Tiling: Part II - Floor Tile

Once we had the Ditra all laid (more about that here) it was time to start tiling.

The tile we choose for the floor was Daltile Fabrique Blanc Linen:

It's a white tile that has varying shades of grey lines running across it. It picks up our grey wall color and it mimics the hand painted/brushed effect in our dark brown cabinetry.

We decided to start with the largest area first, the laundry/mudroom area. We felt that the size and shape of the room would be the best out of our three rooms that are getting tiled to figure out what we were doing without having too many angled wall cuts or wall tile to take into account. It also an area that most people probably won't see so if we didn't do that great of a job off the start we'd be the only ones who would have to deal with it. 

We started by doing a dry cut of the tiles of the whole room and got our cuts and spacing all figured out. We were originally going to do a traditional on centre brick pattern but when we went to lay out the tile we found that we liked it set out in thirds better so that's the pattern we went with. We both felt that it is a bit more modern but still has a classic feel to it. 

The tiles dry cut

Once we got the spacing all figured out and we were satisfied with the layout we starting laying the tile.    
To lay the tile you spread thinset on top of the Ditra with a notched trowel (different tiles and thinsets require different sized trowels). You then back butter each tile, basically spreading an even layer of thinset on the back of each tile. Not all tile applications require back buttering. Due to the size and weight of our tiles this step was necessary for us. We learned pretty quickly that you go through thinset like crazy when you need to back butter the tiles.

The tiles laid and set 

The first day we started laying the tile The Husband thought that it would work better if he did it all himself. It ended up being a lot of steps for one person to do. I have started helping him with the back buttering and it seems to give him more time to adjust each tile to make sure it's level with all the neighbouring tiles. I don't know if he's just getting better or if having a second person is that much more helpful but we seem to be getting better results.

The Tile in the laundry/mudroom

We still need to do the grout but the Laundry Room/Mudroom tile is all set. We have the tile in the Main Bath almost all set, we just have three rows left to lay. The Master Bath tile is almost all dry cut but we have run out of tile :(. We are 3 or 4 tiles short of having enough. Bah. We'll have to call our tile rep and see if she can order us another box ASAP.

Close up of the tile pattern

Next we get to tackle wall tile. We have a tub surround that we are going to stat with and then we have the shower in the Master Bath to do too.