Kitchens
Rehabilitating Vintage Kitchen Tile and Grout
A landlord wanted me to refurbish the kitchen counter before renting out the property. This kitchen featured the original ceramic box trim tile in a contrasting color. Here you can see I thoroughly cleaned the grout and re-grouted low and missing grout joints. There had been a previous tile repair by others long ago on…
Read MoreBlack Mosaic Glass Backsplash
This homeowner chose a black mosaic glass backsplash to match his darker counters. There was no trim available for this glass backsplash. I pulled off longer strips of tile and ran them perpendicular, length-wise, at the open edges of the backsplash to serve as trim pieces.
Read MoreCeramic Subway Tile
This tile shows its luminescence quality in good lighting. The actual edges of the tile are a little bit darker than the interiors of the tiles. The homeowners chose to have the tile installed before the hood so they could have complete coverage behind the appliance.
Read MoreGrout Transformation
When a person walked into this house the first thing you saw was a high contrast grid pattern of grout versus tile. The owner of the home wanted the floor grout to look more subtle and better match the tile color. In my experience, the best and most durable grout colorants contain epoxy and are…
Read MoreRepairs to Granite Countertop
The granite apron cut tiles fell off and I was called out to replace them. There are many possible reasons why these tiles fell off. The mortar underneath the skirt cuts was soft and degraded easily by just pushing on it with a chisel. This was either defective mortar or mortar that had too much…
Read MoreTricky Kitchen Backsplash Installation
It’s quite common for me to get calls from people with 6” granite backsplashes in their kitchens who want them removed. They find a tile that they prefer as a backsplash. Typically when I remove the granite there can be damage underneath; I charge by the hour to fix these areas because I’m not sure…
Read MoreNetted Carrara Marble Kitchen Backsplash
This Turkish Carrara marble tile was purchased by the homeowner from a big box store. Keep in mind that when you purchase tile from a big box store, expect many imperfections and purchase extra, especially when the tiles are mounted on a net. The other reason to purchase more tile is because of the wide…
Read MoreKitchen Grout Cleaning
In the kitchen, the grimiest, greasiest grout is usually next to the stove. In this area we had to pre-soak the grout joints for quite a bit of time, then use a very hot industrial steamer to remove the grime.
Read MoreBasketweave Kitchen Backsplash
The homeowner selected a long subway-style tile. The first thing I did when I arrived on the job was to check the wall with a long straight-edge. With larger format tiles it’s very important to make sure the wall is flat. When you stagger a tile, you’re then taking the 10″ length and doubling it…
Read MoreTiling over a granite backsplash
The homeowner wanted to change the appearance of her kitchen. She decided to reface the kitchen cabinets and replace the granite backsplash. Instead of removing the existing backsplash we discussed the benefits of tiling over the granite instead. In order to clad over shiny granite tiles, we needed to remove the finish from the face of…
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