HIT THE FLOOR
We have four days until our friends start arriving for Mardi Gras. Yeah, this seems like a good time to redo a floor!
So it was a little ambitious I’ll admit. And we didn't grout until after everyone left, but we did get it all in. The bathroom had carpet almost throughout. It continued out the doors and into the hall leading to the back door and (in the other direction) to the bedroom. We pulled it all out.
We found old subfloors. I was hoping I could paint them and live with that for awhile, but instead we found a few soft spots and —once we were cleared by a Terminix inspection and assured that we were termite free—we decided that tile would be the best solution.
A trip to Lowe’s later we had a truck full of Hardie board, rock tile, thinset, trowels and screws. We pulled up the old tile by the back door, removed all the carpet tack and nails, cleaned the floor and were ready to get to work. The Hardie board provided new strength to the subfloor ( as well as the proper under layer for the tile ) .
Next it was time for tile. We picked the rock for a few reasons. First, our house is very crooked and any pattern would highlight that. Second, the rocks give an outdoor feeling to go along with the banana leaf wallpaper in the bathroom and the jealousy windows and succulents in the hall. And third, I would not need a tile saw to install these tiles. The rocks would be a lot more forgiving when it came to meeting up with the walls and corners. I could just fill in rocks where I need them. The rocks are also forgiving when it came to adjusting some of the roll of the floor.
After Mardi Gras we grouted and caulked. We still need to cut, paint and install all the quarter round trim along the baseboard, but I am happy with how this came out. And we did it ourselves!
