Tiling a kitchen floor

I don’t do much tiling…but once in awhile I will oblige a customer who doesn’t want to look for a “real” tiler. In this case Sandy wanted her kitchen floor re-done. She had vinyl, which looked OK, but had a couple of rips in it.

So I ripped it up, plus the linoleum (?) underneath, and was left with a level concrete floor with paper stuck to it. I scraped off the paper where it was loose, but gave up on the rest, and primed it with a shower product called Aquadefence.

Then it was time to play with membranes. I used Schluter DITRA. I used too much thinset underneath, so got a couple of wavy spots where I knelt on it…but otherwise it went down well. It provides a surface for the tile to expand/contract just enough to prevent cracking. And it added lots of time and expense to the job so hopefully it’s worth it!

Then I laid out the tile in a herringbone pattern. It was fun but dizzying.

I used a notched trowel to lay down the thinset and back-buttered each 12×24 tile just in case. The tile is porcelain with a matte finish. The next day I grouted, replaced baseboards and appliances. Just have to trim down the flooring transitions yet.