Anyone own a wet saw for tile?

[WanderALot]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Laurence really? There didn't seem to be enough substance to the self stick side of the tile to leave that much gunk? The self stick is just for a few years until we decide what we really want to do, any tips for getting the gunk up? Did you try any solvents etc.?

We did try a solvent, but I can't remember the name of it, I'll ask my wife about it tonight. IIRC, there wasn't a whole mess of gunk left, but removing the self-stick tile caused some of the backing of the tile to be left on the concrete so we had to keep scraping it to get it clean. Since we were going to use smaller size tile, the floor has to be pretty flat or the level between adjoining tiles will be noticeably off.

One thing that might have affected it is that it had been for at least 10 years, if not more.

EDIT: To answer CFB's original question, the self-stick tile didn't curl up or unstick over the years. It also managed to maintain it's factory fresh uglyness.

[Martha]

I am not fond of the look of vinyl or laminate. I am not too thrilled with tile either, because of the grout maintenance. Other than wood, which many don't like for kitchen and baths, I like cork.

Cork is easy to install, similar to laminate. It is mold resistant. Good for those with allergies. Works fine in damp areas. A friend put it in his kitchen and it has held up beautifully. Dogs don't slip on it. It gives underfoot so if you are standing in your kitchen a lot it is easier on you. And it looks cool.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

How well does it work out if cats piss on it?

We've just landed on the other reason I have to pull up the carpet. One of our dogs decides every now and then that it might be fun to chase our oldest cat. He doesnt mean anything by it and wouldnt hurt her, but she doesnt like it.

Every time he does it, which is about once a week, she registers her discontent by taking a big pee on the same spot in the master bathroom :P

So it has to be relatively impermeable and waterproof...

I had wood floors in my mcmansion kitchen. Everything that had a water supply to it leaked on that floor at one time or another. Dogs scratched it and slid on it. I slid on it. Never again.

[KB]

Martha

Do you have the cork squares or one big piece cut to the space? Do you mop it like linolium or ceramic tile?

[Martha]

The cork I have seen comes in sizes similar to plastic laminate. I have seen it in strips, maybe 4 to 6 inches wide and 24 long, and also in squares.

The cork I have seen in attached to a backing much like plastic laminate is attached and the sections "click" together when you are laying them. No glue needed.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

So its a floating floor, like the laminate. Those are pretty easy to put down and pull up.

The cat pee would seep between the seams and saturate the backing, unfortunately...

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cute n' Fuzzy Bunny I might end up doing linoleum instead of tile though.* One of the areas I want to do is the kitchen and I have a huge crack in the slab that of course runs right up the middle of the floor.* Probably could get my little finger into it.* I'd have to dress and level the whole floor to do tile and it'd probably just crack again along a grout line.

You could try concrete patch, which would probably be endlessly entertaining in its many ways to do almost right, and to repeat every time the slab moves, or you could cover the whole thing with a subfloor of 1/4"-3/8" plywood and tile/sheet vinyl on top of that.

Providing, of course, that doesn't mess up the cabinet toe kicks or the dishwasher or the stove. And it's a lot of fun nailing or screwing & glueing plywood into concrete.

We have ceramic tile in the kitchen/livingroom/hallways. The nice thing is that it's cool and it cleans up with just a damp mop. That's it for the nice stuff-- it's tough to stand on all day, don't ever drop glass or anything more than Corelle on it (even Corelle will shatter explosively), and spouse hated the grout until she finally sealed it.

But it's also endlessly entertaining to watch the bunny spinning his paws to get a grip on the tile...

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Well, I have no trouble drilling and screwing concrete. Stop that right now.

Hammer drill and concrete bits work wonderfully.

The cracks a little higher on one side than the other. I was thinking I'd cut the linoleum the length of it and about six inches across, smack the edge with a mallet for a while until both sides of the crack are even, fill the whole thing with some elastomeric concrete sealer, then use some of that fiberglass "gauze" with some elastomeric mastic to fill in the space left by removing the strip of linoleum. Then put down vinyl or ceramic over that. I know the vinyl would move a little if the crack did, but I suspect I'll be filling cracks in the ceramic tile grout until hell freezes over.

Grout doesnt ever bother me. A little sealer every few years, looks just fine.

I'd really rather do my trimming with a pair of scissors than a wet saw and nippers though...

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cute n' Fuzzy Bunny The cracks a little higher on one side than the other.* I was thinking I'd cut the linoleum the length of it and about six inches across, smack the edge with a mallet for a while until both sides of the crack are even, fill the whole thing with some elastomeric concrete sealer, then use some of that fiberglass "gauze" with some elastomeric mastic to fill in the space left by removing the strip of linoleum.* Then put down vinyl or ceramic over that.* I know the vinyl would move a little if the crack did, but I suspect I'll be filling cracks in the ceramic tile grout until hell freezes over.

You're probably right about the vinyl surviving the shift, but slabs aren't supposed to do that-- especially the "higher on one side" part. Does that crack need a soil engineer or a foundation guy?

Oh, California. There wouldn't by any chance be a fault near your house?

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I live a few miles from an inactive volcano.

No fault lines.

I'm betting that during the soil prep they either didnt put enough sand under the foundation (solid clay soil around here) or theres a very big pointy rock down there. Soil (or rock) on one side pushed the slab up until it cracked. It'll be interesting someday when I replace the rest of the carpet to see hw far t goes. It runs from the cabinet in front of the sink along the floor about 4' and then disappears before it hits the kitchen doorway.

I asked around...seems like everyone has cracks in their slabs.

[laurence]

Just curious, does that crack go all the way through? Isn't your house relatively new, some path you could follow wrt structural warranty? Hey, if everybody has the crack, class action lawsuit?

I tried and failed to reach a friend that talked about a product to handle waterproofing/seeping issues with vinyl tile. I'll PM you when I hear back from him.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cute n' Fuzzy Bunny I live a few miles from an inactive volcano.

Ha, that's a good one!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cute n' Fuzzy Bunny No fault lines.

As far as the seismologists know...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cute n' Fuzzy Bunny I'm betting that during the soil prep they either didnt put enough sand under the foundation (solid clay soil around here) or theres a very big pointy rock down there. Soil (or rock) on one side pushed the slab up until it cracked. It'll be interesting someday when I replace the rest of the carpet to see hw far t goes. It runs from the cabinet in front of the sink along the floor about 4' and then disappears before it hits the kitchen doorway.

We've had a few slab/plumbing problems here caused either by too-basic concrete eating at the copper pipe, thin-walled copper pipe, or slab movement. Result is that the homeowner comes in the front door and realizes that their livingroom is a wading pool... and their kitchen... and their familyroom... and even the termites are swimming.

This is one of those times when you hope that the contractor went really cheap with in-slab plastic plumbing piping instead of the more expensive copper.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I dont know, I havent looked at it directly yet. Its just bulging through the linoleum. Given that one side is 1/10th" higher than the other, I would think so.

Some cracking in slabs is pretty normal. Concrete is hard, but not impossible, to make structurally very sound. Most concrete guys say there are two kinds of concrete...cracked and hasnt cracked yet.

Its been less than ten years, but I'd have to find the builder, get him to acknowledge doing the construction, and then get him to do something about it...probably the same stuff I'd do myself, only I'd do a better job. Its not really structural anyhow, in that the building itself is not threatened.

Slabs are thinner in the middle than they are at the edges. A good slab is built with a control joint or stress joint at one or more points. These are just like those 'lines' in your concrete driveway or sidewalk...they allow the slab to expand, contract, and flex a little without forming a crack. I never see anyone putting these in slabs when they're pouring them, and I see a lot of slabs being poured around here.

in the absence of a control joint, the slab will make its own. They usually run north-south in the middle third of the slab across the narrowest part. This runs north-south in the middle third at the narrowest part.

So its a matter of filling its self made control joint with something flexible (hence the elastometic filler), then topping it with something that can flex and not tear (the fiberglass mesh and elastometic mastic), and then put something flexible on top of it. Should work out.

By the way, I did chase down a guy who did a few things "not good" on a house I used to own. I found the guy in alaska building homes. He swore he wasnt the guy with the same name, contractors numbers and social security number as the guy who built my house. Said he had no money anyhow. Sue him. Unless its a big builder like kbhome, its not feasible. These homes were built by some guy and a couple of crews. They screwed up and underspec'ed a lot of stuff. I have both exterior outlets, all the kitchen outlets, and both bathroom outlets wired back to ONE gfci outlet. I'm figuring the wire used to do this cost about five dollars less than just installing gfci's at all those locations. The tile roofs on most of the homes (but thankfully not mine) are sagging at the edges because he put a 2-2.5' overhang on some of them with 2x4's laying on their wide side every 3'. You can get away with that with non-concrete roofs or if you go every 2' or if you use the 2x4's on their short side. All those folks will be doing structural work on the edges of their homes pretty soon...the guy 2 houses up already had the overhang rip the tar paper and half of it just tore off and fell on the ground...about 300lbs of concrete tiles...:P

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords Ha, that's a good one!

No, really
http://www.middlemountain.org/body/buttes/volcanic.html

Erupted ~1.6M years ago. I can ride a bike to it.

South lake tahoe is also an inactive volcano...thats what sealed off the south side of the valley and turned the river that was there into The Lake...

[wabmester]

I just bought some Armstrong vinyl tiles from these guys:

http://closeoutfloors.com/

Their shopping cart doesn't work, but they were cheaper than any local source even with shipping (60lbs per box).

Anybody have experience with rubber flooring? It sounds pefect for a bathroom. Waterproof. Easy to cut. Wears well. Not too hard or soft. Cool colors and patterns, and it doesn't try to pretend it's something other than rubber. But I hear that it's hard to clean.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Most rubbers are permeable. The softer the rubber, the more permeable. Those nubbly orange brown ones they put down in the good bars takes a good beating though...but not that soft.

Closeout floors...looks like they're about $2.10 a tile for the same ones I saw for 2.80 at home depot.

HD occasionally puts a lot of tile (both ceramic and vinyl) out in front of the store on clearance. Tends to run under a buck a tile for the good stuff.

By the way, I dont know about the other HD's, but mine puts cans of paint that they mix wrong or that the customer doesnt want on some shelves next to the paint kiosk, and marks the pint cans a buck and the gallon cans for five. I got a can of dark brown glidden endurance (normally $20 a can) for five bucks to paint my trailer bed with.

[wabmester]

Yeah, my local Ace does the $1/can thing too. I still haven't found anything I need to paint the wrong color, though.

Closeoutfloors.com had a box of Armstrong tiles for $15 that my local flooring guy wanted to charge over $100 for. They also have a much better selection than the big box stores, but if you can find what you need at a big box, that's probably the way to go.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Anything outdoors can be painted dark brown and its frickin ok...

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cute n' Fuzzy Bunny Erupted ~1.6M years ago.* I can ride a bike to it.

I was referring to the declaration that it's "inactive". That's what they used to say about Mauna Loa until 1984, now it's just "quiet" or "being monitored"...

But after 1.6 million years I guess you're probably OK. Probably.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Well, if it goes off, we'll just break out the hotdogs and pretend we're in hawaii. Plus all the ash might do the soil good.