Best Tile Installation in Portland Oregon
Cove tile is a stone or tile version of baseboard. It is set on the wall about 1 ½” to 3 ½” off the floor. I definitely suggest using cove tile on tiled floors; it makes a big difference in looks for not that much of a difference in price. You have to pay for some one to install baseboard any way, but for a little more your baseboard can be made of tile or stone pieces.
What some people don’t realize is that it is very important to screw down the floor before installing Hardi Backer or tile. Screwing down the floor will eliminate any squeaks or bending in floor that are sometimes directly responsible for cracking grout and tile after it has been installed.
If you are faced with tiling one by one inch hex tile the best way of going about it is to make sure your floor is perfectly leveled. Well, at least at perfectly level as you can make it. What I usually do is set my hardi backer down on the floor and then pour level quick on it to fill all the dips in the floor and even out the humps. Then I set the tile. If I don’t do this the little tile pieces will hug every bend and will make grout lines either very tight in the dips and too wide on the humps.
Video Provided By: RhinoTile
Clean rinse is the final step in grouting tile. All you’re doing here is just cleaning off the grout residue. Again get a clean sponge and a bucket of clean water, dip the sponge in the water, wring it out and wipe the tile and the grout lines clean. Use each side of the sponge only once, this will give you a cleaner look and believe it or not will actually speed up the cleaning process. Again, here also, do not apply too much pressure because you will start pulling out the grout and you grout lines will not look flush.
Video Provided By: RhinoTile
Grouting a tile floor is not that hard if the prep work has been done correctly and the tiles were set flat. To grout a floor just mix grout compound with water in a bucket and get a nice and thick consistency all the way through. The only comparison I can think of at this time would be oatmeal, so it should feel like oatmeal when you mix it. Than get a grout trowel and a margin trowel and start spreading the grout and filling in your grout lines. Use your margin trowel to plop some grout on the tile and use the grout trowel to spread the grout and push it into the lines. Try to overfill your grout lines so it looks like it has a hump and is sticking up higher that the tile, this helps create a grout line that is flush with tile, which is exactly what you want. You can also use your margin trowel to square your edges and corners so they do not look rounded. The more squared off and flush you get it the more professional it looks.
