Tiling Work (Continued) Day 6
9.30am- 2pm
The main tiler did not bring his wife (helper) and son today there was just ‘a bit’ left to do. Today the atmosphere is a lot more relaxed.
Floor tiles installation at the back door area
I had numbered and drawn arrows on 3 floor tiles before the tiler arrived.
The drain cover
The tiler informed me that the original drain cover was ‘stuck’ and planned to leave it as it is. The initial plan was replace it with a new one. The original drain cover was actually opened up by the hacking subcontractors 4 months ago.
The contractor explained that it was possible to hack it but would be at an awkward angle as the countertop was installed. It is unlikely that it would be opened up for servicing later on but it is just in case.
I felt that it is better to leave it as it is as hacking would create more gaps and create point of entry for cockroaches. If servicing is necessary later, it could be hacked then.
Countertop base tile installation
The contractor had suggested using leftover tiles to tile the countertop base. He also had bright orange rough ceramic tiles from his previous projects. Some people use their remaining tiles to tile it up as it is not that visible after cabinets are installed.
The tiles we bought… floor tiles was too rough, wall tiles was too ‘soft’ and the countertop tiles was too expensive. I wanted it to be easy to clean, could stand the load of heavy duty items and was reasonably priced.
Piglet and I bought homogeneous porcelain tiles that were half the price of the floor and countertop tiles. I did not realise that the drain cover was to be tiled on top so used that portion measurement as ‘wastage’ when purchasing the tile. Anyway I don’t mind lacking a few and not the opposite.
When the tilers told me that we were 1 tile short, I asked whether they can use any porcelain tiles (countertop or wood floor tiles) wastage there. They still had some tiles left but it means that the grout would not be ‘in line’.
Grouting
They grouted the replaced wall tile and the wall tile at end panel underneath the countertop
Works left out
There were a couple of tiling works left for the contractor as requested by him.
1. The floor trap to be installed in the middle of the kitchen He wanted to fix the drain.
2. A wall tile to be installed as we could not find the water main for this tap.
Leftover Tiles
Hmmm. Let’s see how many leftover tiles did we have…
| Wastage + Spare Estimate | Bought Extra | Leftover tiles | |
| Backsplash | 35pcs 11% | – | 34pcs |
| Wall | – | 40 + 8 pcs | 3pcs |
| Countertop | 2pcs 22% | – | 2pcs |
| Cabinet base | 2pcs 8% | – | 0 |
| Floor | – | 6 pcs | 4pcs |
Tiling- ticked!
I’m really glad that the tiling works is done to carry on with the next stage of renovation.