Customer Reviews

Tiling Floors

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Michael Byrne's work in both his book "Setting Tile" and his DVD "Tiling Floors with Michael Byrne" are excellent resources for beginners, and were I an experienced tile setter, I would say so for those folks, too.

As a complete novice I recently completed my first tile project, re-doing my bathroom, some 50 square feet. In my opinion it turned out very well considering it was a first time effort. I relied heavily on Mr. Byrnes's works. That would be small by most accounts, but let me assure you, for me, it was large. I am in the process of doing another 500 square feet of work on a plywood substrate. After that I have another 500 feet downstairs on a concrete slab to do.

He makes it simple for anyone to understand. These works will remain life-long resources in my personal library.

While it is not possible to cover everything in any works like these, some areas I would suggest for improvement are some more clarification on areas around door jams in terms of doing the tiling around those, trimming them. More information on toilet removal and installation would have been helpful. The toilet borders on plumbing and that is a subject unto itself though. One more area that would be helpful is the area of cementitious backerboard. There are several kinds on the market and each has its own idiosyncracies.

But if one is considering undertaking a project like this, you can always rely on [...] for additional material.

Works by Taunton Press, the publisher of these media are also recommended. But again, no one resource can be everything. And finally, there is no substitute to finding reliable people to talk things through.

Again, I rate Mr. Byrnes's work as 5 Star.

I am a novice in this field but as an engineer I understand there should be some basic steps you must perform to achieve "any" task correctly. In this case I would be required to do re-tiling kitchen floor, and new tiling in baths walls. To perform this function I would need to start with the fundamentals, required tools and components(i.e., cutting tools, installation tools, grouting tools, tiles underneath supports and adhesives, etc). Tiles would be subjected to people weight, temperature changes, tiles should be flat on support when installed or else they would crack. Those fundamental sequential guidelines I was hoping to find in the CD so I could do a job right once , and not twice. I failed to find in this CD those guidelines; intead of, the author starts explaining in introduction how to install a moisture membrane, then floating a mortar floor, mix thinset, grouting (ch15), etc. None of those terms and components I know or worked with them. Of course if I go to Google I would find the terminology I would comprehend the intent of the CD. But to me as a beginner it does not help at all . In kitchen floor tiles which I plan to renovate and/or replace I found out by opening a square hole 16"X16" a subfloor of plywood which was rotten, then some sort of 1/2" board, with adhesives on both sides, then the broken tiles. By observing the hole I noticed that there must be specific steps for tile replacement that ensure that the complete job would be done 100% correct. I could not find that basic information/guidelines in this CD, so I need to read a book and and watch another CD that assures me I would be learning this trade and doing a job well done
Joseph