glass mosaic tile art studio of william j enslen jr
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| Copyright © 2008-2012 by William J. Enslen, Jr. All rights reserved. Any use - including the reproduction, modification, distribution, transmission, republication, or display - of the content (text and illustrations) is strictly prohibited. |
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| Mosaic Floor...You Can Mosaic Anything...Even a Floor! Page 3 |
The second of two dining room "separators" is in-place. The other picture shows the transition we made from the kitchen to the newly tiled area. Because the size difference between the kitchen
tile and new tile was so great, we wanted more than a thin 1-inch strip of metal or other divider between the two tile sizes. We decided to add more mosaic to help bring everything together. So,
I beat up one row of the old kitchen tiles. DON'T forget to wear protective goggles! The kitchen tile on the right cracked when I beat the tile next to it, so I installed another tile and I used the
original grout. You can see the original grout was much lighter than it is today. It'll take a few months for the new grout to get dirty and match the rest of the kitchen. I asked Melissa if I could rub
some dirt on it to hurry the process along, but she quickly nipped that idea in the bud so we're letting it "age" on its own. By the way, did you notice? The kitchen-transition mosaic is made from
the new porcelain tile and the old kitchen ceramic tile. It's hard to see in this picture, but some tesserae are the kitchen tile and some are the new porcelain tile.
Tip! For any tile project, I always save at least 20 square feet of undamaged, uncut tile. You never know when you'll need it. For example, I was able to replace that one kitchen tile without
worrying about that style being discontinued or having to find another style that matches. Also, you never know when you'll have to replace a door, which means you might damage and have to
replace a row of tiles. You might never need that little bit of extra tile hidden away in the garage behind the workbench, but if you ever do need it, you'll be so glad you kept some.
At the end, I'll show pictures of these finished sections but now let's see how the rest of the floor turned out, including the mosaic-stone fireplace hearth and other interesting features.
tile and new tile was so great, we wanted more than a thin 1-inch strip of metal or other divider between the two tile sizes. We decided to add more mosaic to help bring everything together. So,
I beat up one row of the old kitchen tiles. DON'T forget to wear protective goggles! The kitchen tile on the right cracked when I beat the tile next to it, so I installed another tile and I used the
original grout. You can see the original grout was much lighter than it is today. It'll take a few months for the new grout to get dirty and match the rest of the kitchen. I asked Melissa if I could rub
some dirt on it to hurry the process along, but she quickly nipped that idea in the bud so we're letting it "age" on its own. By the way, did you notice? The kitchen-transition mosaic is made from
the new porcelain tile and the old kitchen ceramic tile. It's hard to see in this picture, but some tesserae are the kitchen tile and some are the new porcelain tile.
Tip! For any tile project, I always save at least 20 square feet of undamaged, uncut tile. You never know when you'll need it. For example, I was able to replace that one kitchen tile without
worrying about that style being discontinued or having to find another style that matches. Also, you never know when you'll have to replace a door, which means you might damage and have to
replace a row of tiles. You might never need that little bit of extra tile hidden away in the garage behind the workbench, but if you ever do need it, you'll be so glad you kept some.
At the end, I'll show pictures of these finished sections but now let's see how the rest of the floor turned out, including the mosaic-stone fireplace hearth and other interesting features.
The hallway is coming along nicely. On the other side of the great room, we have a large sliding glass door to the pool deck. When we open the glass panels, they "hide" by sliding into a section of
the outside stucco wall so it looks like a big open doorway to the pool. (There's a trick for controlling the bugs so they don't fly into the house, but that's a subject for another time.) In this
picture, you can see we decided to include another mosaic piece into the overall plan. With the several small sections of mosaic in different parts of the area, everything flows together nicely.
the outside stucco wall so it looks like a big open doorway to the pool. (There's a trick for controlling the bugs so they don't fly into the house, but that's a subject for another time.) In this
picture, you can see we decided to include another mosaic piece into the overall plan. With the several small sections of mosaic in different parts of the area, everything flows together nicely.
I finished the exterior-side of the mosaic strip with a nice metal bullnose, which is easy to install. There's nothing special or difficult about it. It's flush with the glass-door frame, so it looks like a pro
installation. Let's take a look at the fireplace hearth done with mosaic stone.
installation. Let's take a look at the fireplace hearth done with mosaic stone.
Melissa was never really happy with my first re-do tile job on the hearth. I thought it looked okay, but Melissa wanted something new and, since we were re-doing everything else, now was the time
to change it. Melissa was born and raised in Boston and she has always liked stone work. She insisted on a mosaic-stone hearth and I agreed, "Yes, dear." (That's how we've stayed married for a
ga-zillion years!) So, let's take a look at how I transformed the hearth. Here's the "before" picture. The first thing to do was beat, bang, and chisel up the old tile. Again, what a mess! DON'T
forget to wear protective goggles! This tile was much easier to get up than the floor tiles. I was able to easily chisel it up using my 4-lb hammer and cold chisel. Long ago when I removed the
original ugly tile to re-tile it the first time, I found that the builder threw the hearth together using scrap pieces of cinder blocks and bricks. There's not a brick anywhere in the house (except here),
so he must have used bricks from another job or stole some from one of the other new homes being built near ours. (Where's "Holmes on Homes" when you need him?) Anyway, the piece-meal
block-and-brick hearth resulted in a less-than-even top and side. In other words, the tile wouldn't go down flat and there would be bumps all over the place. When I re-tiled it the first time, I
troweled on leveling compound, which worked well enough at that time. However, when I beat and chiseled up the tile this time, nothing came up perfectly, so I had the same problem of uneven
surfaces on the top and side. The leveling compound worked okay before, but I didn't want to mess with it again. So, this time, I used Schluter-DITRA (a plastic membrane with a grid structure) as
an underlayment. It's easy to measure, cut with scissors, and install, and would do a good-enough job of leveling the top and side.
to change it. Melissa was born and raised in Boston and she has always liked stone work. She insisted on a mosaic-stone hearth and I agreed, "Yes, dear." (That's how we've stayed married for a
ga-zillion years!) So, let's take a look at how I transformed the hearth. Here's the "before" picture. The first thing to do was beat, bang, and chisel up the old tile. Again, what a mess! DON'T
forget to wear protective goggles! This tile was much easier to get up than the floor tiles. I was able to easily chisel it up using my 4-lb hammer and cold chisel. Long ago when I removed the
original ugly tile to re-tile it the first time, I found that the builder threw the hearth together using scrap pieces of cinder blocks and bricks. There's not a brick anywhere in the house (except here),
so he must have used bricks from another job or stole some from one of the other new homes being built near ours. (Where's "Holmes on Homes" when you need him?) Anyway, the piece-meal
block-and-brick hearth resulted in a less-than-even top and side. In other words, the tile wouldn't go down flat and there would be bumps all over the place. When I re-tiled it the first time, I
troweled on leveling compound, which worked well enough at that time. However, when I beat and chiseled up the tile this time, nothing came up perfectly, so I had the same problem of uneven
surfaces on the top and side. The leveling compound worked okay before, but I didn't want to mess with it again. So, this time, I used Schluter-DITRA (a plastic membrane with a grid structure) as
an underlayment. It's easy to measure, cut with scissors, and install, and would do a good-enough job of leveling the top and side.
Please go to the next page to see how the mosaic stone looks.
Mosaic Floor page 01 Mosaic Floor page 02 Mosaic Floor page 03 Mosaic Floor page 04 Mosaic Floor page 05
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