Here’s my progress so far:

• Dremel Multi-Max for demolition
• Installed concrete board
• Planned out my tile layout

Before you begin laying tile, you need to make sure you have the right tools for the job. Some tools make a job easier while other tools are an absolute necessity. This post will walk you through the different tools and what I’m using to lay my floor.

Tools for Installing Tile

Here’s the list of tools, grouped by task with brief explanations. This list does not include materials for laying tile (like spacers or grout).

Measuring – chalk line, tape measure, square
Before you lay that first tile, create at least two guides. You’ll need a chalk line, tape measure and square. The chalk line creates a highly visible, straight line. Use the square to ensure the lines are accurate. The distance from your guide, to the wall will reveal if your walls are square.

Mixing Thinset – bucket, mixing blade, drill/driver
Thinset is the adhesive that will fasten your ceramic tile in place. You can purchase pre-mixed tubs of thinset or mix your own. To mix thinset, grab a bucket- a 5 gallon bucket is best for most jobs. Make sure you have a heavy-duty mixing blade. Paint mixers are not up to the task and may leave pockets of unmixed compound. Use the mixing blade with an appropriately powerful drill/driver.

Laying Tile – trowels, grout float, sponge
Many people use a margin trowel to begin spreading thinset. I don’t have a margin trowel and use a broad putty knife instead. Notched trowels are available with varying notch sizes and styles. I have a ¼”, square-notched trowel to comb the thinset. Make sure you have the right size and style for your job. It’s also a good idea to have a straight, spare piece of wood to make sure all the tiles are nice and even. A grout float is used to apply grout after the tile is set. It features a rubber face with rounded corners and edges for smoothing the grout in place. Thinset can be messy. Keeping a wet sponge nearby makes it easy to clean as you work. Hardened thinset can be very difficult to remove.

Cutting Tile – nippers, wet saw
There are several tools available to cut ceramic tile but most jobs can be accomplished with a set of nippers and a wet saw. Nippers are great for making curved or irregular cuts in tile. Most feature a carbide tip and basically bite off a portion of the tile. The majority of cuts will take place on your wet saw. Use it to make accurate, straight cuts.

What do you think? Any tool suggestions that I left out?

The web is chock full of resources on hardwood floors. With some diligence, you can learn which hardwood floors are the hardest, what types of hardwoods are best for kitchens and baths, and what’s the best hardwood to go with cherry cabinets.

You can also find out that while hardwoods don’t add appraised value to most homes, they do add sales appeal, which can translate into real dollars at closing.

Even with all the available information, we think another resource can’t hurt — one that brings much of the information into a single place, with added information from our personal experience.

We’ve installed numerous hardwood floors in the past, and we’re about to tackle the job again in an upcoming project. So this series will be a lot of fun for us to write. In fact, with each article, we’re going to come back and update this index. Since we’ve already written a number of articles on the topic in the past, those are linked up below.

Pretty ambitious? We think so. But where would we be without ambition?

So stay tuned this Thursday for our first installment. Here’s a preview of all the articles to come (and some with links already written).

Wood Floor Basics

• Engineered vs. Solid Hardwood Floors
• Domestic vs. Exotic Hardwood Floors
• Prefinished vs. Stained Hardwood Floors
• Hardwood Flooring Thicknesses
• Tongue and Groove Hardwood Floors
• Where to Buy Hardwood Floors

Tools

• Hardwood Flooring Tools (Overview w/ Recommendations)
• Inexpensive Hardwood Flooring Nailers
• Finish Nailer & Compressor Combo Kits
• Using Cleats vs. Staples in Hardwood Installations
• Fixing a Jammed Hardwood Flooring Nailer
• Rent vs. Buy a Hardwood Flooring Nailer
• Professional Grade Hardwood Flooring Nailers

Installation

• Basic Hardwood Flooring Installation Instructions
• Hardwood Flooring Subfloor Basics
• Hardwood Flooring over Plywood or Oriented Strand Board (OSB)
• Lay Hardwoods Perpendicular or Parallel to the Joists
• Install the First and Last Hardwood Boards in an Installation (Special Instructions)
• Install Hardwood Flooring on Staircases, Stairs, and Steps
• Installing Hardwoods under Door Jambs and in Other Trouble Spots
• Acclimating Hardwoods Prior to Installation
• Installing Baseboard Molding
• Installing Quarter Round or Shoe Molding
• Dealing with Obstacles in Hardwood Installations
• Installing a Toilet on a Hardwood Floor

Finishes, Stains, and Seals

• Best Hardwood Flooring Finish
• Aluminum Oxide vs. Polyurethane Sealer

Hardwood Flooring Costs

• How to Get Free Hardwood Flooring Samples
• Hardwood Flooring Cost by Square Foot
• Average Hardwood Flooring Cost by Job
• Hardwood Flooring Labor Installation Cost

Care and Maintenance

• Hardwood Floor Cleaning Instructions
• Polishing Hardwood Floors

Refinishing Hardwood Floors

• How to Refinish Wood Floors

Hardwood Flooring Style

• Installing Hardwood Flooring in a Kitchen or Bathroom
• Light vs. Dark Hardwood Floors
• Hardwood Flooring Wood Grains
• How Sunlight Affects Hardwood Flooring Color
• Painting vs. Staining Quarter Round and Shoe Molding
• Selecting Baseboard Molding

If you think there’s another article we should write, let us know in the comments and we’ll make sure to include it!

(photo: right about me)

Choosing Decorative Shelves

Material:
The material of the shelving, whether glass, wood, or metal should be a reflection of the already existing color and decor present in the space. I chose white, painted wood shelves to incorporate more light into the space. Also, the two rooms, Izzie’s and the powder, have a soft, fresh look, so glass and metal shelves would look too cold and darker, stained wood shelves would appear too formal. Also, consider what items you will be putting on the shelf – wood shelves are sturdier and can hold more weight.

Brackets:
There are many styles of brackets to choose from once you choose the material of the shelf. Brackets can be decorative, basic and functional, or hidden entirely. I have found that decorative brackets can make shelving look more unique and can help to integrate the shelf into existing decor. Do not feel trapped into sets of shelving and brackets sold together; if you don’t like the look paint them or make your own!

Style:
The combination of material and brackets can create very different looks and again, should reflect the style of the room, whether it is modern, rustic, or whimsical. Step back and assess what feel your room has before purchasing. Even take a picture and bring it with to the store to ensure the shelving will compliment your existing look. If your room is more modern, with bold colors, consider glass shelving with geometric brackets. If your room is rustic, consider bulkier, unfinished wood shelving with iron brackets.

Design:
Once you have chosen the shelving and brackets that will fit with the style of the room, consider the number and size of the shelves, spacing, and arrangement. For smaller spaces, use fewer, smaller shelves. For larger spaces, increase the number of shelves and the width between them. Play with the arrangement – assess how the spacing and location of the shelves will draw your eye and open (or close) up the room. Also, think about what items will be placed on the shelf – the item should not be proportionally too large for the chosen shelf. If taller items are to be placed on the shelf, remember to increase the space between the shelves if another shelf is placed above.

Price:
Shelving can be a great way to use and organize already existing nick-nacks and collections. It is also a cheap alternative to expensive art. Home Depot, Amazon.com, and Ikea all have great shelving options and varying prices to meet your price bracket!

What do you think? How have you used shelving to add a creative flare to your space?

We’ve installed a number of ceramic and stone floors. The job isn’t difficult when it’s done right… But done wrong, it can leave a homeowner with a feeling of defeat. A poor ceramic installation will delaminate from the subfloor, split at the grout lines, or worse–crack directly across the tile.

One question that folks new to ceramic tile frequently ask is whether they can lay the ceramic directly on top of a plywood or OSB subfloor, using a thinset cement or liquid nails to glue down the tile to the wood.

Problems with Ceramic Directly on Plywood or OSB

The basic answer to whether you should lay ceramic directly over plywood or OSB is simple: you shouldn’t do it. Here’s why:

Plywood and OSB expand and contract with humidity and temperature much more than ceramic tile. Regular seasonal humidity shifts are significant enough to make the average 10′ x 10′ wood subfloor floor expand or contract as much as 1/2″. Ceramic tile doesn’t expand/contract nearly as much. As the plywood or OSB expands, the ceramic won’t. You’ll begin to see hairline cracks in the grout, then the grout will crumble a bit. Eventually, after several seasonal cycles, tiles will begin to come loose or crack.

Plywood and OSB have surface imperfections. This concern is significantly less important than the first; but it is nonetheless still a concern. Plywood and OSB frequently have imperfect joints and surface textures. While these could be smoothed over with thinset, they are much harder to manage than the correct solution.

Proper Way to Lay Ceramic on Plywood or OSB

There are two materials commonly used for laying ceramic on plywood or OSB that are applied before the tile:

Concrete Board – Concrete board, also called Backer Board comes in 1/4″ and 1/2″ thicknesses and is usually sold in 4′ x 6′ sheets. It should be fastened to the subfloor using thinset, and then screwed down every 10″ square. Screws should be kept at least 2.5″ from the edge of the board, since it is prone to split. You should use a 1/4″ slotted trowel to apply the thinset. Leave 1/4″ gaps between each board.

Concrete board has similar expansion properties to ceramic tile (it doesn’t expand/contract much at all). The combination of thinset and screws prevents the plywood or OSB from expanding beneath the concrete board, thus creating a strong bonding surface for the tile that doesn’t shift with thermal or humidity changes.

Once the concrete board is down, you fill in the 1/4″ gap with thinset and a special mesh tape available anywhere ceramic products are sold.

There are a number of concrete board manufacturers including the popular hardiebacker. Check your local home improvement store or ceramic tile shop.

Ditra – This is a special plastic material made by Schulter (official site). The unique geometric design decouples the subfloor from the surface of the Ditra, effectively serving the same function as concrete board. Ditra should be set with thinset using a 1/8″ trowel.

Once laid, the surface of the Ditra is suitable for ceramic installation. You can either use a 1/4″ trowel and apply enough thinset to fill in the gaps, or you can skim coat the Ditra first using the flat side of the trowel and then use a 1/4″ trowel to lay ceramic in a two step process.

Good Results From Proper Tiling

Using backerboard or Ditra to mediate the expansion and contraction of the subfloor will lead to a much longer lasting and professional-looking tile job that is much less likely to cause trouble in the future.

(photo credits: DDFic, Schluter)

Passive System Motion Detectors

Most homes utilize a passive infrared (PIR) motion sensor that will trigger a light.

• Passive systems don’t actively add anything (sound, laser, etc.) to the environment around them. Passive systems simply monitor the surrounding area.
• Infrared (IR) is light with a wavelength between 700 nm and 300 µm. The human eye can’t see it, but sensors can detect it.

What PIR Sensors Detect

PIR sensors act like a photosenser for electrons. Infrared light conducts electrons off an object and those electrons become a signal to the sensor. Most sensors look for a rapid change in IR energy otherwise more subtle changes, like asphalt cooling, would trigger the sensor. That’s why it seems like movement will trip the sensor.

What the Lens Can See

Most motion lights feature a plastic lens with one or two IR sensors. These lenses are typically curved to bend light and provide a much wider field of view. However they cannot “see” through everything. Glass is one substance that blocks IR energy.

What do you think? Have you ever investigated your motion detector?
Image courtesy of Megyarsh

Last year, I wrote about fixing the ice-frozen outside compressor unit for our heat pump.  This winter has been record-breaking for precipitation here in Maryland, however, so I found I needed to readdress the issue with our HVAC guy.  What I learned?  I can adjust the frequency of the compressor’s defrost cycle on my own to keep up with whatever Nature sends us.

With all the freezing rain and snow we’ve experienced this fall and winter, our compressor’s defroster just wasn’t keeping up.  Turns out, it was set to run only every 90 minutes of running time.  An energy-efficient setting, but not frequent enough for this year’s weather. 

Mike showed me where to adjust the settings inside the removeable side-panel on the outside unit.  Yours should look much the same.

We moved the white clip from the 90 minute setting to 50.  If that turns out not to be frequent enough, we will move it to 30 minutes, but so far we seem to be doing fine with 50.

So depending on where you’re living, how cold it is, how much precipitation you’re getting in the cold weather, and where your outside unit sits (ours is under our deck – never directly in the sunlight!) you can adjust your defroster settings accordingly.  For those living in the southern U.S., you should be fine with the 90 minute setting.  Our friends in Canada and the northern U.S. states may need it to run every 30 minutes in the winter.

Note that the settings are how often the defroster kicks on during system run-time.  So if your compressor runs for 10 minutes, turns off for a half an hour, then runs again for 15 minutes, that’s 25 minutes of run-time, even though 55 minutes have elapsed.  Ours was going a few hours before it had run for the requisite 90 minutes to engage the defroster and that was too infrequent for our unit this winter.

Running the defroster does, of course, use extra energy, so you don’t want it to run more frequently than you need it.  That’s why we dropped to every 50 minutes rather than jumping straight to a defrost cycle of every 30 minutes of run-time.  Should we have a really mild winter again in the future (as we have most years in the past), I may move the setting back to 90 minutes.  But for this year, it’s not worth the risk of damaging the unit (ice-chunks building up and causing damage to the spinning fan blades and subsequently to the motor) just to save a few cents in energy cost each week. 

Hope this is helpful to someone else out there!  It’s a quick and free first-resort solution for dealing with an iced-over unit that otherwise is in good working condition (and can help trouble-shoot before you call an HVAC repair person and pay for a visit).

Researching a Print Server

I have a Canon MP600 inkjet printer (Canon site). It’s a nice little printer / scanner / copier. After looking several print servers and reading a lot of reviews, it became apparent that no print server is really designed to support a multifunction printer. They support printing but not scanning (or faxing if you have that feature).

I have several Apple brand products. They all work well, especially with each other, so I decided to continue with the Apple Airport Express (Apple site). All the reviews had positive things to say and Fred used an Airport to setup a wireless speaker system. Click here for his full Airport Express review. Here’s my experience.

Airport Express as a Print Server

Setup
Setup was an easy matter. I bumped into some software confusion but simply reset the Airport and updated my software. To reset your Airport, press and hold the small button by the audio port. The Airport came with a CD with the latest software version.

The other potential problem depends on what type of security your wireless router employs. The Airport Express is designed to work with WPA encryption- something that I already had setup.

When I installed the MP600 on the computer, it went flawlessly. The printer showed up in the list (as it should) as a bonjour connected device.

Printing
Printing is the same as through a USB connection. The only difference I can find- it takes just a few more seconds before the print job starts.

Where to Buy an Airport Express?

You can learn more about the Airport Express at Apple’s Airport Express Official Site.  If the device is right for you, you can save 5% off the retail price ($99) by picking up the airport express at Amazon.  Amazon ships the unit for free and you can avoid sales tax in some locations.

What do you think? Do you have an Airport Express for printing?

One of my favorite parts of the book deals with whether real estate agents garner higher sale prices for their clients than if the client were to simply sell the house on their own. In order to tease out the answer, Levitt and Dubner look at a variety of sales data in a particular locale and examine the average sales price differences between agents’ selling their own homes vs. other people’s homes. They also looked at how long a property was on the market in each situation.

What did they find?

As you might expect, they found that, on average, a real estate agent’s home sold for more money, and stayed on the market longer than a typical property. They also found that, on average, homes sold with the assistance of an agent didn’t sell for any higher than those homeowners who sold on their own.

What Levitt and Dubner found didn’t really surprise me… it all comes down to incentives.

Realtors Are Motivated to Sell Properties Fast, Not at a High Price

Most real estate agents in today’s market charge 5-6% of the sales price of the house for their services. Of that amount, half is usually provided as an incentive for the buyer’s agent, making the selling agent’s take only about 3%. But, that 3% is usually split 50/50 with the agent’s company, which means that the agent is likely to get about 1.5% of the sales price.

Let’s say you have a house that’s worth $250,000. With some effort and marketing, a real estate agent can get you full price. But, with less effort and marketing, they can get $240,000. To you, the difference between $250,000 and $240,000 is a whopping $10,000 – more than 2 months pay for most Americans.

But what’s the difference in the agent’s take? 1.5% of $250,000 is $3,750, while 1.5% of $240,000 is $3600, a difference of only $150!

If selling the property for $250,000 takes 20 more hours of work (e.g., additional showings, open houses, etc.), you can see that it just doesn’t make sense. The Realtor would only be working for about $7.00 / hour for those hours.

A Better Way to Pay A Real Estate Agent

So if straight commission isn’t a good way to pay, what’s the better alternative?

Levitt and Dubner don’t get into this… but I think the best way is to set a basic fee for listing the house, and then pay a large incentive above a certain sales price.

For instance, you might pay $1000 for standard listing services, and then 50% of the price above some base price. In our example, perhaps we would pay $1000 for basic listing and settlement services, and 50% of the sales price above $250,000. In this model, our agent is highly motivated to exceed the target sales price of $240,000 by as much as possible, since his take is highly dependent on sales price.

Of course, this relies on homeowners knowing approximately what their home is worth and being willing to negotiate with the agent. Unfortunately, since real estate agents are the ‘experts’, they normally dictate the compensation model. Most people buy and sell houses only a few times in their whole lives, and aren’t really ready to negotiate these terms. In most cases, they also wouldn’t know what is ‘fair’ for the base price, and being off by even $10,000 in this attribute could lead to paying an inordinate fee to the agent.

What do you think about Real Estate Agents?

I’m really curious what you think about real estate agents.

Are they worth the price? Is there a better way to motivate them to get the highest price available? How do you make sure your not getting ‘taken’?

P.S. Freakonomics started as a NY Times blog. If you like examining the other side of everything, you can follow it at that link. The link for the first book is at the top of the article. There’s also a sequel called Super Freakonomics, if you haven’t gotten enough

TOSCA 5-Minute Install

The real highlight of this faucet is an amazing 5-minute installation. TOSCA achieved this by creating a patented base that enables you to work above the sink. The flexible stainless steel supply lines are factory installed and required Allen keys are provided. All you need to grab is a pipe wrench, pipe tape and clear silicone caulk (if installing deck plate).

TOSCA Faucet Winner

And the winner of our TOSCA Faucet Giveaway is Trish. Trish posted two entries in our forums that earned her 10 chances to win the contest. Congratulations! Like all of our giveaways, there was a lot of competition. We used random.org to select a winner out of the 903 total entries: 213 comments, 19 forum entries and 10 blog entries.

What the Winner Gets

Trish gets a sweet TOSCA kitchen faucet delivered right to her front door- MSRP $130. For everyone else, head over to your local Lowes and pick one up.

Link Love

Make sure to email us when you post a blog entry. Official entries must link back to the original post.

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Stay Tuned

More giveaways to come!

Reader question: I’m about to lay hardwoods in my house and I’ve heard that you should lay them perpendicular to windows so the light doesn’t reflect off the gaps in the boards. A friend told me that I should lay the wood across the joists and that would mean running the wood parallel to the windows. What’s the right answer?

Good question. In our opinion, it depends on what subfloor is already sitting on top of the joists, and specifically whether its plywood or OSB.

Plywood vs. OSB Subfloor

If it’s 5/8″ plywood or less, we’d run the wood perpendicular to the joists. If it’s 3/4″ plywood or more, we’d be less concerned which direction the wood was running but would still be inclined to run the wood across the joists. With 3/4″ plywood, the plywood itself will likely grip the fasteners well enough to avoid the floor from pulling up.

If it’s any type of oriented strand board (OSB), we’d only run the wood across the joists. OSB doesn’t hold hardwood fasteners as well as plywood does; so picking up a joist periodically will be good. With 1/2″ OSB, we’d mark the joists with lines on the surface of the OSB and ensure we were driving fasteners down into the joists as often as possible to increase the strength of the floor.

Glue and Screw Additional Plywood

If you really want to run the hardwoods perpendicular to the windows, and your floor isn’t 3/4″ plywood, you could glue and screw a half inch of plywood to the existing sub-floor. Glue using liquid nails and screw the floor down every 10-12 inches square. This costs you 1/2″ of room height and extra materials, but it is a viable alternative.

Prefinished vs. Unfinished Woods

I think a major question about whether the windows issue is a problem is how smooth your floor is and whether you’ll lay prefinished or finish-in-place floors. Prefinished floors are more likely to show gaps between the boards than finish-in-place floors, because the latter is sanded flat prior to finishing.

No matter what you do, you should eliminate squeaks on the subfloor first by screwing the floor down through the sub-floor to the joists anywhere you can hear squeaking. You should also lay red rosin paper on the subfloor before you apply the wood to eliminate squeaks caused by the subfloor and hardwood rubbing together.

If you haven’t already purchased hardwood flooring tools, follow that link for the complete list of what you’ll need.

(photo: pdz_house)