Orange is the New Green
Tile guy came today. Bright and early, 7 a.m. there he was knocking on the door. Good thing I was up and showered and ready to go for the day already. Did mostly prep work and now we have orange flooring:
I had no idea what that stuff was or why it was on my floor. So I looked it up. Nice of Schluter to put their name so prominently on their product. Here is what they say it is:
Schluter®-DITRA is a polyethylene membrane with a grid structure of square cavities, each cut back in a dovetail configuration, and an anchoring fleece laminated to the underside. The anchoring fleece is embedded in thin-set mortar to provide a mechanical bond to the substrate. Tile is installed over DITRA using the thin-bed method in such a way that the mortar becomes mechanically anchored in the square, cutback cavities of the matting. Designed specifically for ceramic tile and dimension stone installations, DITRA serves as an uncoupling layer, waterproofing membrane, and vapor management layer that accommodates moisture from beneath the tile covering. Further, DITRA performs all these functions while still providing adequate support/load distribution for the tile covering. The combination of these four essential functions allows for the successful installation of tile over a wide range of substrates, including plywood/ OSB, concrete, gypsum, heated floors, etc.
So there you go. We have a plywood substrate in our kitchen so it seems to make sense use something like that to…oh hell, who am I kidding? I trust they know what they’re doing. I was just curious what that stuff was. I’m convinced by Schluter’s marketing.
Anyway, remember this?
They started to tear up the floor in the foyer and discovered another layer of tile under the existing tile. They thought they were going to have to jack-hammer up the concrete underneath it all and then decided to just remove the top layer and tile over it. Well, the tile guy fixed that all up too.
All better now full of nice, new concrete (or whatever that stuff is).
He says tomorrow he’ll be able to tile the entire floor. That’s great news, except that means we have to go spend the night somewhere. Once the tile is laid, we’re supposed to stay off it entirely for at least 24 hours to allow it to set. Otherwise we could break some of the tile. Since the foyer and kitchen completely block off all access to just about all the rest of the house, we’re gonna go get a room for the night.
I’ll still try to get some pix before we take off and post something.
That’s it for today. Tune in next time for the further adventures of Jim & Dena’s kitchen.
JIm