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5 Ways to Screw Up your Cement Board Installation on Floors
Cement board installation is not something that is incredibly difficult. I think most people worry about how to cut it and once they have a […]
Popular Posts
Trowel Size Matters: Which trowel size do I use…
You want to know which notched trowel to use for your tile project. The boxes of tile that you buy usually don’t tell you which trowel to use with them. Consequently, I get asked about trowel sizes quite a bit. Finding the instructions on the trowels or the bags of thinset is a hopeless endeavor. […]
Self-Leveling Underlayment: The Ultimate Guide…
Self-leveling underlayment. It sounds soooooo easy, doesn’t it? You simply pour the leveling cement over the floor and the product then just levels itself all on its own. Sort of like…magic, right? Self-leveling underlayment is not what it seems Self-leveling underlayment is, quite likely, the worst named product in the world of tile. Why? What […]
5 Ways to Screw Up your Cement Board Installation…
Cement board installation is not something that is incredibly difficult. I think most people worry about how to cut it and once they have a plan for that then they think it’ll be a breeze. But I’ve seen these screw-ups for several years now. It’s the same ones over and over. Which products are we […]
Shower Waterproofing Crash Course…
4 Shower Waterproofing systems for tile showers Waterproofing a shower. This seems like common sense, doesn’t it? Well, a lot of showers that are built these days still have no shower waterproofing whatsoever. Or they have poor or improper waterproofing. This post contains affiliate links. The site owner may earn a commission should you click […]
Tired of Bullnose Tile Trim? Here are 5 Tile Edge…
Here are 5 alternatives to common bullnose tile edge trim. One of the mistakes that I see a lot of homeowners and DIYers make with tile installations is that they sometimes don’t use any tile trim on the exposed tile edges. Many times they think the edge of the tile looks OK or they simply […]
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Recent Posts
How bad of an idea is a marble shower?
The appeal of a marble shower is quite understandable. Marble is beautiful and timeless. So, why would anyone frown on putting natural stone in your home? As a contractor, I get asked about putting marble and other natural stones in bathrooms quite often. In fact, it’s quite common for a homeowner or designer to have […]
Trowel Size Matters: Which trowel size do I use for …?
You want to know which notched trowel to use for your tile project. The boxes of tile that you buy usually don’t tell you which trowel to use with them. Consequently, I get asked about trowel sizes quite a bit. Finding the instructions on the trowels or the bags of thinset is a hopeless endeavor. […]
Self-Leveling Underlayment: The Ultimate Guide
Self-leveling underlayment. It sounds soooooo easy, doesn’t it? You simply pour the leveling cement over the floor and the product then just levels itself all on its own. Sort of like…magic, right? Self-leveling underlayment is not what it seems Self-leveling underlayment is, quite likely, the worst named product in the world of tile. Why? What […]
Tips & Tricks
Miserable Pebble Tile Flooring
How can installing pebble tile flooring be a miserable endeavor? After all, when you use words like organic, zen, natural, and feng shui to describe the bathroom that you want aren’t pebble tiles always in the scheme somewhere? Well, I have a huge pet peeve when it comes to pebble tiles. A crash course on […]
Why a centered tile layout is a bad idea
Typical tile layout advice is: Measure off of each wall Find the center of the room Draw intersecting lines Start tiling from the center intersection You’ll find this type of information on many DIY sites that also have tips for cleaning out your gutters, staining your outside deck, and painting your ceiling. But let’s put […]
How to Cut Glass Tile- 7 Tips Revealed- video
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 with the quirks and challenges […]
Waterproofing
Is Hardibacker and Durock cement board waterproof?
Reader question: Hi there. I recently finished grouting my tile surround in my shower. I posted photos on Facebook and somebody questioned whether I had waterproofed the Hardiebacker 500 board. Much to my dismay, I had never even heard of this… Anyway, I went to the James Hardie website and see nothing about waterproofing being […]
How bad of an idea is a marble shower?
The appeal of a marble shower is quite understandable. Marble is beautiful and timeless. So, why would anyone frown on putting natural stone in your home? As a contractor, I get asked about putting marble and other natural stones in bathrooms quite often. In fact, it’s quite common for a homeowner or designer to have […]
Kerdi no longer acceptable for tile steam showers
In 2013, the Tile Council of North America (TCNA), the organization that sets the guidelines for tile installations, is rumored to have made a modification to their specifications for constructing tile steam showers. It’s all about perm ratings- and Schluter Kerdi fabric no longer cuts it. (edit: this is now in place and no longer […]
Tutorial
How to Build a Recessed Shampoo Shelf
In this post we discuss: How to cut an inset niche into the wall What tools to use to build the recessed shampoo shelf Blocking (framing) for a recessed niche How to make sure your niche is waterproof Tile inside and around your shower insert The Ultimate Guide to Building a Preformed Recessed Shower Niche […]
Sealing the tub flange for tile: 3 methods
That pesky tub flange. You have the tile backer board installed and everything is waterproofed. Everything except that gap between the backer board and the tub flange. How do you waterproof that? How to waterproof the tub flange? To begin with, you can try reading the instructions for the backer board… which then will reveal… […]
Don’t let your tile accent strip look like this
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 even with the thicker tile without creating a huge mess of thinset oozing out of […]
