Tile for my Sister in Broomall

My sister purchased a house with her husband a few years ago and it needed some major work in Broomall, Pennsylvania. Some of work needed was tile work and since I am a tilesetter she decided to let me do whatever I wanted. The first thing needed was a kitchen redo and a nice new tile floor. The tile to be installed was 18x18 porcelain tile, but the problem was that the floor was not flat at all or level. This was the perfect opportunity for a wetbed.

(A wetbed is where sand and portland cement are mixed to a damp consistency where the mud is screeded and leveled to create a flat and level floor other names for this type of job are: mudjob, screed, floating or gauging and pre-guaging are all common tilesetter terms).

The floor was so badly out of level it required around 2 tons of sand and cement to get the floor level and flat. Then the 18x18s were installed the following day and the floor was grouted with TEC sanded coffee colored grout.


She then decided to redo her basement the following summer and install a bar, a powder room and to spruce the laundry room up with some fresh tile. She picked out a nice gray colored porcelain tile and and a gray tumbled marble with some teal glass and matching chair rails for the powder room. Since I was working in the basement the tile was to be installed on a slab and 90% of the time concrete needed to be flattened before tiling so self-leveling cement (SLC) was used to fix the low spots in the slab.

Self leveler is a product mixed with water and mixed to a water like consistency. It is poured over the concrete which is first primed with a latex product and the SLC seeks its own level with some trowel assistance. Afterwords you have a nice flat area to set tile on.

I installed the marble on the self leveled areas and used a larger notched trowel to set the porclain on the concrete throughout the rest of the basement. Her and her husband are thrilled with the work and enjoy entertaining their friends in their newly finished basement.

New shower with old tile

I recently tore out a tub surround for a customer over the past couple days in Delaware County, Pa. The tile was 3x3 over green board installed with mastic and I knew it was in bad shape. The customer had not used the shower for 5 years due to substantial leaking when it was being used. I tore out and while gutting the shower noticed that the tiles had no tiling substrate behind them just air and mold. The worst part was the installer told the homeowner back in the mid 90's they used wonderboard, I had to explain that the job was done with pretty much drywall and glue.

I demo'd the shower and installed a vapor barrier (aquabar "b"),installed permabase, taped and flashed the corners, and most importantly set the tile with thinset.







The customer choose their own tile, it was a bisque 6x6 from American Olean. I got an idea to save some of the old 3x3 and install diamonds in the shower to enhance the installation, the homeowner thought this was a great idea. I tiled the entire shower with laticretes 253 thinset to set the tile. I grouted the shower with laticretes bright white unsanded grout and caulked all the changes of plain.

This job felt great, I ripped out a awful shower and installed a rocksolid one with a little touch of the old shower by inserting the gray accents.

The people were thrilled with the finished project and it made me feel good that they were happy, they also enjoyed watching the whole process take shape.