After some budgeting and cost calculations, I determined that now was the time to make some major improvements. So, we took the plunge; new tile floor here we come! As you will see in the pictures below, we have a small entry way from our front door that leads to our living room and then a small strip of carpet in front of our stairs that leads to the kitchen. This small, but heavily traveled carpeted area, was almost black with dirt. No matter how many times we got our carpet cleaned, this area was always the worst. So, we decided to tile the kitchen and extend that tile in front of the stairs to meet up with the front entry way.
Here is what the space looked like before:
Kitchen:
Area in front of stairs/entry way:
We are lucky enough to have a friend, Crystal, who has a boyfriend, Dennis, that is a professional tiler (tile layer?). They came over and looked at the space and gave me a really reasonable quote. All sounded good to me, so I was off to go find some tile. I went to Lowe's and only found 1 tile that I kind of liked. I brought a sample home to lay on the floor and I really didn't like it that much. That tile was $1.50/sq. ft.
I did some searching online for alternative tile stores and came across Floor & Decor in Arvada. Online, they had prices like .55/sq ft etc. so I thought I need to go check this out! I ran over there last weekend and, again, only really found 1 style that I liked. I got a sample of that and then grabbed another sample just so I could see a few options. Turns out, the one I liked was the same one most of my family liked and that made the decision pretty easy. The best part was that the price was $.89/sq ft! Oh, I should mention that this is ceramic tile that is 13x13.
Here is the tile I chose:
A little hard to tell from the picture, but it is a mostly gray tile with streaks of beige. Pretty neutral and it should go with the remaining carpet and the cabinets and counter top in the kitchen.
The area to be tiled measured about 203 square feet, so we needed about 225 sq ft to accommodate cutting, broken tiles and what not. With the help of my sister's big Yukon, we hauled the tile back to the house. Good god those boxes were heavy!! And I had 15 boxes! Luckily my brother-in-law helped me load them into the house otherwise I'm pretty sure my arms would have fallen off.
On Friday, Dennis came over to start the tear out and prime the floor. The plan was to tile over the existing linoleum to save the effort and labor cost of ripping it out and resurfacing the sub-floor. He started by ripping out the disgusting carpet. I was so happy to see that go!! Even the rough sub-floor underneath looked better than that gross piece of carpet.
Next, he ripped out the linoleum (plus stick-on vinyl tiles) in the entry way. Then, he went to rip out the tack strip in the area where the kitchen linoleum met with the former ugly carpet area and had a premonition. He noticed that the linoleum in the kitchen was only glued around the perimeter and not all the way through like it should have been. He pulled up a little strip and shook it and sure enough, the linoleum rippled all the way through the kitchen proving that it wasn't adhered all the way through. Therefore, the sub-floor underneath was smooth, unmarred and the perfect base to lay tile. So away with the linoleum!
After a few hours, he had the carpet ripped out, new plywood laid where the carpet was (to create one level surface), the linoleum ripped out and the floor primed so when he came back Saturday morning he could start laying out and setting the tile.
Ugh, see that big water spot in front of the dishwasher? Apparently some time before we bought the house there was a dishwasher explosion. :) The wood wasn't warped or rotted, just stained fortunately.
On Saturday, Dennis started laying out the tile and it was fun to see the floor start to take shape.
Dennis got most of the work done on Saturday - much to the dismay of his aching back and knees. That meant on Sunday all he had left to do was lay a few more pieces in our small pantry and then do the grout. We also had a carpet guy come to tuck the carpet where the tile meets up with the living room. It looks like it was always meant to be this way!
Finally, it was grout time. Probably the most stressful part of the whole project for me was picking a grout color! Ok, so not really, but I had never even thought of it before so I didn't know exactly how to choose the right one. I went with a light/medium gray and it ended up looking fantastic.
So, after about 18 hours of work, our new floor is done (well, I'm allowing extra time for the grout to set before I put all my stuff back in the kitchen). The new tile is BEAUTIFUL!! I love it! We even ended up with extra tile which means there was hardly any waste. Dennis did a fantastic job! He was thorough, meticulous, and just clearly knew what he was doing. Plus he gave us an awesome deal. If you ever need tile work (kitchen, showers, counter tops, etc.) please let me know and I'll send him your way. Simply amazing!
And here is the finished product:
