New Installations
I Can’t Believe It’s Not Marble
The homeowners wanted an antique looking tile for their 1940’s home. I encouraged them to pick out this porcelain mock Carrera marble tile. The tile had a honed finish rather than a typical shiny finish on the top of the tile. The benefits to selecting this porcelain tile over real marble are: Real marble needs…
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 MoreHow to Remove Grout Film on Non-glazed Porcelain Tile
Sometimes, when using heavily pigmented grout over a non-glazed surface you get a grout film, despite your best efforts to prevent it. Here I used clean wash water, and I didn’t let the grout sit too long on the tile surface and I still got heavy grout film. I waited four days for the grout…
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 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…
Read MoreInstalling an outdoor kitchen countertop
It’s important that exterior 3/4″ CDX plywood is installed as a base for a mortar bed and tile. Because this is an outdoor installation it is important to coat the plywood with a waterproofing membrane. Here we used Ardex 8+9. Next we installed mortar bed reinforcing wire directly to the membrane. Sink rail is nailed…
Read MoreSetting up a dust-reducing barrier
This job required us to grind off the shiny finish of a granite backsplash so that we could install ceramic tile over it. This creates dust. In order to minimize the amount of dust circulating around the house we used telescoping poles to seal off the area with plastic sheeting. The poles needed to be…
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