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Shower Waterproofing Crash Course: Navigating through 4 different methods
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How to Install GoBoard Tile Backer Board | Video
How to Install GoBoard Tile Backer Board It’s time to work on DIY’ing your tile shower and you’re not looking forward to working with the dreaded cement board again. It’s dusty, crumbly, and hard to start screws into. Not to mention how heavy it is. Sure, there are waterproof foam backer boards on the market […]
Tips & Tricks
Ceramic Subway Tile: 3 Pro Installation Secrets
Ceramic Subway Tile: 3 Pro Installation Secrets I have 3 tips to share for ceramic subway tile. The first is a lesser known layout technique for subway tiles. The second is an installation detail and the third is a cutting method done tutorial style. Let’s get right into it. Also, don’t forget to check out […]
Silicone Caulk: How to Caulk a Bathtub or a Shower
Silicone Caulk: How to Caulk a Shower or Bathtub The problem: If you’ve ever tried caulking with 100% silicone caulk you are well aware of how frustrating it can be. First of all it can create a huge mess, be almost impossible to clean up, and can make your shower look uglier than before you started. […]
How to Cut Glass Tile- 7 Tips Revealed- video
How to Cut Glass Tile Cutting glass tile can be a challenge. Yes, more of a challenge than cutting regular old ceramic tile. Additionally, the average DIY’er may not have the right equipment and may not know the tricks for how to cut glass tile. But, alas, I’ve assembled some pointers on how to deal […]
Waterproofing
Sealing the tub flange for tile
That pesky tub flange. You have the tile backerboard installed and everything is waterproofed. Everything except that gap between the backerboard and the tub flange. How do you waterproof that? What to do with the tub flange? To begin with you can try reading the instructions for the backerboard… which then will reveal… nothing. What about […]
No Waterproofing: Will this cause shower leaks?
Shower leaks. The last thing anyone wants when they build a new shower. And yet I hear the following questions quite often: Is cement board waterproof? The tile and grout will keep the most of the water out, right? My contractor didn’t put any waterproofing in our shower. Will this cause shower leaks? We […]
Building a Custom Shower Niche from Scratch
The Ultimate Guide to Building a Preformed Custom Recessed Shower Niche Part 4: Building a Custom Shower Niche from Scratch This post covers: Cement board, foam board, and Hardibacker Cutting into wall framing Waterproofing LOTS of photos! Sometimes there’s no good way around it. Building your own custom recessed shower niche from scratch can be […]
Tutorial
Installing Electric Floor Heat: How to Not Void Your Warranty
Installing Electric Floor Heat: The First Step “How do you know it works?” I’ve been asked this by more than one homeowner when installing their electric floor heat system. It’s a good question. Frankly, it’s too big of a risk to install the whole electric floor heat system with tile on top and then hope that […]
Don’t let your tile accent strip look like this
How to install tile of different thicknesses flush, flat, and even with each other Getting your mosaic and glass tile accent strips to be flush and flat with the surrounding tile can be difficult unless you know a trick for it. Here’s a technique for building up the thinner decorative tile so that it’s […]
How to Modify your Recessed Foam Shower Niche
The Ultimate Guide to Building a Preformed Recessed Shower Niche Part 3: How to Modify your Recessed Foam Shower Niche In this post we cover: Situations where you would consider modifications A technique to check if your foam niche is still waterproof Method and tools to customize a foam shower niche Staying out of trouble […]
Tile Installation Products
Wood plank tile floors: What you need to know
Wood-like planks and other large format tile Be sure to take a look at my newer post: More tips for installing wood look tile flooring that talks about patterns, grout joint size, and has additional installation tips. There are some frustrating things about porcelain wood planks that your tile contractor may not have told you… […]
7 Hot New Tile Products and Tools for 2016
New Tile Products Heated Tile Floor Membranes Joining the likes of Ditra Heat and Prodeso Heat is the newcomer Prova Flex-Heat. The newer trend in heated tile floors is to run the heated wire in the tile underlayment rather than on top or below. The advantage is the installation is a little easier and it […]
Avoid These 3 DIY Tile Installation Products
Avoid These 3 DIY Tile Installation Products There’s only so many places to shop for DIY tile installation products. Big box hardware stores are among the best options. But no matter where you go there’s going to be good products and not-so-good products. The trap of the box stores is that they want to make […]