Grouting Tile

When a floor is tiled the tile installer always leaves measured gaps between the tile for grout. Grout is a masonry product which seals these gaps and keeps the whole floor surface water proof. In addition it keeps the tiles in place. The are many floors which butt the tiles together without a grouting compound but even these tiles have to be sealed in some way. Usually, ceramic tile is grouted.

Like most masonry products grout is made up mostly of portland cement and sand with dyes. These dyes make it possible to match colors with tile patterns for a uniform look. If the gap between tiles is less that 1/8″ then an unsanded grout may be used as strength is not required and the grout will have a rough line to it. And never use a sanded grout with marble or travertine as the sand may scratch it. But most grouts have sand content. Acrylic latex or epoxy additives are also used in grout, especially for bathroom walls.

Mixing tile is almost like mixing cake or pancake mix. There can be no lumps and it shouldn’t be too runny. The consistence should allow you to pick it up with a putty knife and it should be able to stick without running off. never mix it all at once because you may need more to thicken up the mixture. And once the grout has been mixed do not add water to it again as it may break the bonds and cause crumbling later on.

Grout is applied with a grout float which is a trowel with a foam pad. Start at one corner and work back doing one section at a time. The grout is plopped onto the tile and worked in with diagonal strokes with the float. Fill the gaps to the tile surface. Use a large sponge to clean the excess grout off the tile as you go. Let set for 15 minutes.

Now, with a bucket of water and clean sponge rinse the excess water off the sponge and, starting at the corner, pull the sponge toward you being careful not to pull any grout out of the gaps. This should be in one stroke. Start the next pass overlapping the first as would mowing a lawn.

Let sit for 24 hours and mope with warm water and a small amount of vinegar. This will take up the dirt and dust.

Designing With Tile

Tile is an extraordinary flooring in that you can “build” it anyway you please. Unlike other flooring you piece together tile in either horizontal or diagonal rows using similar or a collection of 2 or 3 different-sized or patterned tiles. You can do the same with wood but it takes an expert flooring person to create wood patterns whereas a do-it-yourself can put together a tile design.

Imagine a checkerboard. There are two colors of tiles in horizontal rows. Now think of that board with an extra color, say light-blue, substituted for every second black square. It’s not a checkerboard anymore. That’s how you design tile floors.

Tile designing depends upon your lifestyle and what you foresee your tastes will be. This is because tile is permanent and anything you think you might not like in the future (bold colors or garish emblems) should be weeded out now before the mastic goes down.

Another great feature is the pre-made tile mat. This is a net with mosaic tile pieces glued on to form a deign like a coat of arms or other emblem. The mat is glued to the subfloor in a selected spot (usually in a central location where it will be seen) and then the grout is applied. When finished it looks as though you have placed every piece of mosaic tile in yourself.

There are many options for tile. To see what they are contact a flooring installer to show you the possibilities.

Tile Spacing

In any tiling job the main consideration is that you want full tiles within eye-view of the room and cut tiles where they won’t show. Therefore, all of the horizontal grout lines should lay from wall-to-wall in a room. You can layout tile to get a better idea of how the design fits together.

Before installing the tile do a test run. Lay out the tile in the room and see how it fits against the walls, the corners and, in a bathroom setup, with respect to cabinets, tubs and toilets. Remember to have full tiles in visible areas.

Make two marks with a pencil on each side of the center tile. These lines should be perpendicular (90 degrees) to each other. Remove the tiles and snap a line perpendicular to each wall that matches the marks on the floor. Then, snap a perpendicular line to this first line. Now take some of the tiles and place them along the perpendicular lines and check them. It is at this stage when you can figure out how many cut tiles you will need and what the dimensions are.

If you are doing a diamond shape then the preparation is trickier. In a square room you can spa diagonal likes to each corner and find the center this way. The tile would go right on the center. However, in most cases the line of site coming through the door is not the center so the center line would run from the middle of the door way across the room. Now dind the center of the nearest paralle wall ans this is true center. This would be where your first tile would go. Snap diagonal lines using this as a template and begin your run from there.

When doing diagonal tile it is important to use spacers. Many tilers complete the job by dividing the room into quadrants.

Repair Vinyl Flooring

The key to any vinyl flooring repair is to have an extra piece of the original material. If not, you are still in luck as you can take a piece from another area of the flooring like a closet or area not in plain sight.

Before you take a piece from there first concentrate on the damaged area. Mark this out. It is best to follow the pattern, and if it is a square pattern then this makes your job easier.

Measure the size of piece you will need and cut a piece, either from the additional piece or from the closet (or other area), and then tape it over the damaged area. Make sure you match the pattern perfectly. Tape the outside edges so the piece won’t move.

Change the blade on your utility knife so you have the sharpest edge. Using a steel straight edge cut through both layers on vinyl to the subfloor and remove both pieces. With a putty knife loosen and get rid of all old glue and debris then vacuum the area.

When you place your new piece of vinyl down it should fit the hole perfectly but, just in case, try it out. if the are is big enough use a notched trowel to apply the flooring glue. If it is just a small area then apply the glue with a putty knife. Press the piece down and push toward the outer edges to get rid of the air. Wipe up the excess glue immediately with a towel.

Pick a Plank

A hundred years ago it was not uncommon to see oiled-plank floors in the kitchen of a home. Pine planking was a common flooring and later oil-cloth, a forerunner of linoleum, was laid over top of the wood.

Old wide-plank, wood floors have what used to be termed as undesirable attributes: knots, flags, worm holes, color variations, and heavy wear. But now this wood is prized for these very things because people see it as a piece of history. These products are cleaned and refinished to a point where the blemishes still show through but the product can be maintained. In many cases the original finish is left for a true rustic look. To ’speed up time” the boards can be scraped for a distressed look, and this can be done to the newer floor planking to achieve the old.

An amazing find is wood in log form from the past that has been soaked in water for many years. These are salvaged and reclaimed from river & creeks. Ten they are cut and made into flooring. The old pine logs are pulled from water that once used to transport them to sawmills. Some of them got waterlogged and sank a hundred years ago.

Reclaiming old wood from floors, homes and barns is a great way to save new-growth wood .

Getting off Glued-On Carpet

Many installers glue carpet down to floors, especially concrete floors. It keeps the carpet from moving around but there are hiccups to this method. The big downfall is that the carpet that is most likely to be glued down is foam-backed and because traffic on carpet is never equal after a while the foam may begin to come loose from the carpet backing. This caused bulges and movement in the carpet which leads to bunching. This is because the foam is now sticking to the subfloor.

Removal

• This works best with 2 people
• Use a particle mask and goggles

To remove glued down carpet, either foam-backed or not, clean out everything on the floor in the room. Then start at one corner and pry up the corner with a pry bar and pull on it (Be careful. The carpet may be heavily glued and you don’t want to pull a muscle in your back). If the carpet comes off easily then just keep pulling until it’s all off.

If it doesn’t want to come easily then you can cut it into 1′ – 2′ strips before attempting to take it up. You’ll need to have someone to hold up the ends and pull while you use an ice scraper or square-mouth shovel to scrape between the subfloor and the carpet backing. If the backing is foam it has probably lost its consistency and can “explode” in puffs of black powder. This is why it’s good to have the mask and goggles. Any backing that sticks to the floor will have to be scraped until it’s off otherwise there will be mounds which might affect the surface of the new flooring.

For extreme cases you may have to rent a scraping machine from a flooring place but in most domestic situations the carpet will come up with manual scraping.

The Squeaky Floor

There are annoying sounds that your house emits when things are quite right. The smoke alarm might go off when you are boiling water and one or more faucets may drip. But the one that can grow to be the most frustrating is a squeaking floor.

A squeak means that something in the floor is moving and two materials are rubbing together. These include:

• Edges of the subflooring moving against one another.
• Nails that have come loose.
• Shrinking wood that leaves gaps.
• Tongue and groove boards that have shrunk and do not fit tight.

Many floors cannot be accessed from underneath. But for those that can place a stepladder under the squeak and get someone to walk over it. You should be able to isolate the area. Sometimes just a small shim tapped in between the floorboards and the joist can stop this. If it does just put some carpenter’s glue around the shim to stop it from working its way out. If you can’t get below, or if the shim doesn’t do it, then isolate the squeak from the floor itself.

If it’s under the carpet you may have to pull up the carpet to work on it. However, in some cases a nail can do the trick. Using a stud finder find the solid joist beneath the carpet. Then take a 2 – 2 1/2″ small head nail and drive it down where the joist was located but leave a half inch. Now test the floor. If the squeak stops or decreases then take a punch and drive the nail down through the carpet. The nail should go right through the backing without harming the carpet. Test it again. If it stops put two more nails in.

For hardwood floor sometimes shaking some talcum powder in the cracks will work. It may take a few days for it to get into all the cracks but this may take the noise away as it takes the friction off the moving wood. Powdered graphite works too but it is messy. If it still squeaks then drill a hole through the floor where the joist is located. Try to get the holed between the planks so that it goes through the tongue and, also, will not be as noticeable. Once you have drilled through the hardwood use a longer bit to get into the joist about 3″. Now screw in a 3″ countersink wood screw and “bury” the head. Afterwards you can put wood filler in the hole and smooth it out. When it dries lightly sand it and, is needed, apply a stain to match the wood. Next take a tiny modeling brush and dab urethane on the wood filler and blend this in with the finished hardwood.

Tile flooring is trickier. You have to take out the tile and replace it. For best results grind out the grout and then take a mason’s chisel and lightly tap around the tile square. Keep doing this until the mastic breaks loose. This take patience and, depending on the strength of the mastic, it could come out in one piece. Hopefully you have extra tile available in case you break any of the pieces.

For a better sizing up of a squeak that won’t go away contact a handyman.

Staircases

The proper treatment of stairs takes up a lot of the flooring budget for a new home, especially if it’s hardwood. The stringers are prepared differently and the treads and risers, of course, have to be of the same material because everything shows.

The basis of any stairway is the stringer system. Stringers hold the steps and provide the incline. In a lot of cases they are 2″ X 12″ board. If the steps are made to be covered then the treads and risers can be made out of spruce or any solid wood. Some people use plywood and oriented strand board but solid wood is the best. In extreme cases, especially in commercial buildings, stone and marble steps and risers are used for their beauty and longevity.

For those who like the “open concept” stairs – where the stringers are metal and there are no risers – the advantages are better air flow and a more airy look because the stringers are thinner and the treads are only 2″ thick at most. The only drawback is that you can hear unwanted sounds from the level below but the appearance is graceful. The wooden treads on staircases, however, should be coated with a non-stick finish, or a carpet runner to prevent slipping.

Open concept staircases can be in a variety of models, the most classic of which is the spiral staircase. However, there are “L” shaped systems with a landing and the simple stright staircase as well.

Floor Leveling

Before a new floor can be put down one of the biggest concerns is the level of the floor. In other words you want to achieve “flatness,” getting rid of the humps and filling up the hollows. because if you have humps and/or hollows the flooring may come away and begin to squeak or, if you have tile, crack.

1. Clean: Scrape any drywall, glue blotches or other obstacles off the floor. Sand if you have to. In this way you will know exactly what you are dealing with.

2. Check Level: To check on a floor nail two wood blocks of equal height at each wall or side of the room. Put in a nail in both and run a string from one block to the other fastening it tight. Make sure the string is level then measure down from the string to the floor at three (3) points: Side 1, side 2 and the middle of the room. The difference in the three measurements will tell you how much you have to either add or take away material. The differences should not be over 3/16″ over a 10 foot span.

3. Grind High Spots: Using a floor sand with 12 grit rock paper will get the floor down quicker but will raise a lot of dust so you will have to seal the room with plastic vapor seal. Recheck the floor between sandings.

4. Sunken Floor: If the floor is sunken then check the beam below it. There may be a structural problem. Often a depression in the floor can be cured by shimming up the floor, that is, by inserting wood between the beam and the sub flooring to raise it.

5. Low Spots: Flooring installers use a floor leveler, a compound that can be troweled on. This doe not take the place of large depressions in the floor. A long 2 X 4 is drawn across the wet leveler used to achieve level. This compound dries quickly (20 minutes) so you have to work quickly. make sure you clean you tools right away because leveler is hard to get off them.

Cleaning Concrete Floors

Concrete garages are usually finished with a smooth surface and this is left”raw,” without paint. The problem with untreated concrete flooring is that it absorbs stains and alkali compounds which can cause pitting on the surface or cracks.

How you paint a concrete floor is determined by its intended use. Latex paint works well on walls but reacts with the rubber on the car tires, bicycle tires and other rubber when used on garage floors. This causes peeling whereas alkyd floor enamels are resistant to this corrosion and moisture. However, peeling can happen if the floor below absorbs moisture from the ground.

Cleaning a concrete floor is usually done with a mixture of TSP (tri-sodium phosphate) and water, TSP cuts grease and neutralizes acids and alkalis. To prevent oil from get at raw concrete you can have a shallow pan under the engine to catch dripping oil or spread kitty litter or sawdust over the spot where the stains appear. Changing this periodically will prevent the oil from spreading to other areas.

For rust stains the procedure is different. Use 1 part sodium citrate crystals with 6 parts water and use fuller’s earth to make it pasty. Spread over the rusty surface and let dry. The paste will absorb the rust stain.

Other coatings such as a small pebble and acrylic mix put a decorative patina on your garage floor and is impervious to oil and other stains. However, leaking radiator fluid is very corrosive so make sure you check your cooling system and then clean any surface daily.