Hello Everyone, Gosh my weeks are getting so crazy I had to read where I left off with you all on this project so bare with me. Life is good when you are busy doing God’s work. You really see some amazing things happen. For instance I was working on a cement project with a friend this week. We decided to pray before we took on an enormous task of saw cutting cement. Low and behold God answered our prayers two-fold. Not only did we cut the cement. We were able to break a remove 50 percent of the cement in about an hour and now I just found out that someone is able to lend me a (small jack hammer) for the rest of the project! Thank you Father for these gifts. You obviously want this work done. So not sure if this is something I should really be writing about. Please let me know if it is of interest. We will be installing new footers and raising a porch….this is a house built in the late 1800′s to early 1900′s so it truly interesting to be working with history. Can you believe they use to use field stone as footers! Wow! How cool that was to discover.
OKAY enough about that project. LOL
Back to tiling! OK so, we have tile design laid out right?! I usually cut tiles if necessary as I go along. This is not a project to do preliminary work. You have start on the bottom near the base of the tub and I usually position my spacer ahead of time so it is easy to work the first row. Nest I mix the mortar we will be using to adhere the tiles with. Remember we talked about using the flex bond. Just mix it like pudding and you will have a nice consistency. 
Flex bond is a crack Preventative Mortar and you Mix it like pudding. I put it initially on the wall with a spatula. Then I use a Trowel to put the grooves in the Mortar that makes it easy to adjust the tile as needed.
a picture of the trowel and how you move the mortar with it is above. Basically like frosting a cake girls! I usually try tow work across the area at least the height or double the height of tile being installed. This gives you plenty of room to adjust your tile but remember it starts to set up kind of quickly. I would say your “play time is about 1/2 hour or so”. You will find that placing the tiles kind of goes quickly. It is the trawling that take the most amount of time. Take your time and place your first tile (starting in one corner) and making sure you use a “Boat level” to make sure it is level not only up and down but across the top of the tile. You will continue this process through out the project.
Do not forget to put your spacer in! They are key to a good grout line! Not to mention helping to keep your tiles square!
It is going to look a little messy as you go but do not worry. Even though it is mortar; with a little elbow grease it can be removed. So please do not worry about this part! Of course you want to keep it to a minimum but what I do is give it a good wash down after I set the tiles then clean up after everything dry’s is minimal.
Once you get around to the area where the plumbing is this is where it gets a little tricky. There are several methods you can use to cut tile in this area. In this case we had to cut a few tiles to get around the main control for the shower. It is kind of nice when you only have to cut into a corner of a tile and even thought it may be four tiles you are cutting the corner of it seems to be much more manageable.
We used and angle grinder to cut int these tiles. Here is a picture of an angle grinder. When I cut my marble for my basement I used the wet saw to cut several lines and eventually I was able to achieve the same result as using the angle grinder but I have to say that is definitely a nice handy tool.
Angle Grinders can be multipurpose tools!
Here is my partner in crime showing off his work. The tile fits perfectly around the plumbing. He did a fantastic job and took his time not rushing the job. If you rush you tend to fracture the tile.
God has given us some awesome tools to achieve our goals. Enjoy them!
I can not imagine building things without power tools only because I have always had them accessible to me. It would really be interesting to see how they erected the Coliseum without machinery or Rome for that matter.
Ok so your are moving along placing your tiles and then you come to a place where you have to actually trim a tile fit in place. If you turn the tile so that the back is facing you-make a mark on the top and the bottom of tile so you know where to trim. Then emulate them on the front of the tile. You will want to cut your tile face up so you do not scratch it against the surface of your tile cutter or tile saw.
This a manual tile cutter. It does an efficient job but I find I get a better cut with a tile saw. Electric! If you do not score your tile with the manual saw properly it may not fracture completely straight and can be a little frustrating but once you get the knack it goes smoothly but if you will be doing several tile projects you may want to invest in a small table tile saw.
The guide helps you to stay nice a straight not to mention square. It also comes with other adaptions to cut the tile on an angle if needed. You should not need this but it is good to have this option if you do something especially decorative.
OK I think we will stop this project at this point. Next to come is grouting.
Have a great weekend girls!
Girl Friday!
Mischele Makhlouf
