How to Tile a Floor and Remodel a Half-bath

In the picture below, take a look at the patch of wall paper that is right behind my head.  You can’t see the detail, but the pattern is tiny Christmas trees.  Previous owners had covered the whole bathroom and family room with this awful stuff.  Rather than rip it all down since they did such a nice job of gluing the wallpaper up, I decided to leave it and paint over.  Prior to paining I used 4 cans of aerosol spray texture to put texture on the walls right over the paper.  It worked real well and you can’t even tell there was wallpaper anymore.

Also in the picture below, you’ll see that I had ripped up the wood floor that was glued to the concrete and removed baseboards.  When you do this there will be old glue left behind that you need to remove prior to tiling a new floor.  So what you see here is I’m using a heavy duty solvent/stripper on the floor to dissolve away old glue and grime.  This stuff is very toxic, so note the gloves which are special solvent resistant, and goggles to protect the eyes.  What you don’t see is I also have two fans running to blow the fumes away.  I would strongly recommend using a respirator here, but I took a shortcut.

So with the solvent you scrub it on with a brush and leave it for a half hour or so and then reapply.  Then wash it off with water and rags.  I had to scrub quite a bit to get off all the old glue.  You can also see here I have painted myself into a corner.

After all the glue and grime is removed from the concrete subfloor, you have to prepare the concrete for tiles by fixing any cracks or uneven spots.  Use a carpenter’s level to find any uneven spots in the floor.  And if there are large cracks you will need to use some concrete patching compound to fix them.  Luckily I only had some hairline cracks, so no big deal.  But the concrete was uneven in a few areas so that needed to be leveled out. The self-leveling compound comes in a powder form and you add water and mix with a power mixer until the consistency is syrupy.  Then pour it on and it will flow to fill in the low spots.  You can see below I have poured the compound down.  You can use a trowel to smooth out the compound even more, but you have to work fairly quickly because this stuff dries fast.

Also note: you can see where the toilet was – remember to stuff some rage down the hole temporarily while you are working so the sewer fumes don’t come up.  And remember to remove the rgs when you put the toilet back.

Below are two pictures of the floor after the leveling compound is dry and I am preparing the tile pattern.  I chose a diamond pattern because it is a small space and the diamond pattern will make it appear a bit larger and be more pleasing to the eye.  You can see the blue line where I have measured the center line of the bathroom.  This line will be how the corners of the tiles are lined up.  I place the tiles where they will go and use 1/4 inch plastic spacers to keep uniform space between each tile.  Then with pencil I mark on the floor the tile pattern.  The tiles I used are a 13X13 Italian porcelain tile.  Porcelain is very durable and good for interior flooring.

So here is the floor after I have laid a little over half the tile.  I used a powdered thinset that you add water to glue the tiles to the floor.  To do this you use a notched trowel that makes grooves as you apply the thinset.  Only lay a couple tiles at a time to avoid having the thinset dry before you put the tiles down.  The grooves help get a better adhesion.  Note all the spacers to help keep the tiles lined up right.  You should also use a carpenter’s level here as you lay the tiles to make sure all your tiles are level with one another.  Any corners that are slightly higher can be fixed by lightly tapping down with a rubber mallet.

Below is a picture of the vanity area which I decided to rip out the top and replace since I was already doing the floor.  Now here is the first real roadblock because the width of the vanity area is a little shorter than the standard width for pre-formed acrylic tops.  My solution was to cut away drywall on each side so the new top will over extend the cabinete and into the wall.  Then I will fill the gaps with drywall patching compund and then spray texture over to cover the patch.

Here is a picture of the new top and new drywall patch.  Top is glued down to the cabinet with construction adhesive.

And another view of the vanity in progress.  Note I have painted it brown.

And here is the completion after plumbing installed and hardware added to the cabinet.  Also added 5 1/2 inch baseboards.

Another view of the vanity.  I didn’t have a previous view of the old mirror, but it was plain and covered the whole wall.  I replaced it with a framed hanging wall mirror.

I also replaced the lighting.

I hope you enjoyed the article and that you found it helpful.  Please leave a comment or a question, and take a look at some of my other projects:

http://www.gomestic.com/Home-Improvement/How-to-Restore-an-Ugly-Fireplace.328685

http://www.gomestic.com/Do-It-Yourself/How-to-Paint-a-Wall-Mural-for-Your-Childs-Room-or-Nursery.290657