Starting to put down the tile

We're using a 1" x 2" tile that comes on a 12" x 12" grid.  It's pretty easy to put down because you can cut roughly the right shape with a utility knife and then cut the smaller pieces later.  For the half pieces at the end I just scored and broke them with a tile break. I ran a whole 12" sheet through the wet saw when I had to rip down lengthwise.

Bathroom Part 4: Install the backerboard

First Piece of backboard is now glued down.  I'm using hardibacker 1/8" thick.  It's being glued down with pre-mixed thin set. 

On the last time job I did I used a much more expensive glue, but when I picked up that stuff this time the tile guy working in the hardware store told me to just mix up my own thinset.  He claimed that would work much better than the more expensive mix I was going to use.  I told him I really wanted pre-mixed and he said I should use pre-mix thin set then.  It was a savings of about $15.  It seemed to work just as well as the more expensive stuff.  Next time, I think I am going to try to mix it myself which cuts the price in half. 

Bathroom Construction Part 3: Self Leveler

In this photo you can see the start of the self leveling compound.  The center of the floor is the heighest point.  The corners near the tup are down almost 1/2". Near the door the floor is down about 1/8".  It will take several pours of compound to get it completely level.

I mixed up about 3 pounds of compound on the first two pours and found that was too much to work with at one time.  I ended up throwing away half the mix on the first pour and thought I could do better on the second, but the same thing happened.  For future pours, I'll keep the mix to about 1.5 pounds of self leveler.

p.s.  The floor was primed with the latex primer before I poured on the leveling compound.

Bathroom Construction Part 2: plywood removed

Most of the top layer plywood is removed in this photo.  The subfloor underneath that horribly damaged ply is slighly water damaged, but looks like it can be saved.  The floor has spots that are about 1/2" low and will need to be leveled out before adding the backerboard.

Bathroom Constuction Part 1

Our master bathroom needs a major remodel.  The first step was to get rid of the old tile.  Step one, rip it up and see the condition of the sub floor.  Unfortunately, as you can see from this picture, the subfloor was completely water damaged.  It looks like this will have to be completely ripped out and replaced with some cement board.

Fixing my 2005 BMW 325i Door Leak

2005 BMW 325i Door Leak

I started getting some water on my passenger side floor after a rain in my 2005 BMW 325i. It seems this is caused by a damaged vapor barrier seal on the door. Water rides down the glass into the interior or the door frame. The vapor barrier forces this water to drain out the bottom of the door and safely away from the interior of the car. When this vapor barrier comes loose from the sheet metal, the water ends up on your floor. To fix, I had to remove the interior door panel and affix it back. The dealer recommended 3M ribbon seal to do this, but they said they couldn't sell it to me. I ended up using some roofing seal from Home Depot that looked like it was about the same thing. Just in case, I put some water proof metal tape over the outside of the barrier. Hopefully it holds. I'll keep this blog updated with the results.