instructions say that the tip of the threaded end should be a minimum of 1" out from the finished wall. I thought I carefully measured this during installation, but I was obviously wrong. I ended up at about 3/4", so I had to get into the hall closet and open the access panel, (thank god we have one!) and heat the fitting up, pull out the old one, and solder a new longer piece in place. To be safe, I made it 1 1/2" long.
Apparently, that was TOO long. $^@$%@W$%^!!!!! So now I have to go back into the hall closet, heat the fitting up, pull off the old piece, cut 1/2" off, and solder it back in place. Finally, after my third attempt:
Here you can see the sink in place. (We're getting ready to paint, hence the plastic covering it. Everything was going fairly smoothly at this point. (Maybe too smoothly?)
Last picture of this stage - you can see the mudding here on that corner. Interestingly, my original hope (as stated in this post was for "not horrible", and I think I may have been successful. As Kristin mentioned - it's not professional - but I'm happy with it.
So now, with Mom #2 visiting in two days, I have to sand one more time, paint, install the toilet, lights, medicine cabinet, and fan, and whatever else I may have forgotten.
Is it possible? Only time will tell. (Hint: The answer starts with 'N' and ends with 'O'.)
Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty crazy, mostly because of the pressure I put on myself to finish before my mother-in-law came to visit. Because Seth finished the tile at the end of the day, I wanted to be sure to give it plenty of time to set. We ended up waiting until the end of the day on Tuesday (24+ hours after tiling) to do the grout on the shower area. I did that part first, since it was the part that needed the most drying time before being sealed. (Ironically, we ended up not sealing for now - we decided to seal all the grout after we get back from our mini-vacation.)
The first two pictures show the grout job. I'm pretty happy with it. The walls look much better than the floor, because Seth didn't have any excess adhesive pop up between the tiles like I did. The problem with that is that the adhesive (thin-set) is grey, and it's too high up in that joint, it sticks out above the white grout. I had to fix a few spots by digging out the excess, but there are still a couple that show. I went over the entire floor pretty carefully with a Phillips head screwdriver, but I'd recommend being extra diligent and careful with that step for those who might want to try this.
Also, after doing some research online, we ended up going with sanded grout on the floor. The general rule is unsanded for gaps less than 1/8", and sanded for gaps greater than 1/8". The floor tiles were right at 1/8", but the thinking is that they get more use, and the sand in the grout makes those joints more durable. We'll see. It was a pain to do - much harder than the unsanded on the walls - so hopefully it was worth it!
These next two pictures show the bathtub spout. This thing has caused me so much trouble. The installation instructions say that the tip of the threaded end should be a minimum of 1" out from the finished wall. I thought I carefully measured this during installation, but I was obviously wrong. I ended up at about 3/4", so I had to get into the hall closet and open the access panel, (thank god we have one!) and heat the fitting up, pull out the old one, and solder a new longer piece in place. To be safe, I made it 1 1/2" long.
Apparently, that was TOO long. $^@$%@W$%^!!!!! So now I have to go back into the hall closet, heat the fitting up, pull off the old piece, cut 1/2" off, and solder it back in place. Finally, after my third attempt:
Here you can see the sink in place. (We're getting ready to paint, hence the plastic covering it. Everything was going fairly smoothly at this point. (Maybe too smoothly?)
Last picture of this stage - you can see the mudding here on that corner. Interestingly, my original hope (as stated in this post was for "not horrible", and I think I may have been successful. As Kristin mentioned - it's not professional - but I'm happy with it.
So now, with Mom #2 visiting in two days, I have to sand one more time, paint, install the toilet, lights, medicine cabinet, and fan, and whatever else I may have forgotten.
Is it possible? Only time will tell. (Hint: The answer starts with 'N' and ends with 'O'.)
posted by dan at 7:27 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home