THIS is Season 6 of the Jeffrey Court Fall Renovation Challenge, where we will renovate our kid’s full bathroom… taking it from an outdated, carpeted, builder-grade bath to a functional, beautiful oasis where my boy-girl siblings can fight over counter space in style!
14 contestants – 1 grand prize winner – YOU get to choose!
Come behind the scenes with me on INSTAGRAM, where I will show you live video of the entire process. Then, hop over to the blog for a weekly breakdown of our progress. Lastly, head over to the Jeffrey Court Site and VOTE VOTE VOTE for our design along the way! The design that YOU – the voters – choose will win a grand prize of $5,000!
You have the chance to vote once a day EVERY day, from each internet-accessible device you own. Your cell phone, tablet and computer? Absolutely! And don’t worry… I’ll remind you 🙂
WEEK 5
RECAP
In week 1, we removed the vanity doors, took down the hardware, and demoed the shower. If you missed the before pictures or the design plan, you can find them HERE.
In week 2, we had the plumbing roughed in, removed the tub, and finished demoing the rest of the bathroom – mirror, countertop, and floors. You can find the week 2 blog HERE.
For a list of tools I like to have on hand during demo, head back to my WEEK 1 post. I have found several must-have bathroom reno tools that I will list when we are done with the project.
In week 3, we laid cement board on the floors, framed out the niche and built up the curb, installed the shower pan, put cement board up in the shower, and waterproofed the shower walls with Redgard. The tile was delivered (Yay!!!) and we purchased a tile saw.
In week 4, tiling began! And other than learning how to mix mortar and use the tile saw… that’s your recap of week 4. Tiling LOL
This week, I want to start by breaking down my must-have tools as well as some vocabulary you may hear when tiling.
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
One of the hardest thing when starting a project you’ve never done before is knowing what tools you’ll need, and which you can get by without. As a first time tiler, hopefully I can give you a good idea of where to start.
The main brand of tools you’ll see in the tiling section of Home Depot is Qep. They have just about any tool you can imagine you would need to tile. I started small, with just a few tools, but I have gone back a couple times to pick up additional pieces as well. Home Depot also does a great job with the marketing for the tools. There is a lot of information in the tile section to help you choose what you need.
The Necessities:
- Trowels – the different notches are for different size tiles
- V notch – XSmall tile (like our mosaic tiles) up to 6″ on longest side
- 1/4 x 1/4 x 1/4 – Small tile, up to 8″ on the longest side
- 1/4 x 3/8 x 1/4 – Medium tile, 8-15″ on the longest side
- 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2 – Large tile, more than 15″ on the longest side
- Margin Trowel – a smaller trowel with straight sides, this was my favorite trowel for buttering the walls and scraping away excess
- Lash Leveling System – spacers and leveling clips, ideal for wall and floor tiles; helps minimize lippage
- Lash Leveling Pliers – we did not purchase these, we were able to borrow them, but it was nice to be able to use them with the leveling spacers
- Thinset and Grout Mixing Paddle – self explanatory!
- Chisel Scraper – to scrape all the things
- Diamond Hole Saw – to drill holes in the tile for plumbing
- Diamond Jig Saw blade – for corners and small cuts
- Sponges – for thinset and grout clean up
- Tile Saw – we were able to borrow this one, and you can also rent them. We were very happy with the performance and ease of this saw. It was also capable of making long cuts, which we needed for our large format tile
- 5 gallon buckets – we used them for trash/tile pieces, thinset and mortar, and a water bucket to rinse fingers and sponges
- Self Leveling Laser Level – This was worth every penny when lining up the tiles in the shower!
- Grout Removal Tool – to clean up your grout lines before grouting
- Grout float – used to apply grout. If you are using on walls, get one with rounded and square corners.
Basic Tools :
- Levels
- Tape Measure
- Pencil and Sharpie
- Utility Knife
- Frogtape
- Safety Gear
- Jig Saw
- Corded Power Drill
- Towel for wiping wet tiles after cutting
LINGO
Now for a tiling vocabulary lesson. After watching a few YouTube videos, you’ll find yourself searching these terms:
- Bullnose: a trim tile with a rounded edge
- Format: the size and shape of a tile
- Lippage: results when one tile is higher or lower than the one next to it creating uneven edges
- Pencil tile: long, rectangular tile used for edges
- Penny tile: small coin shaped tile laid in sheets
- Efflorescence: a white, powdery substance that occurs on tile due to excessive moisture. Common with porous tiles. Can be prevented by sealing tiles.
- Dehaze: Removing grout haze from tile. After grouting, a film can be left on the surface of the tile. Use a grout haze remover to dehaze tile.
- Thinset: the mortar used to adhere tile to a surface
- Spacers: Small plastic pieces used to evenly space tiles
- Back buttering: spreading thinset on the back of a tile when the tile is being installed
- Grout: the material used to fill the joints between tiles
- Substrate: underlayment for tile installation
Now back to the bathroom!
PROGRESS
Week 5 has brought some MUCH needed visual progress. It’s so nice to hit milestones when you’ve been working, working, working and don’t feel like you have seen things come together yet.
The countertop was installed this past week and it’s just beautiful. We put the faucets in although we can’t turn the water back on yet because we’re waiting on the drains.
With my parents help, another thing we were able to knock out this week was the shiplap and painting the vanity area. Getting this done enabled us to be able to mount the light and the mirrors, so the bathroom is starting to look like a bathroom again!
I am SO happy I have my Frogtape so I could put plastic up to protect the counter while we painted and installed the hanging hardware. I knew I didn’t have to worry about the freshly painted walls since I had a roll of the Frogtape for delicate surfaces!
And just look at these clean lines where we painted the cabinet!
FLOORS
I took a day to do the layout of the bathroom floor tiles, and I’m so glad I did, because later in the week, I was able to knock the floor out in just a few hours. After tiling the large format tiles in the shower, it was definitely a change to use less mortar. I used way too much on my first sheet of tile and spent a while cleaning out the joints so I will be able to grout them.
I started with a 1/4 x 1/4 x 1/4″ trowel, but ended up changing to a v notch for the small hex tiles.
I also learned how to cut the mosaic tiles. A trick I wanted to share is to use a scrap of tile to hold down the mosaic while you cut. This helped keep the small tiles in place and stop them from shifting during the cut.
SHOWER
The words I thought I would NEVER say… I AM DONE TILING THE SHOWER! Ok, I still have to finish the niche and the curb, but the walls are done and that feels like success to me.
I used the hole saw to cut out for the hardware and installed the herringbone tile in the niche. MAN am I glad that I didn’t choose the herringbone floor. It’s gorgeous, but required a LOT of cuts. For a beginner, tiling a small space with herringbone tile would most likely be time consuming, so I am glad that I didn’t do it for the challenge. I might tackle that for our laundry room when I am not on a deadline 🙂
Last but not least this week, I got the layout cut for the shower floor. This and the niche and curb tile will be the last tile I need to install before we start grouting!
I can’t believe there’s only a week to go. This is what we have left…
- Tile the shower floor
- Tile the niche and curb
- Grout the shower
- Grout the floors
- Paint the cabinet doors (unfortunately building new ones got cut due to time)
- Install the shower doors
- Hang all our hardware
- Hook up the plumbing in the shower and the sinks
Think we’re going to make it?! Stay tuned to see!
Thank you for being here and following along!
Don’t forget to follow along on INSTAGRAM for behind the scenes video and DIY tips! And you can vote DAILY at Jeffrey Court’s Renovation Challenge page HERE!