When I bought my house all of seven months ago, the previous owners were offering a flooring credit, which I didn’t take. I figured I’d just do the carpet in the den, tile in the laundry and refinish the hardwoods all myself. Boy was I naïve. When I priced carpet for the den I thought I could live with that price, then I found out how much it costs to have it installed (insert shocked face here.) Same went for tile, the labor is just insanely expensive.
The carpet in the laundry had years of water stains, pet odors, and God knows what else embedded in it’s pile (who puts carpet in a laundry room?!). The smell had become so bad that we had to institute a rule in the house: The laundry room door was to remain closed at all times, because the smell would spread to the entire house. Imagine the reaction of guests. “Fallon, your home is so cute……. OH. MY…. What’s that smell?! Did something die in here?” Yup, every time. So, I survived five months with that, shoot me an email and I’ll let you know where to send my medal. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of the offending carpet.
One weekend, I happened upon some tile on sale at Lowe’s, $0.58/sf. I was quite pleased with the price. I calculated the size of my room and determined I would need a mere 47 square feet. Pennies! The 13″x13″ tiles came in boxes of 15 for $9.99. I bought three boxes and 5 individuals for a grand total of somewhere in the $35 range. Not bad. I also purchased a tiling kit that had a float, some nippers, a bucket, sponge, tile spacers, etc. I think it was somewhere around $15-20. Mortar and grout were another $9.99 each. So, I spent a total of $70. Not bad for a new smell-free laundry room. Throw in the inevitable free lunch I was going to have to offer up to my poor friends who volunteered, and we’re looking at more like $90. Still, not bad, much better than the $300 I was quoted by a tile guy. My good friend Aaron owns a small construction company so he loaned me a tile saw, tile cracker, extra floats, a mixer (VERY IMPORTANT), etc. He gave me a quick run down of the misery that was about to ensue, gave me some pointers, and my wary volunteers and I went to work!
Being bound by my can-do attitude, a little naïve optimism and a tight budget, I went headfirst into tiling my teensy laundry room. First was the removal of the dreaded blue carpet (seriously, still wanting to know who puts carpet in a laundry room). Getting the carpet out was a bit like wrestling an alligator; an overweight, dead alligator. It stunk, bad, and despite the room’s small size, it was HARD work. It actually came unglued from the slab pretty easily, it was just the wrestling match that came after that was work. We used a pair of heavy duty pliers, found a corner and pulled as hard as we could. It came up in one giant smelly piece; Did I mention the smell?
I have never in my life underestimated anything as much I underestimated tiling. Those guys earn their pay, that’s for sure. Not only is it just backbreaking work, it takes skill, craftsmanship and ……. Algebra? Yes, I finally found a real-world application to everything Mrs. Powers taught me. I’m sorry Mrs. Powers, I should have paid better attention. It might have saved me a few tiles. The first step was preparing the floor for mortar. We scraped up the glue, cleaned the concrete with a solution to break down the remaining adhesive and then we went to measuring and cutting tiles. That process was full of mistakes. It took lots of problem-solving, patience, and an excess of Scooby Doo Band-Aids. After we laid the tiles down on the bare floor to make sure they’d be ready for mortar and grout, we mixed our mortar. Can I just say: Thank God for a drill with a mixer attachment! My arms would still be mixing if it weren’t for that bad boy. We laid down the mortar in three phases, laying tile in each section before the mortar lost it’s moisture, placing the little white spacers in between.
In this phase I thought it was going to turn out awful. The tile spacing looked uneven, the spacers didn’t seem to work right, and the mortar seemed to be drying too quickly. We let it set for 24 hours and went back to add the grout. Thank goodness for grout! It made everything better. The grout was probably the easiest part of the whole process. It went down quickly, and after letting it set for about an hour, it cleaned up with a sponge quite nicely.
All said, having what could only be described as a paper cut on steroids on nine of my ten fingers, losing nearly an entire weekend, breaking several tiles and having a backache of epic proportions, it was actually all worth it. I learned a few things; I can do anything I put my mind to; I will never attempt to do a tile project ever again; and most importantly, I have the most amazingly patient, helpful friends.
So, you want to tile a small room. I suggest starting on a small room that doesn’t see a lot of traffic. It will give you the experience necessary to undertake a larger project later on, and it will be something your mistakes won’t be too obvious on. My biggest mistake is a cracked tile at the corner of the door. There’s a hump in the slab there, so we had to leave it. I figured there would be a rug over it anyway. The best part? No more smelly carpet. My house smells fresh and clean, and we can leave the laundry room door open like civilized people. Wait, that doesn’t sound right…………
If you don’t think you’re as brave (pronounced: stoo-pid) as I am, then go with hiring a professional. I suggest calling my friend Aaron Worley at Copper Construction at (405) 361-3823. He’s an honest guy and he’ll give you a good estimate. Good luck with your project! Until next time, Happy Homeowning!
