Thinset mortar needs a minimum thickness for it to have adhesive qualities. Tapering the thinset layer down to nothing is not recommended. Your thinned out section of thinset probably dried before it...

Assuming you have also tried products such as Lime Klean, you might try a product I have used in the past to cleanup hard-to-remove residue: oven cleaner. But you gotta be careful. Whenever I used...

Grid racks are very difficult to find. The only grids I have seen in the past few years have been banged and beat up old racks hanging in a contractor's shop because they can no longer be used. One...

Most of us have opinions about where JLC is going, how thick the content will be (hopefully not the 1/4-inch depth of USA today), etc., but we can only guess about these things. I certainly have my...

samara is an idiot spamming for two texas flooring companies

samara is an assh*le spamming for the following:

Shans Carpets & Fine Flooring (Houston), and
Metroplex Flooring (Dallas)

There are several such treatments on the market, and each has its own performance spec. Architects and designers - when they are aware of the need for slip resistance - try to specify tiles that rate...

Can I assume that the line behind the backerboard is 15-pound tar-saturated felt or 4-mil plastic sheet? If so, caulking the tile-to-fiberglass transition will create a dam when moisture accumulating...

This may have been on YouTube for years, but a friend passed it on to me today and I thought I would post it. Makes me want to get one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBMUvAUPTGM

Not so different at all. From what I have learned, nothing really new has happened in the business for the past two thousand years. Two of my favorites are:

- Mortar additive for regular work:...

The basic installation methods for mosaic were used (and still are in some areas) for thousands of years. Mosaic bits (tesserae) were generally made from stone whose colors when polished were well...

Lot of good information here, especially on the subject of lead which was phased out for food-related glazed products years ago (not exactly sure when). It is unclear from tile industry records when...

LIHR50,
Thank you so much for posting this link! Just beautiful!

dgbldr,
Assuming there is water behind the tiles in every shower installation so that an exit path for water is needed, how do you maintain sanitary conditions within that path.

Everyone has...

dgbldr,
Am I missing something here? Some stone tiles are so porous that they are unsuitable for anything except decorative (only) installations. I have consulted on many stone installations where...

dgbldr,
If you are convinced that epoxy grout will stop water or moisture, where is the water going through? I don't know all the facts about your shower, but in my experience, the first place to...

Hi Shawn,
Nice work. small bathrooms like yours are jewel boxes. One question: why the top and bottom cuts for the white tiles over the tub? Just checking.

Just a reminder: to get consistent cuts on porcelain from a snap cutter, paint the score path (before scoring) with light oil or kerosene. You will get nice straight cuts without having to resort to...

Most of the slip-resistant after-market products will do what they claim to do; some do not. Before committing to this procedure, test on a spare tile to see if the tile marks easily with shoe...

Best system to use? Depends on many factors but it boils down to two questions: do you want or need to only warm the floor?; or do you need to warm the floor and whole space above it? When I lived in...

Dick, if installers would use the proper amount of adhesive to eliminate voids behind the tiles, and if they mixed, slaked, installed, packed, cleaned, and cured the grout properly, there would be...

The absorption problem is behind the tile - not on the surface, so sealing the face of the finished job will not prevent moisture from penetrating the tile body (via moisture seeping in through grout...

Am I showing my age? The beauty ring is a thin chrome covering for the exposed top edge of a cast iron drain housing. Generally, it adds less than 1/32-inch of height to the drain, and it is held...

LIHR50,
Most rectified tiles have a controlled length and width only - warpage can still be a problem. If, after you have checked for surface flattness you find cupping (or bowing), and the customer...

If I assume the slab was installed over a mortar bed, and the mortar bed is clean after the slab is removed, and there are no cracks in the mortar, use the mortar bed as the base for tile.

If the...