post #1000

[Mesa]

Re-Tiling Home

Hello everyone. 1000th post here. It's a long one...

Thought I'd formally introduce myself at this time, since I seem to have inadvertently bypassed all forum etiquette and missed it 999 posts ago.

I started collecting back in June of 2006, I guess I'm approaching 2 years in the hobby. I started off with Family guy and Edward Scissorhands Mezco. At the time, I didn't know about SSW, SSC, GG, Bowen, etc. I've always been a collector since I was a kid, be it hasbro SW, He-Man, GI Joe, Baseball cards, Comics, etc.

Then, much later, having given up toys a LONG time ago, I saw these cool Dark Crystal "busts" on ebay while searching for Family Guy stuff. Once I had a few of those plan B busts in hand, it then carried over into a Harry Potter lot of 10 gentle Giant busts someone had for sale. So I justified picking them up, because I could certainly sell them for at least what I paid. I had some ulterior motives back then. Then a lot of 20 LOTR SSW bust came up on Ebay and I won that, also including many of the rarities. I think that was the point of no turning back, once I opened the styrofoam halves, smelled the WETA paint, peeling back the crinkling tissue paper. Each one was a thrill. Included in that lot was (all busts): GTG, GTW, Lurtz, Aragorn, Boromir, Gimli, Sam, Merry, Bilbo, and others. I picked up the Lurtz PF from a local collector through Ebay and he told me about Sideshow Freaks.

Once I saw what Sideshow WETA had to offer, I decided to log onto Sideshow Freaks. I had also seen the link from Michael Crawfords site, but never paid any attention to it until I had the LOTR Sideshow WETA busts in hand, had a recommendation, and wanted to see what else SSC did. It was around this time that the SIM first went on sale. Honestly, I ordered that just to flip, not having read Marvel since my Jr. high days. I've since changed my mind.

I'm currently collecting, in order of preference:

anything LOTR (SSW, SSC, GG)
Marvel (SSC, some Bowen)
Harry Potter (GG)
The Dead
Frazetta/Boris/Clayburn Moore
SW Dios (probably stop soon)
Dark Crystal (plan B, mind Styles) and Labyrinth
some minor Hellboy (probably stop/sell soon)

So why no pics of my collection? I'm not a poser, I really do collect and enjoy this stuff. My problem, I live in a house that needs retiled... BADLY. I've been putting it off for about a year now, and it's eating away at me. Anyone that owns a house and prefers to do the work themselves probably knows what I'm talking about. The solution: retile, get some deltofs (sp?) and set up a few display rooms. I started the process tonight. What motivated me was continuially asking myself, "Why do I have this cool ass stuff and not even be able to enjoy it?" It's sits in boxes located stategically through the house (other than my LOTR which is "box" displayed). But I wont put a $1k Doom PF up in the corner to collect dust, my OCD won't allow it.

I just got done chiseling 14 tiles and baseboard trim in my dining room (demoliton has to happen before re-tiling). After about 3 hours of hammer/chiseling, I called up home depot and will be renting a jack hammer to do the rest of tile removal over the weekend, those tiles don't come up easily. I hope to be done within 2 months, maybe a little more; it's the entire house and just me doing the work. But I'm finally motivated to get this home project done.


So anyway, those of you still with me, here's to my 1000th post, here's to the cool people I've met on this board, here's to the Thursday Night newsletter anticipation, here's to logginf into this site the first thing in the morning, several times at work, and before signing off for the night, and here's to me hopefully being able to share pics of my collection in the next fews months.

 

[Captain Faramir]

Congratulations! It's a joy to have you here, and I'm always glad to see your posts. Here's to many a thousand more!

Cap

 

[The Josh]

Congrats on 1k Mesa. Looking forward to many many more.

 

[Red]

Hey Mesa good to see u got some motivation going and looking forward to your pics esp LOTR.Congrats on the 1k your well on your way to challenging Josh.

 

[carbo-fation]

Congrats on the achievement! :chew:chew:chew:chew

 

[The Craw]

we were supposed to introduce ourselves?

 

[HAPPYBOY]

Congrats on the milestone!! :chew:chew

 

[Adoptedscot]

Well, you lost me at 'its a long one' but just wanted to say Congrats on hitting 1000
Dancing bunnies for you

x

 

[TOE]

Congrats.

Always glad to have you here :chew

 

[Mesa]

Home re-tiling project has begun

If anyone has some pointers or advice, I'd certainly appreciate it.


So I was serious about re-doing the tile in my house. I'm about to present from photos of the before, and in-process shots. The before shots may not look like it wasn't all the bad to begin with, but trust me, the guy that lived in this house before me must have done the tiling himself and it is representative of all the other projects he attempted... HALF-ASSED.

I don't know if you can see it in the shots, but there are at least 10 cracked tiles throughout the house. Why? Because this moron only put a glob of thinset (mortar) in the center of the tile and plopped tile on the floor. All research I've done and shows I've seen show that you should lay a 2x2 area, or a 3x3 area if you work quick enough, so you get complete coverage and no hollow spots that break when weight is placed upon them. This is saltillo tile, which is high maintenance, and I didn't learn that till about a year after I lived in the house and many areas are chipping from traffic because I didn't reseal it like I should have annually

Plus, this guys grout lines are ~2 inches thick in some spots. As he got close to the wall, rather than cut a thin tile, he just filled it in with extra grout.

And, there should even be a full tile on one side and a thin tile on the other side if you start your grid from the center of the room and work outwards, rather than starting in a corner like this jack ass did.


Before shots:

"Dining" room. I plan on putting display along all three walls.

Entry Way

Hallway

Main/Guest Bathroom

Laundry Room

Kitchen

 

[Mesa]

I attempted to do the removal all myself. I went out, bought some chisels, and started hammering away... I think this was Wednesday night.

I made it this far before my elbow started hurting badly from hammer on chisel impact and decided I either needed to rent some power tools from HD or hire a Mexican.

I went with the Mexican route. Luiz came to my house this morning at 10:00 and just left maybe an hour ago, around 7:30. That's 9.5 hours of SOLID, HARD work. I felt bad for this guy, but mostly I was greatful as hell because I know there is no way I could have done this job myself.

Luiz in action with powered hammer demolition drill

Hallway in process

Bathroom after tile removed. There is linoleum laid below, but it's stuck pretty well and should be able to place new ceramic tile on top of it.

More of the hallway

Laundry room - This had linoleum, it was all removed since not a good stick to foundation

Hallway after vacuuming

Entry way with tile removed - There is more linoleum that can stay

Dining room with all tile removed

 

[Mesa]

Unfortunately, Luiz was supposed to haul away the pieces as well, but his truck broke down, so he couldn't do that. I told him to come over anyway because I'm motivated to get this down. I think he borrowed his Mom's car.

so I did what I could to help, which mostly meant carrying the big pieces outside and putting them in my side yard and kepping the little pieces swept and out of his way. I certainly didn't work as hard as this guy, but my back is still killing me.

Pile of little pieces yet to take to dump

The big pieces yet to take to dump

I paid him $300 for his efforts so far. Initially, the entire job was supposed to be $300, but there was no way I was going to try and screw this guy over. Everything up to this point was EASILY worth $300.

Tomorrow, he's supposed to come over in morning, finish the kitchen, take 1 load away, and them Monday morning take the second load away, and I will pay him another $300 for that.

I got some bids to have ~650 square feet of tile removed, and it would have cost around $1000 and up, so I'm getting off easy.

 

[Alice Adrenochrome]

I'm a bit late on congratulating you for your 1000th post, but, hey, now I can congratulate you also on the good job you've done in your house! And Luiz of course! Hard worker!

 

[Mesa]

The quest continues. I feel like this is my personal diary of sharing. Since we last spoke...

Some of the adhesive from the Linoleum/Vinyl tile had to be removed in order to allow a good bond for the thinset to bond to porcellain tile to concrete base. The Home Depot flunky nonchalantly recommended JASCO without any sort of warning. This was BAD stuff, and I mean bad not in a good way. I had a particulate mask on but after applying, and smelling some of the fumes in the process, did I decide to do the online research of the warnings on Jasco Adhesive remover. I should have been wearing a respirator, but I had all the windows open and the fans running, but still I wish I had been informed a little better. Labeling is lacking on this product. Regardless, it certainly did the trick....

This is the application of the JASCO in the kitchen to remove the adhesive, it's a goopy paste like substance...

I didn't capture shots of the entire process as I was trying to do it as quickly as possible and not stay in the area for too long...

This is the entryway, still with some linoleum remanants that had to removed by hand the good old fashioned way...

And this is after removing the linoleum and then a 1X application of JASCO for 5-10 minutes and then just a simple scrape..

Here is the bathroom with all/most of the adhesive removed as well...

 

[Mesa]

So I'm all ready to tile, right? WRONG!!!

All the research I'm doing is slowly teaching me, in order for thinset (i.e. mortar) to make a good bond to from tile to concrete base, the concrete must be free of any sort of sealers or anything that would prevent absorbtion.

After removing adhesive, I do a good mopping with plain old water and find the water no longer soaks into the concrete. WTF!!! I do some additional research on "John Bridge" forum, and someone suggests that the chemical removal of adhesive may have allowed adhesive to "soak" into the conrete if not removed right away, thus creating a sealer. So now, or then, when I mopped, water puddled up, which is a bad sign.

So then I had to apply an acidic "Quick-Crete" Concrete stripper, degreaser, and etcher. This stuff bubbled as it hit the floor. I had all the proper ventialltion/protective gear this time, and mopped the floor 5 times since then (no netralizer was recommended).

 

[Mesa]

Next comes the "isolation membrane" for any cracks in the foundation. This stuff has been known to cause cancer in the state of Califronia as well... Good thing I live in Arizona.

I've been carfule to keep skin on membrane contact to a minimum, although I think/hope it's only and issue when this stuff is wet. I applies second coat last night.

 

[Mesa]

I finally decided on a tile pattern. Having never having laid tile before, I decided to try the most difficult pattern. The Versailles pattern. Has four differnt sizes 8x8, 8x16, 16x16, 16x24. Should be a piece of cake.

Didn't realize majority of tile dealers dont deal in non-standard rectangluar tile sizes. You wont find this supplied at home depot or lowes. I was able to find a somewhat decent deal at Rite Carpets in Mesa, AZ (shameless plug, but I like the salesman, plus he jsut had a stroke so I felt for the guy). Just picked up 4500 lbs of tile tonight. Actually, the initial order was for 4500+ lbs, but I was only able to get about 3500 lbs of it, with the help of a buddy.

In case you didn't know, tile is HEAVY. I have a tacoma, and my bud borrowed a F150, and both vehicles had about 0.5 inches of clearance before truck frame and tire axle became intimate. I forgot to take a pic of how loaded down my friends truck was until about 2/3 of the way done unloading...

Best Friend in the world that would help you out no matter what...

Part of the original load unloaded

 

[Eli26]

I thought at first.. BOOO! Not another lame post plateau thread, but this is actually neat! I love home projects! I can not wait to see how this turns out bud!

 

[Mesa]

I plan on laying tile in the next few days. I hope to be finished within the next 30 days, althought there is a family visit somewhere in this time frame. Once done, get ready for some awesome collectible pics to be unleashed.

 

[Eli26]

Can't wait!