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The Important Things After Clear Tiles

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You may need to apply some pressure to reach into all of the stone’s imperfections. It may take up to 24 hours for the stone to fully dry. A dry mop pad (or more than one) can be used if you are cleaning a lannon stone floor.

If you are cleaning in an enclosed space, it may speed up the drying process if you open up a few windows or turn on a fan. Test the stone with a damp meter. It’s important to ensure that you get all of the moisture off of the stone to prevent the growth of mold.

You can apply a device called a damp meter to the surface of the stone and it will tell you if any moisture remains. If you get a reading showing a high moisture percentage, continue to dry out the stone with a fan or additional towels.

Use a buffing machine to make floors shiny. You can rent these from a hardware store or buy a handheld version. Put a fresh burnishing cloth on the machine and go over the stone in small circles.

Generally, the only fluid that you’ll need is a small squirt of water to help the pad slide over the stone’s surface. However, make sure to keep the PSI (water pressure) on the lowest setting or you could chip away or etch the stone.

How Removing Stains?

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Pick a marble tiles poultice. There are a wide variety of poultice products you can use to remove stains from Carrara marble tiles. Poultice will help draw out moisture and stains from the marble tiles. You can purchase poultices at a home improvement store in your community.


Some popular poultices for Carrara marble tiles include: Fuller’s earth, whiting, diatomaceous earth, talc, and powdered chalk. Most all poultices should work to effectively remove stains from your marble tiles. Apply the poultice. Make sure the area is clean and dry before you apply any poultice.


Use a plastic or wood putty knife or spatula to spread the poultice over the stained area. The poultice spread should be about 1/4 of an inch to ½ of an inch thick (6.35 ml to 12.7 ml). Cover the poultice with plastic wrap. After you’ve applied the poultice, you need to cover it with plastic wrap for one to two days.


The plastic wrap will make sure the poultice doesn’t make a mess or dry out. The one to two days will give the poultice time to draw out the stain. Avoid letting the poultice sit for any longer than two days. This could damage your marble tiles. Remove the poultice. After you’ve allowed it to sit for one to two days, use a putty knife or spatula to remove the poultice.


It’s important to remove all the poultice after you’ve let it sit. If you don’t, you could wind up damaging your marble tiles. Use a rag dampened in a warm water and soap/detergent mixture to remove any residual poultice. Repeat application of the poultice. Some stains may remain after your initial application of poultice. As a result, you may need to reapply it.

How Removing Tough Stains?

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Use an enzymatic cleaner on pet stains. If you have stains from pets or other animals on your concrete, try an enzymatic cleaner like OxiClean. These types of cleaners target and help to break down protein in stains. You should apply these types of cleaners directly to the stain without diluting them with any liquid and then let them soak into the stain.


However, it can take up to a few days for these types of cleaners to break down the stains on your concrete. Use an oil-based cleaner on non-washable crayon stains. Oil-based cleaners like Goo-Gone and WD-40 are great for stains made by non-washable crayons. Spread on the cleaner and let it soak before scrubbing at it with a short, stiff-bristled brush. Then rinse with water.


Try laundry detergent on grease stains. If you have concrete stains made by grease, laundry detergent can help remove them. Make a paste of powdered laundry detergent and water for grease stains. Apply the paste to the stain, cover it tightly with plastic wrap (you can tape the edges to your concrete surface), and let it soak for 24 hours. Then scrub and rinse.


Sprinkle kitty litter over oil stains. For oil stained concrete, cover the affected area with a clay kitty litter and grind it in with your feet while you’re wearing old shoes. Let it sit for up to 24 hours and then sweep up the kitty litter and rinse it away. This might take a few rounds, depending on the size of the stains you cleaned and how much cleanser you had to use.


You can let the area dry naturally, particularly if you’re cleaning on a hot day. Make sure that you hose off any plants or planting beds that are around the concrete patio and may have been sprayed with cleaner. Use a degreasing agent for oil, grease, or hydrocarbon stains. Alkaline cleaners, which are also called degreasers, can help you remove stains caused by oil, grease, or hydrocarbons.

How to Repair Cracks in Wood Floors?

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Get some sawdust from the floor you want to repair. If you don’t have any leftover pieces of matching wood laying around your house, you’ll have to go to a flooring store and buy a piece of wood to match. (same species and stain if possible).


If you can’t find any wood to match, you’ll have to “cannibalize” a piece of the existing floor. Pull up the baseboard and pry up a strip from the edge of the floor, or alternatively, remove a piece from under a doorway. Sand the side of the wood nearest the wall where it will be hidden under the baseboard once it’s re-laid, or at the edge of the strip under the door where it’s hidden by the door jamb.


Using a belt sander, sand off a cup or two of wood from the piece of wood into a container (or however much you think you’ll need to fill the cracks). Mix the sawdust with some wood glue to make a fairly thick paste. Using a plastic trowel (or a plastic spatula), lay the sawdust/glue mixture into the cracks. Try to finish off as smooth as possible.


Wipe the patch and adjacent flooring with a damp rag to wipe off any excess. Wipe on a diagonal to avoid pulling filler out of the patch. Let the filler dry for a day or two. Hiring a flooring specialist to work on your home involves a certain amount of trust. Go online to read reviews of contractors in your area or ask a friend or loved one for a personal recommendation to find one that meets your standards.


Sand lightly. If there’s a huge color difference between the patch and the rest of the floor, you might need to re-stain the patch.Using a very small artist’s brush, stain the patch. Allow to dry for a minute and wipe off. Let the stain set overnight and using another small artist’s brush, cover the patch with a coat of varnish to match the existing floor.

How Cleaning Solid Stone Tiles?

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Dry mop solid stone tiles every day or two. Dry mop your tiles every day or as soon as you notice dirt or debris. The dry dust mop will prevent sand and grit from rubbing against the tiles which can cause scratches. You should dry mop if your tiles are made of:Granite, Slate, Limestone, Marble, Sandstone.


Wash the tiles with soap and water. Fill a 5 US gal (19 L) bucket with water and a few squirts of mild dish soap or stone soap. Dip a mop into the soapy water and wring it out. Mop the tiles in small, overlapping circles to remove the dirt and prevent streaking.


Choose a soapstone with a pH level of 7 or try to find a soapless cleanser since it won’t leave streaks. If you’re using dish soap, choose one that’s phosphate-free and biodegradable.


Identify if you should use a bleach solution. To remove algae or moss, clean the tiles with a bleach solution. If your solid stone tiles are near a pool, patio, or hot tub, wash them off with clean water. Pour 2 gallons (7.6 L) of water into a bucket and stir in 4 tablespoons (59 ml) of bleach. Use a sponge or mop to wash the area with the mild bleach solution.


Rinse and dry the tiles. If you’re cleaning a large space, take a garden hose and rinse the tiles with clean water to remove any soap residue. If you’re cleaning a small area, you can dip the mop in clean water and wring it out. Mop over the tiles so they’re rinsed with the clean water. Wipe the tiles with a soft cloth until they’re dry and let them air dry completely.

How to Removes the Dirt and Sanitizes the Tiles?

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Removes the dirt and sanitizes the tiles. A sponge mop works best for this method; however, any mop will do the job. Change the water in your bucket if it turns brown or grey so you don’t leave a film on your tiles.

Buff and dry the tiles with an old towel. Rub an old towel over the wood marble tiles to dry the area. Press down on the towel while you rub it back and forth to buff the tiles and give them a shiny clean look.

This process removes the dirt and sanitizes the tiles. A sponge mop works best for this method; however, any mop will do the job. Change the water in your bucket if it turns brown or grey so you don’t leave a film on your wood tiles.

Buff and dry the tiles with an old towel. Rub an old towel over the tiles to dry the area. Press down on the towel while you rub it back and forth to buff the tiles and give them a shiny clean look.

Wipe the soap suds off the tiles with warm water and a dishcloth. Dunk a clean dishcloth in warm water and wring it out to remove any excess water. Wipe the entire tile surface until all the soap suds are gone. If the dishcloth get soapy, rinse it in warm water and then carry on wiping the tiles.

Dry the area with a tea towel. This avoids the wall tiles from growing mold or mildew. Use a clean tea towel to dry all the moisture from the tiles and grout. If you don’t have spare tea towel, use paper towels instead.

How to Remove Wall Tiles?

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Removing wall tiles is different, and more difficult, than removing floor tiles because wall tiles are typically set very close together, with minimal grout lines. This means that it takes more care to remove a wall tile without damaging the surrounding tiles.

Try to locate a loose tile. If you plan to remove a whole wall of tiles, try tapping the edge of each one with a chisel for signs of looseness. The first Rustic tile is much harder to remove than the rest, so it’s worth taking some extra time to see if you can get lucky. If you locate one, use either of the methods below to remove it. Your best bet is in areas where you’ve removed the grout, and areas with signs of water damage.

Chisel tiles away from the wall. This approach should let you save more of your cement tiles for reuse, unless the tiles are unusually well-adhered or a relatively recent installation. Give it a try by inserting a chisel, putty knife, or other flat tool in between the spots tile and the wall, almost parallel to the wall. Tap the handle of the tool with a hammer until the ceramic tile comes away from the wall. You may need to pry it off in two or three places if firmly attached.

If the wood marble tiles break instead of coming away, try an air chisel instead. Have an assistant wearing leather gloves catch the tiles as they come away, before they fall. The first wood tile is generally much harder than the rest. Take your time to tap out the first one, then attack the exposed edge of the next tile. Make sure to be very careful near the edges because the tile price will chip easily.

 

Break the tile if necessary. If your wall tiles design are set directly into the mortar, you’ll probably need to give up on saving it and crack it into pieces. Start by using a hammer and chisel to make a hole in the center of the wood marble tile, then chisel the cracked tile pieces away, being careful not to damage the surrounding tiles.

Eye protection is especially important for this method. Porcelain tiles will break into extremely sharp, glass-like shards. If this happens, consider breaking them from the side with a hammer and chisel instead, to reduce the number of fragments. Clear the area of any remaining setting material. Use a cold chisel to chip away the setting material until the exposed wall surface is fairly even. You may not be able to remove all of the adhesive and grout, but you want to ensure that a new wall tile will sit flush with the surrounding wall tiles once it is installed.

Get rid of spacer lugs before attempting to install a replacement tile. These are metal objects that may be left behind during removal. You can remove spacer lugs by snipping them off with utility clippers, breaking them off with pliers, cutting them with a utility knife or sanding them down with sandpaper.

What should you do before lay a ceramic or porcelain tiles?

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Laying a ceramic or porcelain tile floor can be considered a daunting task, but with adequate planning and preparation, this perception can be overcome. Laying one’s own marble tile is also much less expensive (and possibly more rewarding) than having it professionally installed. Cost can be minimized by careful planning and preparation.

Laying the foundation. An unpleasant question to be faced is “What is your floor made up of?” Plywood is good. But, if you have the typical 1/2″ to 5/8″ particle board on top of a deck made of 2x8s, you have some work to do. After removal of the base trim, the particle board should be pulled up (this is easiest if you first cut it into about 16″ squares)and replaced by plywood. You will need a Skil saw, and if you’re doing the kitchen, you’ll need a “toe-kick saw.” Replace the particle board up to where the tiles design will stop. While you have the particle board off, you can inspect the deck to make sure it is firmly attached to the floor joists. Now you’re ready for leveling compound (if needed).

Lay the backer board. You will need to lay backerboard (fiberglass or preferably cement sheets that are usually 3 by 5 feet) as well, or the wood tiles will pop off. Evaluate the space to be tiled. A first phase of evaluation is to determine the size of the room to be tiled (or re-tiled). The number of cement tiles you will need will depend on the size of the tiles price you wish to lay, as well as the bathroom tile pattern you will like on the floor tiles. Using a tape measure or digital laser tape, measure the room from one wall to the opposite wall, and note the distance. Let’s say the measure of this distance is 12 feet (3.7 m). Measure the distance of the opposing walls to each other. Let’s say this distance is 7 feet (2.1 m). Multiplying these 2 distances (12 feet x 7 feet) will yield a total area of 84 square feet.

These measurements are based on squared dimensions. If the room is not perfectly “squared” (or in this case “rectangle”) because of an irregular marble floor tiles plan (where there might be a small section off of one side, for example), do not factor this space into your measurement. While you will of course need to tiles this space, factoring this space into your measurements will affect finding the “center” of the room, which will be discussed shortly. This area is important to note, since it will provide you with an estimate of the number of tiles you will need to purchase to cover the area to be tiled.

Decide on your tiles size and pattern. Tiles come in different sizes: 4 inch (10.2 cm) by 4 inch (10.2 cm), 8 inch (20.3 cm) by 8 inch (20.3 cm), 12 inch (30.5 cm) by 12 inch (30.5 cm), for example (there are others, too). Tiles can also be laid in different patterns. The total number of wood marble tiles you will need will depend on the size and pattern you want. For simplicity’s sake, let’s assume we are going to use 12 inch (30.5 cm) by 12 inch (30.5 cm) tiles and use a traditional grid design, where tiles are simply laid in pattern like graph paper.

Because the area of the room is 84 square feet, we will need about 84 12 inch (30.5 cm) x 12 inch (30.5 cm) (1 square foot) tiles (even accounting for the spaces in between tiles, known as “joints”). However, it is a good rule of thumb for beginners to purchase extra tiles to account for improperly cut or scored tiles, or for breakage. Buy an extra pack or two of tiles to be safe. When laying tiles diagonally, a lot of material is wasted as cutoffs. A good rule of thumb here, even for experts, is to buy 15% more tiles than the square footage would dictate.

Measuring and cleaning the walls before tiling a wall tiles

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Measure the width and height of the wall to find out how many marble tiles you need. Use measuring tape to take precise measurements of the area of wall you’ll be tiling wall tiles. To find the area of your wall, multiple the length times the width, and then divide this number by the area of 1 box of the tiles design you are using in order to determine how many to purchase. When you’re purchasing the tiles price, buy an extra package of tiles in case some get damaged while you’re hanging them.

For instance, if the wall is 10 by 12 feet (3.0 by 3.7 m), it is 120 square feet (11 m2). Then, if each box of tiles has 10 square feet (0.93 m2) of tile, divide 120 by 10 to find that you need 12 boxes to cover the wall exactly. Then, you should add an additional box to account for potentially damaged cement tiles. Since the grout doesn’t take up much space between the tiles, and your tiles likely won’t fit in the space perfectly, you don’t need to account for it in your calculations.

Use a chisel and hammer if you need to remove existing rustic tiles. Put on a pair of safety goggles before you start removing the tiles. Then, place the chisel at a 45 degree angle between the tiles and hit the end of the chisel with the hammer to separate the wood marble tiles from the wall. Use the chisel to scrape between the tiles and the wall until they’ve all been removed.

It’s easiest to start removing wood tiles from a corner or from the top of the wall so you can place the chisel directly on the grout, which tends to be weaker than the tiles. Be careful while you’re removing the tiles. It’s easy to accidentally make a crack or hole in the drywall if you’re not holding the chisel at a 45 degree angle while you work.

Fill any cracks or holes in the wall with spackle. Once you’ve exposed the drywall underneath any existing tiles, you’ll be able to see any problem areas. Use a scraper to apply the spackle and let it dry according to the package directions, which is normally about 4-6 hours. For cracks and holes larger than 4–5 inches (10–13 cm), you may need to patch them with drywall. If you’ve never hung drywall, ask a professional for a quote to see how much it will cost to fix that area.

If the wall doesn’t have marble wall tiles, it is probably painted or wallpapered. You can use the same method for repairing the drywall without removing the paint or wallpaper. Sand the walls with coarse sandpaper to smooth any bumps. If you had to remove pre-existing wall tiles design or fix holes and cracks, there are likely bumps in the wall.

You can tiles over it, but it needs to be smooth to prevent your new tiles from laying crooked. Look for 100-grit or 80-grit sandpaper, and wear a mask to protect your lungs from the particles in the air. If you’re sanding a large area, it might be easier to use an electric sander.

How to Install Tiles?

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Spread your mortar. Spread mortar in a small area where you will begin to work. Only work with a roughly 2’x3′ area at a time. You do not want the mortar to have time to set before you can lay your floor tiles. Using a notched trowel (different sizes may be needed, 3/8″ is a good starting point), spread the mortar between sections that you marked with the chalk line. If the mortar rises up between the tiles design (to be flush or nearly flush with the cement tiles surface), that means it’s too thick or that the ridges need to be shorter.

The mortar should be covering the entire tiles, if you lift it up after placing it. If when you lift up the wood tiles you see only lines of mortar on the tiles, then the mortar has dried out too much or the bed is too thin and the height of the ridges must be increased. If using tile sheets, use a trowel with smaller notches. This will keep the mortar from coming up through the gaps between the tiles.

Lay your tiles. Lay your tiles onto the mortar, starting at the right corner you marked and following a straight line. Leave gaps of 1/8″ where the edge of the marble tiles meets up with the wall or floor. This is to allow room for expansion and movement, as the material naturally changes with its environment. This gap can be covered with grout, molding, or shoe tiles.

Insert the spacers as you go. Place tile spaces between each tiles price as you go, or simply use your eyes to estimate if using bathroom tiles sheets. These spacers are usually places at the corners of each tiles and look like the cross shape that is formed by four wood marble tiles being next to each other. Level the tiles as you go. Use a carpenter’s level as you go to make sure that the tiles are level.

Cut tiles for the edges. Use a masonry wet saw to cut any tiles you need for the corners and edges, carefully measuring them to fit for your particular tiles project. Don’t forget to leave the 1/8″ gap all around the edge. Remove your spacers before doing the grout. Remove the spaces once the mortar has set and you’re ready to grout.