We are working on this project remodeling a master bathroom this week and I just could not get over how sexy this design for a bathroom is. First this mosaic for the floor is so sleek and modern and to my taste simply amazing. What a great choice by the designer to go with something so unique like a basket weave design which it does not feel like a basket weave at all. At least it doesn't look like the basket weave mosaics we have done in the past, which I think it's great! It's not often that tile manufactures come up with things like that and I just love when that happens: It's something but it doesn't look like that something we name it after, so... it's something else! Something new, something no one has seen it yet. A new star is born! Thassos Marble with Gray inserts

Now, what really impresses me is how well it pair with a linear drain by Quick Drain USA. People should really get on board of this train. Even if we do it we a curb it still looks like "OF Course!" How didn't we think of this before? It makes so much sense. I don't know if maybe I'm only really excited with this one pairing so well with the mosaic but it just makes so much sense. That's why I felt inspired to write this post since it's been so long I haven't posted anything.

The process of installing this is really straight forward but very meticulous with making sure waterproofing is well done.

1. We pack the floor with cement making sure the drain is level, straight and well supported.

2. We apply a first coat of HydroBan by Laticrete

3. Add an extra layer of security with Laticrete Waterproofing Membrane. With it we cover everything, including the drain.

4. Then add another rich coat of HydroBan to the whole spectrum.

I Like to apply waterproofing material vigorously, 4 to 5 coats of it. Once it dries it creates 1/8 to 3/16 of inch thick impermeable waterproof membrane, which I like very much.

The next day I have a little trick using blue tape that actually is very helpful for laying mosaics in a smooth manner. Check it out on this little video I made.

Beautiful Thassos Marble with Gray inserts

This is what have done so far, Still waiting on the stones to be delivered so we can finish the curb and the niche, which always bring every else together. Stay tuned!

More often than I would like to I encounter Homeowners frustrated with bad work done by contractors whose present themselves as professionals. They usually have a sad demeanor and a lost look. They think something is off, but they can't really put their finger on it. How come we end up with something so different than what we saw on Houzz?

Well, as a tile setter myself let's say it's a tiled shower stall project they had going on and they're suspicions about. Then they call another contractor to check it out and this is where I come in when I get the call.

The urge to make a face is contained by my subpar sense of etiquette as my eyes gaze upon such unbelievable work of art (not). The look of disbelief once on the Homeowner pales in comparison to the look I'm trying to hide. As someone whose they seek a solution/opinion from, I need to be thoughtful and try to alleviate the situation by restraining my impressions to a brief comment and jump to solutions right away. In regards to tiling the problem might aways be worse than it looks. In a bathroom tile installation project for example aesthetics it's only 50%, the other 50% it's its functionality, its ability to make water go down the drain only and preventing moisture from getting inside the walls. 
It seems to me tile setting requires steady hands like no other trade and - here comes the catch - being clean.
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This goes for every trade, really, but if you find yourself in a situation where you suspect something is off, pay attention to Cleanliness! I can't stress this enough. Good professionals will be mindful of your home as a whole, not just the area they're working on. If you want to spare yourself of further problems, don't double down and keep on betting on a loose horse. If you notice the contractor is not clean and organized, take action and cut your losses.

Let’s talk tile floors for a moment, here. Tile floors provide that clean, beautiful, natural feel for any room. They’re popular choices for kitchens and bathrooms because they protect the floors from water damage, keep the floors from becoming slippery, and there are plenty of stunning options available for every taste and style. But tile itself is only a portion of the luxury that awaits your new floors.


What is Radiant Flooring

Radiant floors are on everybody’s remodel wish list lately. Radiant heating, in the case of bathroom flooring, is a layer of heating beneath the floor that amplifies the heat from a heating source and distributes it across an entire floor. Examples of these systems can be found from NuHeat and from Schluter. As a result of this wonderful heating system, your bathroom floor is as warm as summer beach sand every time you walk on it. In other words: no more frozen feet in the mornings!

Aside from being a treat every time you walk into your bathroom or kitchen, radiant heated floors have other benefits as well. For one, they’re warmer than normal flooring, therefore they help keep the floor dry as they help the water evaporate faster. Beyond that, radiant heated floors are also an eco-friendly approach to heating. According to energy.gov, “It is more efficient than baseboard heating and usually more efficient than forced-air heating because it eliminates duct losses. People with allergies often prefer radiant heat because it doesn’t distribute allergens like forced air systems can.”


The Difficulties of Radiant Flooring and Tile

There are numerous ways in which people use radiant heat in their home. It can be used in walls, floors, with carpet, and more. But by far, the most common way that radiant heating is used is underneath ceramic tile in the bathroom. Ceramic tile is a popular choice to use with radiant heating because it works well as a conductor for heat (meaning you save energy and have more heat) and actually stores some of the heat so it doesn’t require the heater to continuously run. It’s also a popular choice for the variety of styles, shapes, and aesthetics, as well as for its durability and ability to protect the system below. For the most efficiency and best payoff, ceramic tile is the best bet.


However, installing a radiant heating system in the floor and tiles on top of it isn’t a walk in the park for the Do It Yourself-er. There are numerous reasons why people shy away from taking this task on themselves. For one, there is a laundry list of steps to take to ensure that the system is installed correctly. Any misstep can result in an equally long list of problems, such as appliances and fixture sinking, uneven heating, and leaking, that will likely require replacing the entire floor and heating system. There are also specific products and instructions that need to be obtained, and some of those products like priming and mesh aren’t easily found at local hardware stores. Tile and radiant heated floors are a wonderful combination, but the installation is best left to professionals.


Go with a Pro

When in doubt, it’s best to go with a pro. This is especially true for tricky, detailed projects like radiant floor heating coupled with tile. While it might be above budget for your renovation project, or might bring it close, it’s a lot cheaper to hire a professional who’s going to do it right the first time. The cost of ripping up your new flooring when something goes wrong and needing to get the supplies to do it all over again can over double your project cost. If you’re gifting yourself the luxury of a heated tile floor in your bathroom or kitchen, you deserve to give yourself the luxury of making the installation process somebody else’s responsibility. Life’s a lot easier when you go with a pro!

Tile is easy, right? It seems pretty straightforward, anyway. It’s placing squares on the ground or the walls. How hard can it be?


Tile installation can be easy to do yourself. However, flooring and wall tiling are a major project and no matter how easy they may seem, there are dozens of steps that you may be overlooking. When it comes to tile, there are vital steps to take before laying the tile itself. This is called prep work.

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Prep work for tile installation is important for a few reasons, each step holding its own independent value. For example, after you tear up the old flooring and are going to later place down a tile floor, it’s wise to sand and level the subflooring so that you get an even tile placement with no protrusions. Some would say that’s pretty important, no? But beyond that, the most important step in tile preparation is waterproofing. Waterproofing is vital for a number of reasons. Here are a few:

• It prevents any dampness or moisture from seeping into the floor.
• It provides a barrier that blocks wetness from setting in and allowing the breeding of mold and mildew.
• It improves the insulation beneath your tile, whether that be on the floor or the walls.
• It stops leaks from forming and spreading.
• It can increase your property value if you’ve used waterproofing to create a wet room in your bathroom.

Despite these important and beneficial reasons to waterproof, some people still frequently ask, “is it necessary?”. Technically, no. But neither is paint on your walls or furniture in your home. Are those things important? Yes. Often times, it’s even a requirement per law – and for good reason.
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Moisture can destroy homes. It’s part of what makes hurricanes so devastating. The water itself is only part of the problem. What it leaves behind in its tracks is often what results in the destruction of homes, vehicles, and buildings. Moisture is a breeding ground for mold, mildew, and bacteria, as well as promotes rot, rust, and breakage. Porous materials like stone and wood absorb water which causes deformities in floors, foundations, structures, and more. When the water eventually evaporates, it leaves behind a slew of problems like cracks, voids, and crumbling structures. But – you don’t need a hurricane for these horrors to become a reality.


Waterproofing is an obvious and easy way to prevent these problems completely. While waterproofing won’t save your home in a hurricane, it’ll stop your house from looking like it went through one after a small leak becomes a massive structural problem because you or an underqualified handyman decided to skip the waterproofing step. 


So, how do you actually prevent these problems and make a floor or wall waterproof when you’re going to tile it? The solution is simple. There are a few different ways, but the best way by far is to use a waterproof membrane such as RedGard or Hydro Ban. It’s important to choose a membrane that is rated for the area that you intend to use it on. Areas that frequently experience a large amount of water on their surface, such as a shower area, will require a different membrane than that of an area that typically stays pretty dry.  In most places, building codes will require waterproofing wherever there’s a shower. This is an obvious necessity. Furthermore, some materials in a certain waterproofing membrane may not be suitable for your specific needs. For example, frequently using heavy duty cleaners and disinfectants may not be compatible with some membranes, as the chemical compounds can react and leave holes for water to seep through.


Waterproofing isn’t expensive. However, it can save you massive amounts of money – even in the short-run. The costs for repairs of a leak or mold problem are exponentially higher than what it costs to grab a tub of waterproofing membrane, and it doesn’t take much time to add a layer of it under where you intend to lay tile. In this case, taking the extra step is wise. Your kitchen, bathroom, foyer, walls, floors, and whatever else you decide to tile will be thankful for it – and so will your property value.

3x6 Marble Carrara provided by The Builder Depot

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This week I have come across more penny tiles than I can count. Mostly I have done as a accent border across a shower walls but these last couple of days I have been installing them on floors. My  biggest challenge was to make them look seamless between sheets of what it felt like thousands of pennies. But besides that, cutting was a real treat too, If a wet saw used and the brady brunch of tiles get wet, in 5 seconds they all fall apart, piece by piece. At that moment I wondered if it would be feasible to install one by one... Ever wonder how to turn thousands into millions? Yup, I have. Nah, I guess that's out of the question. The  straight cutter steps up to the plate and is up to the task if we pair it with the infamous nipper, which turned out to be the best way to do it. I have placed some blue tape across before scoring straight cuts to prevent chips as I was chipping away. It kind of worked.

But then again, how to make seamless transitions? First and most important rule: Keep it square. Make sure you have a perfect 90 degrees angle with the two chalk lines you draw. But the trick thing is that these pennies in a mesh are too flexible, they feel more like some type of fabric which expands and contracts, it's almost impossible to keep them straight. I guess it might be a good option to draw a bunch of perpendicular lines on the floor and go by them, these sheets are not trust worthy.

But the worst thing in my opinion is that you can't tell for sure if they're seamless until you grout. It's very frustrating because you tweak here and there paying really close attention to the joints, making sure they all have the same distance and still after you grout you can tell where one starts and the other ends.
The only thing I would advise is this: If you like this tile, you fell in love with the design and you think it's going to look great on your floor, get really good quality well manufactured tile and - of course it goes without saying but I'm going to say it anyway - get really good experienced tile installers to do it because you can be sure of one thing it really bothers me when I don't get a good quality result and I will strive my best to be happy with it.

Amazon.com: Amir Wide Angle Lens for iPhone 7

When I was much younger, I had a choleric uncle who seemingly sees all skills and craft as “that’s simple, we don’t need to call a professional to get this done”. Any maintenance or fixing work around the house that needs to get done, that needs nothing larger than a drill – he discards it as “simple”. I looked at him with the same fascination one shows a dinosaur – someone with extinct ideas. Why are statements a bad idea? Let’s consider what separates a professional tile installer from DIY tile installer.


What is tiling?

Tiling, according to the Mariam Webster dictionary website, is defined as “the action or work of one who tiles”. In my view, that is a rather simplistic way of defining something that is much more complex. Tiling is an engineering endeavor, an art and a science all wrapped into one. It is an engineering endeavor because it is a profession closely linked to the construction industry. Some of its tools are also used for other construction purposes. It is an art because it involves a sense of aesthetics that is often associated with the arts. And it is a precise science because the other definition of tiling is about “Euclidean space and geometric space”. Sorry about the weak joke, but tessellation is a concept used in tiling as well.


What is professional tiling?

It might sound like embellishments to some people, let me dive in. A professional tile installer doesn’t just “fix tiles”. Let’s take a look at some key points:

• The first and foremost is that the tile installer is certified by a standards organization, association, skills acquisition company or body. Ask any one in any profession what certification mean and you would understand. It is not your usual piece of cake. Certification delves into the depths and explores the width, searching all nooks and cranny of what tiling entails. This is where you learn that esoteric bit of knowledge that separates the usual (DIYs) from the unusual (professional).
  
  
• Second is the experience. Knowledge on its own is often just tried and tested data/information. It’s the work hours one has spent putting the knowledge into solving real-life scenarios that count. You can often tell the difference between the expert who has only tiled his own house (where he can “manage” the results) and a true professional tile installer. The experience of tiling with ceramics, porcelain, natural stone, mosaic, and others cannot be acquired by doing in-house DIY projects only.
  
  
• Then there is licensing. This is a profession, not a hobby. The professional tile installer should a member of an appropriate association. This way he/ she is exposed to the latest information, practices, products, tools, training, and workshop available.

Why professional tiling?

At the end of the day, for anyone ordering a tile installation, the standard of the finish is what counts. The best option for any tiling project is to get a professional tile installer for the reasons below.

• Get your tiling project done right the first time around: I will surely not be the only one to have come across tiling eyesores - tiling projects went wrong. Nowadays, tile installers get calls to come and fix tiling installation that’s gone awry. And it doesn’t take much for that to happen. A mispositioned tile can throw off the pattern and grout line. Use the wrong adhesive or sealant and water seeps through - ruining framings, ceilings and finished walls. I shudder to think what will happen if it comes in contact with electrical wiring found in places like kitchens. Save yourself the time and hassle and get a tile installer to do the tile installation once and for all.
  
  
• Best result at your budget cost: People who choose NOT to call professional tile installers often cite cost as the major consideration. I think that’s “horse manure”. It is financially smart to get a professional to do it for you. There is a direct relationship between the nature and quality of the product required and the payment made by the customer. A professional tile installer is also a businessman/woman who would want repeat customers and good referrals. The concept will be well planned, the best tiles (color, texture, size, pattern, adhesive, sealant, tools etc.) will be chosen and the plan executed to the last square inch. As with any other profession, a tile installer will give you the best bargain at the price you have in mind. And what more, you would sometimes get a discount. Remember, a bungled tile installation can be expensive to fix. Penny wise or Pounds foolish? You decide.
  
  
• Specialization: It's common knowledge that there are specializations in every field. There are also specializations in tile installation. Jack of all trade, master of none – that’s the DIY style. Tile installers often have specializations - bathroom and laundry renovations, tiles of ceramics, mosaic and natural stone on walls, floors and staircases in houses, commercial, industrial and public buildings, churches, swimming pools, outside installations and façades, the list goes on.
  
  
• Confidence: Appropriate certification, relevant licenses, experience, carefully planned concepts, attention to details, neat accurate and precise finish. That is what you get from a professional tile installer. This is a solid foundation for assurance that your tile installation will not be botched.
  
  
  

Conclusion

It can be really tempting to jump right into a tile installation project with the full confidence of my choleric uncle (he learned his lesson after a plumbing/tiling “fix” of the lower half of his shower stall sloughed off). It can easily backfire for the minutest of reasons.
We are a tile installation specialized company certified by a third party assessment of installer skills and knowledge recognized by the Tile Industry – the www.ceramictilefoundation.org Ceramic Tile Education Foundation (CTEF). Contact us for your next tile installation and let us help actualize your goal from concept to finish.

Tile installation might seem like a simple task that involves little to no complication, but in fact it is a challenging endeavor which ought to be left up to the experts. Davie Mac Tile is a company that has stood the test of time and irrespective of the problems which come our way, we always deliver top class work. There are indeed many clients which place their trust in unreliable companies and they end up regretting their decision at a later point in time. Yet those who have invested in us have been thoroughly impressed by all they have seen and experienced.

Here are some of the main reasons why working with a certified tile installer like ours is a great idea:

We have a distinct plan of action
As a certified tile installer, we know exactly what we are doing. At no point in time will clients find us plunging headlong into a task without having a distinct plan of action.

We get the job right the first time
Unlike many “Jack of all trades” tile installation companies which people encounter on a regular basis, we are a certified tile installer that never messes up a task. On the contrary we always do the job right on the very first attempt.

Excellent work force
To top it all we have an excellent work force which is made up of a diverse cross section of people. These employees are not merely knowledgeable but exceptionally practical.

​Swift work
We have excellent client reviews thus is owing to the fact that we always do the tile installation very swiftly. We have all the infrastructure and technology to the any tiling work done in a timely manner. Keeping up with the changing times is something we take very seriously and this is something our clients really appreciate.

These are simply some of the few reasons why clients that work with us are thoroughly impressed by all that we are able to do. We do not believe in making tall claims, on the contrary we pride ourselves on letting our work speak for itself. Those who have worked with us and availed of our services in the past have been very impressed by all that they have seen as well as witnessed. Working with a reliable brand involves such little trouble and that is why it is always a preferred option.