Kitchen progress...
Well, we've come a long way. I have lots of pictures and I will post them later today or maybe tomorrow. Right now I am fighting a cold and am trying to take it easy.
The cabinetry is up. It's beautiful, and our small kitchen looks like it has grown. It hasn't; we just have lots more counter space and storage.
This weekend the guys are installing two layers of plywood as the foundation upon which the granite tiles will sit. They will also make the cuts for the undermount sink and the liquid soap holder, then mount the sink to the plywood. The plumber can come during this next week (for the last time!) to hook up the sink and the dishwasher. We also hope to lay down the first layer of thinset and a layer of Schlüter DITRA this weekend.
I can already hear you asking, "What the heck is Schlüter DITRA?" According to the Schlüter web site, DITRA is "a polyethylene membrane with a grid structure of square, cut-back cavities and an anchoring fleece laminated to its underside. In conjunction with tiled coverings, Schlüter®-DITRA forms an uncoupling, waterproofing, and vapor pressure equalization layer." Why is that important? Go to the John Bridge forums for a better explanation, but in short we are tiling the granite tile onto DITRA rather than Hardiboard, Denshield, or CBU. DITRA is much thinner and very lightweight - very easy to work with. The important part is that it acts to "uncouple" the movement between the foundation (in this case, the cabinet base & plywood) and the tile. Movement from the dishwasher or occasional nine-year old jumping on the counter is inevitable, even though we are using two layers of plywood ( 3/4" and 1/2") as a foundation for the granite tile.
We had a beautiful, custom-built home in Kansas, but the tile job on the floor and the counter tops was lousy. Everything looked nice at first, but then the grout on the countertops cracked relatively quickly. I think that the tile was laid down directly on plywood and thinset, so of course any movement in the plywood floor substrate would be transmitted to the tile and grout. I think a DITRA install would have prevented the problem.
Thanks again to the folks at the John Bridge Tile Forum (and to Dave at http://www.tile-experts.com); I'll work on getting some pictures posted later.
The cabinetry is up. It's beautiful, and our small kitchen looks like it has grown. It hasn't; we just have lots more counter space and storage.
This weekend the guys are installing two layers of plywood as the foundation upon which the granite tiles will sit. They will also make the cuts for the undermount sink and the liquid soap holder, then mount the sink to the plywood. The plumber can come during this next week (for the last time!) to hook up the sink and the dishwasher. We also hope to lay down the first layer of thinset and a layer of Schlüter DITRA this weekend.
I can already hear you asking, "What the heck is Schlüter DITRA?" According to the Schlüter web site, DITRA is "a polyethylene membrane with a grid structure of square, cut-back cavities and an anchoring fleece laminated to its underside. In conjunction with tiled coverings, Schlüter®-DITRA forms an uncoupling, waterproofing, and vapor pressure equalization layer." Why is that important? Go to the John Bridge forums for a better explanation, but in short we are tiling the granite tile onto DITRA rather than Hardiboard, Denshield, or CBU. DITRA is much thinner and very lightweight - very easy to work with. The important part is that it acts to "uncouple" the movement between the foundation (in this case, the cabinet base & plywood) and the tile. Movement from the dishwasher or occasional nine-year old jumping on the counter is inevitable, even though we are using two layers of plywood ( 3/4" and 1/2") as a foundation for the granite tile.
We had a beautiful, custom-built home in Kansas, but the tile job on the floor and the counter tops was lousy. Everything looked nice at first, but then the grout on the countertops cracked relatively quickly. I think that the tile was laid down directly on plywood and thinset, so of course any movement in the plywood floor substrate would be transmitted to the tile and grout. I think a DITRA install would have prevented the problem.
Thanks again to the folks at the John Bridge Tile Forum (and to Dave at http://www.tile-experts.com); I'll work on getting some pictures posted later.
posted by vern at
1:40 PM
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