Tiling the laundry room...

So we began tiling the laundry room last week. Seemed to be fairly simple. We'd done it before and with a quick refresher from a book we thought we were ready.

We did the largest wall first - tiling halfway up on the wall that would have the tub, the washer and the dryer against it. Richard had to cut and saw tiles to fit around the openings in the wall for the appliances.

When we got to the wall behind the door, we realized we couldn't continue unless we put the molding around the door first. Off we went to the hardware store to buy molding. Came back and attached the molding, then finished tiling that wall.

Then it started to rain. As it rained we discovered that the back door had a leak of some type. Richard caulked it really well, but next day, we had more water on the floor from the rain. After a discussion with Pa, the men figured that despite the caulk there was an inherent flaw in the door sill that even caulking more wouldn't fix (a rubber seal at the bottom allowed rain to capillary in). However, a storm door WOULD fix the problem and we had one laying in the living room to install later.

So, tiling stopped to get the storm door installed. What should've taken 15 minutes to a half hour took nearly two full days and two people. Although well made, the storm door comes with a variety of options because door sizes in houses are different - there is no standard! Moldings had to be cut, shims had to be placed and Pa eventually had to manufacture an aluminum strip so the door would close properly.

In the meantime, Richard and I had already purchased the cement board flooring to do the floor tiles. At about the same time we realized we needed a storm door, Richard talked with the electrician and discussed the dryer vent and where it would go. Because of the way the house was built, the vent would have to go in the floor. Richard would have to drill a four inch hole and get the sleeves for all the ductwork. So we did that.

Finally, we commenced with finishing up the tiling of the walls. Because the other side of the room would have only the water softener and water heater on it, we decided that wall didn't need to be fully tiled. We just put a line two tiles high around the perimeter.



Richard starts tiling the wall.



This is the back door and the storm door. See all the pretty tiling behind it?



Echo the supervisor gives a quality check to our work. The doorway she is standing in goes directly into the foyer/great room and will have wooden swinging saloon doors someday.

We still have to tile the floor and then we'll grout the entire job. After that cures for 24 hours, the plumber will come in and hook up the water softener, water heater and laundry tub.