How To Lay A Tile Floor

Storing your wine collection: Two families offer different approaches; an ...

Wine is not your average collectible, say like coins or figurines. Most wine enthusiasts become such through enjoying the wine, which only deepens their desire to collect more and better wine, some of which needs to "lay down" for years before becoming drinkable, others becoming more valuable with time.

This can create a storage issue -- and because of temperature concerns and other requirements, storing wine is definitely more involved than storing coins. You can't just stack cases of it in the garage. (See story on storage guidelines.)


Here's how two wine-loving families found space to store their collections:

Brent and Mary Jacobs

When Brent and Mary Jacobs  starting collecting wine, they ran smack into that common problem.

So, one weekend, the couple dismantled a closet tucked under the staircase that housed toys, board games and puzzles from when their daughters, Amanda and Molly, were growing up, and turned it into a wine cellar. Situated along a foundation wall, the closet kept a cool temperature.

But it was soon too small -- and Brent wasn't thrilled that the temperature wasn't constant.

In the nearby spacious family room sat a standard, 1950s wet bar. The back wall of the bar was glass shelving where Mary had placed a few pictures and some glasses. But because the couple aren't liquor drinkers, that shelf space and the counter that ran under it went unused. When they went looking for space to build a bigger wine cellar, Mary suggested using that back wall of the bar.

The couple contracted with Ron Cowan, owner of Stellar Cellars. Cowan custom-built a wood and glass refrigerated cellar unit to fit where the unused glass shelving and counter were. But being in the heating and cooling business, Brent wanted the cellar to be cooled without adding noise to the room where family and friends gather regularly to watch football.

Laying Tile Floor | Laminate Flooring Tile, Laminate Flooring

Laying tile is another common term for installing tile. In this post we will be discussing a basic overview of how to install tile floor. Whether you are installing marble, granite, ceramic tile, or porcelain tile, there are a few keys things to keep in mind when you are installing tile. The first most important thing is to prep your subfloor. Here is a list of important steps for installing a tile floor.

1) Prep your floor.

Remove your existing carpet, tile, vinyl, or other material. You must get down to the plywood if that is your base. Be sure to pull up any particleboard, or other type of material on top of the plywood.

2) Install cement backer board or other

If you are installing underlayment make sure to use 1/2″ cement board if possible, it gives more strength to the floor. The cement board should be applied with thinset and then screwed or nailed down. Also make sure all sheets never meet at 4 corners, you want them staggered. Then apply thinset flat trowel to all the joints with fiberglass mesh tape if necessary for strength.

3) Lay Out Your Grid

Be sure to chalk out lines in 2 tile by 2 tile boxes on the floor. Get your measurement by setting 2 tiles out side by side with the grout joint width you want. Layout your floor grid so you will not have any small cuts of tile along the edges, but always the largest cut possible.

4) Tile To Install The Tile

Now you are ready to mix up your thinset and start. Be sure to get good coverage of thinset and to use the appropriate size notch trowel Start at the farthest point away from the exit to the room. Lay tiles in the grids how they should be installed, and tap or shuffle down the tile into the thinset mortar. Once this process is done you need to let the tile dry for at least 12 hours or until the tile are hard and the thinset is dry.

5) Grout The Tile

This is the final step. Be sure to mix the grout according to the bag to ensure color consistency. After mixing apply only as much grout as you can wash in 30-45 minutes or else it will dry to hard on the floor tile. Hold grout float at a 45 degree angle and smear across the floor packing into the grout joints as well as making sure to clean up as much excess as possible from the floor. Wash grout with clean water and a sponge. Be sure to dry and wring water out of sponge as not to get too much water on the grout. Prewash and form your joints in a circular motion doing about 4-8 tiles at a time. Then follow with a clean sponge and diagonally final wipe the tile, cleaning all grout haze off. Be sure to change out water when fairly dirty approx every 50 square feet.

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