Porcelain Tile Casestudy - flooring, ditra, dry setting tiles, thinset application, tile setting. grout prep and installation.

Case Study 1 - Chimney Repair Case Study 2 - Concrete Countertop Case Study 3 - Parging Examples, Tools & Techniques Case Study 4 - Fireplace Brick Replacement Case Study 5 - Tile Installation Case Study 6 - Chimney Flue Replacement Case Study 7 - Broken Concrete Step Case Study 8 - Brick Sill Creates Wall Damage Case Study 9 - Brick Retaining Wall Rebuild	Case Study 10 - Basement Window, Cut-out, installation Case Study 11 - Concrete Walkway, Landing Case Study 12 - Stone Wall Rebuild Case Study 13 - Stone Step Rebuild Case Study 14 - Fireplace Surround - Cultured Stone Case Study 15 - Stone Stair Rebuild - in Winter Case Study 16 - Fireplace Surround - Natural Stone Case Study 17 - Stone Retaining Wall Rebuild Case Study 18 - Dry-Stack Stone Retaining Wall Rebuild
Case Study 5 - Tile Installation The Assignment: Prepare subfloor, apply tile. Planning: The floor is solid but not completely level, with a 3/8" variance. The walls are not perfectly square.
	Planning and Preparation About 2500 screws were put in to secure the new 3/4" tongue and groove plywood subfloor. My job starts now. Scraping any dirt and vacuuming the surface completely and carefully is an important step before the thinset is applied, as it doesn't stick to dust, etc..
Taking levels A wide-angle self-leveling laser is used to measure the height variance at many points across the room.
	Dry-Fitting Ditra Ditra adds expense, in materials and labour, but extends durability significantly. Here the ditra is cut and dryset, with a slight excess to be trimmed later. The Schluter-DITRA is a polyethylene membrane with a grid structure of square cavities, each cut back in a dovetail configuration, and an anchoring fleece laminated to its underside.
Applying Thinset. Mixing well, removing lumps, letting the thinset slake, are equally important preparations. Thinset is a portland cement with additives, with one type meant for porous surfaces. The anchoring fleece on the underside of Schluter-DITRA is fully engaged in the thinset mortar to provide a mechanical bond to the substrate.
	Ditra Applied on Thinset, Floor Leveled Workable sections are done in sequence; one sheet of pre-cut ditra is applied at a time. Lines on the floor guide the work.
Dry-Setting Tiles. Final planning of tiles and cuts, using 2", 6" and 12" Tiles. The 2" tiles are bonded with mesh to be applied in triangular sections.
	Thinset on a level Dytra The inner mosaic of 2" and 6" tiles are set.
Back Buttering the Tile. Thinset is placed and raked into position, with thinset applied to the tiles too.
	Section by Section The inner mosaic pattern is set on thinset first, with spacers in the grout lines.
Cutting Tile. A Wet-Saw was used to make many of the cuts.
	Tile Splitter Bigger and better tilesplitters work best. This is a good one.
Cleaning Grout Lines. A sturdy knife, with safety glasses, is used to clean the grout lines completely.
	Clean grout lines The scraper can easily fit into all grout joints. The grout lines are vacuumed before the grout is applied.
The Grout Tools. Here we are using a float meant for expoxy as its firmness finesses non-sanded grout. A normal grout float with a more porous surface first applied the grout. A set of sponges are used to clean off the grout, and are constantly cleaned.
	Non-Sanded Grout In wider joints a Sanded Grout is used. The non-sanded grout takes more time to apply, as sand helps the shaping of the grout.
Applying Grout. The grout is applied, with the excess quickly cleaned off, and then the finished look is finessed. Pressing the grout into the joints is important to ensure air pockets do not form, and floating is done on an angle to avoid digging up the grout.
	Finished Hours of work take the floor to a level, tiled, and clean floor. The homeowner avoids walking on the surface for two days as a final precaution. A sealer can be applied and is more useful with natural stone. In this case with porcelain tiles it was not wanted, but it is easily a roll-on diy project.

This page last modified: July 19 2009