Over around the toilet, the floor was extremely weak and also had water damage. I had my handyman look at it and give me some quotes on the repairs. As I kept thinking about that floor and the fact I needed some other floor surface on it, my mind kept going to tiling it. I really would love to have that a tile floor for several reasons...one it keeps water out of the subfloor, two it's attractive, three it's easy to keep clean and four it adds instant value to the property.
After alot of thought, I called my handyman last night and asked him instead of repairing the two issues, how much he would charge to remove the existing hardwood and replace with a smaller thickness of plywood to allow room for me to tile the floor. The original quote for the repairs was $350 but to do the entire floor? $400! And, that includes adding shut off valves to the toilet, hot and cold water supplies for the sink, removing the old vanity and toilet to make way for new ones.
This floor change will allow me to lay the tile (which I can do myself, as I've done that before) and then it will be much more or near level with the floor that goes into the hallway. If need be I can use a landing strip there to offset the difference. Now, I don't have to try to graduate the decline to the hall which would be very tedious and time consuming...plus I have a level clean surface in which to do my tile project for only $50 more. I'm so glad I thought it through before he got started!! The carpentry work begins tomorrow!! :)
that's a good price .... are you using ceramic or vinyl tile ? -
ReplyDeleteCeramic - that's not including in that cost but will be something I do after the other portion is complete. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Rhonda, Ceramic tile sounds great, but I just wanted to mention that you might want to research how to prevent cracking when putting tile on a wood subfloor. My friend had tile installed in her kitchen and the grout is all cracked and even some of the tiles are cracking because there is too much flex in her wood floors underneath. Or, maybe you already know all about that.....just wanted to prevent you having to go through the turmoil she is dealing with!
ReplyDeleteI actually had read some things about it Shell - using the cement backerboard will help with that as will using caulk around the edges versus using grout. The caulk will have a little flex to it instead of the hard grout. When I tiled before, it was on a concrete slab instead of a wood subfloor but hopefully all my research will pay off. I sure do appreciate you pointing that out because I actually just watched a video on it last night quite by accident. I'd have used grout on all those edges instead of caulk, for sure. I'll read into it some more based on your comment, as well. It doesn't hurt to be as prepared as possible. I only want to have to do it once and do it right the first time. Thank you so much!!
ReplyDeleteOh good! I didn't want to seem know-it-all-ish. Cuz I don't know much, but didn't want you to have to re-do anything! I'm so glad you have an option to still have the tile. That will be so nice!
ReplyDeleteThanks Shell, I can't wait to get to that either. It will be the first actual decorative thing I've been able to do to the house that will be the way I want it, so I'm super super excited!!
ReplyDeletesee if Lowes has a class for home repair and remodeling projects like tiling - I tiled the floor and it is not hard.
ReplyDelete