Archive for March, 2011
Learn How To Install Ceramic Floor Tile By Doing It Yourself
Learn how to install ceramic floor tile by doing it yourself. It’s easy! Follow these basic and straightforward steps and you’ll be able to create your desired floor design come to life.
Get the right tools for the job.
For starters if you want to know how to install ceramic floor tile by yourself you should have the right tools and materials for the job. You can easily buy or rent most of the tools and materials you’ll need at you neighborhood hardware store or home center. For equipment that would be too expensive like a tile cutter or hand held micro cutter you may be able to rent these tools from your local home center or a tool rental yard. Here are most of the basic tools you will need for your tiling job:
a Always wear safety clothing and gear. Use a pair of safety glasses heavy leather gloves and longsleeved work clothes especially if it involves taking out the existing ceramic tiles. Broken shards and other debris can cause nasty cuts if you are not careful. b A tape measure tile spacers carpenter’s square and a bubble level. c A mallet and hammer a putty knife and a trowel preferably the notched kind and a rubber grout float and a putty knife. d A tile cutter which may be rented and a pair of tile nippers. e Mortar material like a thin set mortar or any one of a wide selection of tile adhesives. f Tiling grout and sealant. Tiling grout comes in many color tints that you can choose from to fit your desired look and floor design.
Prepare your subfloor before installing your tiles.
Most tiling jobs start at this stage. It would be a great experience for you to learn how to install ceramic floor tile by learning about the type of floors you will be putting your tiles on. Always check for cracks and debris when If you’re working on a concrete subfloor. Make it is smooth and clean. Repair as many of the cracks as you can. If you see cracks that are too large to repair replace the floor section where they are found with new concrete. For plywood subfloors be sure that the wood is at least 1 and 1/8 inches thick and is supported by an equally strong underlayment. Otherwise your ceramic tiles will dislodge easily or worse break and need replacing.
An existing ceramic tile floor may add another stage to your tiling job and present something of a challenge for you. You’ll need to tear out the existing tiles. For starters all you need to do is use a large flatbladed chisel and a mallet and just hammer away. Then you’ll need to clean out the debris. If you to smoothen your subfloor you may want to rent a sander to do the job. Be sure to keep yourself protected. Use heavyduty leather work gloves safety glasses and longsleeved work clothes.
Lay out your floor.
Measuring the length and width of your floor will help you determine how to install ceramic floor tile and help you know estimate the number of ceramic floor tiles you will need to purchase. Start by finding the center point of your floor area. You can do this by measuring across the room and marking the center. Do this in opposite direction and mark the center as well. The intersection of the two lines is the center of the floor you will be tiling over. Run chalk lines over the intersection lines. These chalk lines will help you with how to install ceramic floor tile and with your tile positioning.
Let the tiling begin!
Place the first tile at the intersection of the two lines you made. Then bond it to your subfloor by using a thin set mortar or a tile adhesive of your choice. Using a notched trowel for applying the mortar is best on how to install ceramic floor tile. But you may actually use the more common trowel variety is you don’t have one. To secure the ceramic tile in its place press down while twisting it back and forth till the tile no longer is set. If some of the mortar or adhesive oozes out use your trowel or a damp sponge to scrape off the excess. Do this process over with the next tile and so on and so forth until you’ve finished your ceramic floor tiling.
Time to grout and seal.
After your ceramic floor tiles have set it’s time to put the tiling grout in. Tiling grout is a material that you should know more about when you want to know how to install ceramic floor tile flooring. Tiling grout is a material made cement sand and water and a little color. It is used to fill in gaps and seal in the spaces between tiles. Tiling grout comes in a wide variety of color tints that may be matched to your tile color. Use a rubber grout float and work the tiling grout into the gaps between the tiles. Use your grout float at an angle so that you can fill in the joint gap with as much tiling grout as possible.
After laying in the tiling grout in between the gaps of your floor ceramic tiles use a damp sponge to wipe off the excess grout. Rinse the sponge frequently to get as much of the excess grout off and keep each tile clean. You have the option of applying a sealant to the grout lines after they dry.
And there you have it! Learning about how to install ceramic floor tile is easy! By following these basic steps you too can realize your ceramic floor design. Learning how to install ceramic floor tile properly will give you a sense of satisfaction at a job well done and a beautiful ceramic tiled floor.
About the writer: Learn how to install ceramic floor tile and how to install ceramic wall tile in easy steps. Find out now.
Learn About Home Water Treatment Systems
Some home water treatment systems are not worth the investment regardless of the price. There are wonderful water treatment products for today’s homeowner. You just have to know what to look for.
The really inexpensive home water treatment systems provide little protection from common impurities. On the flipside the most expensive purifiers are not necessarily the most effective. In some cases they include steps that are unnecessary.
Before I get to what you need to look for in water treatment products let me take a moment to mention something that you probably do not need; reverse osmosis or RO.
Reverse osmosis water treatment products for homeuse were originally designed for those people who live in rural areas that have highly polluted sources such as a river or lake. Of course reverse osmosis was only one step that they needed to take. They also needed effective disinfection prefiltration and sometimes depending on their source chemical removal.
Home water treatment systems that could do all of those things cost in excess of 10000. But today we see companies like GE and EverPure that include a reverse osmosis step for less than a thousand dollars. What’s the difference?
Those less expensive designs are for people with pretreated waters. In other words their market includes those of us who are serviced by a public provider; a utility or a public treatment facility not a rural homeowner with multiple purification needs.
The truth of the matter is that people who have publicly treated waters do not need RO. Now here’s what you do need.
The EPA warns that parasitic cysts may be present in any supply and even in some bottle water brands. A cyst infection can kill certain atrisk individuals but any of us can become ill by ingesting them.
You should filter anything that you drink brush your teeth with or wash fresh fruits and vegetables with. You need to look for water treatment products that are certified to filter down to “one micron”. The best purifiers filter down to .5 micron just to be safe.
The Environmental Working Group recommends that anyone with chlorinated water should have home water treatment systems that include granular carbon or a carbon block. Research suggests that chlorine byproducts are even more hazardous.
Most water treatment products PUR and Brita for example do not remove the chlorine byproducts. They must contain specific filtering material to remove them. Look for certified performance data and the listing “THMS removal” to be sure.
Then there’s lead. The metal was used for many years to line pipes and solder joints together. Chlorine eats away at the lead allowing it to enter the supply and the household.
The best step for lead removal is called ion exchange. It’s a complicated process but simply put it “exchanges” ions of lead and other metals for ions of sodium and potassium. This step improves the pH level and the taste as well.
Home water treatment systems that combine ion exchange with dual stage granular carbon and carbon blocks with a submicron porous structure will remove the widest range of contaminants practically anything you can think of at a reasonable price. That’s what you should look for.
About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Laurel Tevolitz is a dedicated researcher of critical issues that affect health and wellbeing. Visit her water purification blog now at http://www.safewaterpurifier.com
to discover which water purification system she recommends after extensive research.
Kitchen Cabinets As Bathroom Vanity: Use Kitchen Cabinetry Instead Of Bathroom Vanities
The difference between kitchen cabinets and bathroom cabinets are subtle. Bathroom cabinets are a bit shorter 31 rather than 34 1/2 shallow 21 vs. 24 and don’t have quite so many options as kitchen cabinets from the same manufacturer.
But being labeled BATH cabinets it’s the section of a catalog many designers flip to when sitting down with a customer to come up with a plan. Yes there are specific bath cabinets that don’t have a kitchen counterpart but often times you can get away with swapping things out and you may end up with a more functional bathroom in the end.
Thinking about this hypothetically…
Suppose you have a 72 bathroom wall that you need to occupy with cabinets. Also suppose that you already have a closet for clean towels and so forth so you’re only concerned with space where people can wash up and prepare for the day. Hypothetically you want a place for dirty laundry in the center and a sink on each side.
Scenario 1: Bath Cabinets
In the center is a hamper pull out cabinet 34 1/2H x 18W x 21D. That is the only width these hamper pullouts come in so if you want something wider you’re in the Out of Luck department with this manufacturer anyway.
On the right and left are sink bases 34 1/2H x 27W x 21D. They have no drawers just fake fronts and no shelves. Being narrow that’s just how they come.
Scenario 2: Kitchen Cabinets
In the center in place of the bathroom hamper pullout is a simple kitchen base cabinet with a roll out tray. It measures 34 1/2H x 24W x 24D and essentiallyy performing the same function as the hamper pull out.
To the right and left are your sink bases 34 1/2H x 24W x 24D. They’re a little narrower than the bathroom vanity sink bases but deeper and less expensive.
Using list prices in your hypothetical bathroom the total for using bathroom cabinets is 1517 and for using kitchen cabinets it’s 1506. What you actually pay in a cabinet shop will vary but the difference between the two should be proportionate.
And while the savings are small you’ve gained an additional 3.75 cubic feet of storage space The counters will be up a little higher which you should be used to if you spend any amount of time in your kitchen and there will be another 3 of depth to them for putting things like toothbrush holders soap dishes and so forth.
For more information about bathroom vanities and using kitchen cabinets in bathrooms or even to request pictures of different vanity designs visit http://www.thecabinetfolks.com or email infothecabinetfolks.com.
About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Craig is a web designer linux sysadmin and part of the design team at
www.thecabinetfolks.com