Archive for the ‘Walls / Ceilings’ Category

Kevin Boschee, owner of Beyond Foam Insulation is a foam master; we had a little chat about insulating your home down at Home Expo 2010. As I found out, because of the versatility of expanding spray foam insulation, you can insulate just about anything including spraying under your bathtub or hot tub to keep the heat in and even spraying your internal bathroom walls to provide a type of sound proofing. Spray foam for those unfamiliar with it is an expanding insulating foam that is environmentally friendly and also more energy efficient than regular fibreglass insulating foam because it is sprayed into every nook and cranny where it expands and forms an airtight seal that never sags to create gaps in your insulation. This is good news for the homeowner because spray foam can dramatically reduce your heating cost and with many government grants available for those wishing to make their homes more energy efficient, these grants can significantly reimburse the cost of the spray foam insulation upgrade with this eco friendly solution. Read the rest of this entry »

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Ceramic tiles are either of the porous or non-porous variety. When trying to decide which one to use for your bathroom tile installation, the best choice would ideally be non-porous ceramic tiles. If you have a small bathroom and your choice of tiles have designs on them, to keep your design elements in perspective, go for smaller sized tiles to better incorporate them into your overall design. It also makes good design sense to choose contrasting colours for the floor tiles and wall tiles to set them apart and create dimensional space in the room. To round off your bathroom décor, choose relevant bathroom accessories that compliment the colours of your bathroom tile walls. Read the rest of this entry »

Cement backerboard is a product made primarily as a substrate (waterproof base) for ceramic tile. It is normally installed over plywood or some other underlayment on walls, countertops or floors because it is unaffected by fluctuating temperature changes or the presence of moisture. Before you install the cement backerboad on your bathroom floor, you must first mark off the stud locations on your ceiling and joist locations on the walls because once you have troweled on the thinset, you want to be able to see the marks so you know where to fasten the backerboard screws. Also its always a good idea to protect your finished floors with a tarp of some type; this prevents your good floors from being scratched by the backerboard. Read the rest of this entry »

When I was installing my first tiled shower enclosure a couple years ago I talked to one of my friends, who was a professional tiler, about how to make sure my shower stall was water tight and he had mentioned cement backer board as the solution. Backer board is a drywall like product that you place behind your ceramic tile to protect the area around your shower stall from any water seepage or damage. Contrary to popular belief installing cement backer board on your bathroom walls isn’t as difficult as most people initially think; you just have to have the right tools, add in a sprinkle of patience and planning and the job should pan out quite nicely. Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Eric, I just want to say thanks for the great information on your site. My husband and I bought a previously owned house and have been living here for about nine months now. The grout in our bathroom looked fine when we first moved in, now however we are noticing it is beginning to crack and break up near the tub at the back of the toilet and under our pedestal sink. We think it may be because water gets by our shower curtains and sprays on the floor and our toilet had overflowed about a month back flooding our tile floor. Any suggestions as what we can do besides tearing up the floor to fix this problem. Debora M, Austin Texas. Read the rest of this entry »