Bathroom Remodel -- Part 4: Tile Installation

Mud rooms get their name from being the room adjacent to the outdoors, separating the public spaces, which one hopes to keep clean, from the work spaces, which often sport sand, grass remnants, mud and dirt. Mud rooms allow one to enter the home, remove one's muddy shoes and then continue into the clean space, leaving the mud behind. The name mud room is more appropriate on some days then others.

Flooring in a mud room needs to be strong and durable and ranges from sheet goods, like linoleum, to ceramic, porcelain, or natural stone finishes. Travertine tiles were selected for this mud room make-over because they are strong and durable and look great against the wood floor in the adjacent kitchen and family room. Travertine is a crystallized, partially metamorphosed limestone of Calcium deposits with hot springs, which, because of its structure, can be filled and honed and is dense enough to be a type of marble. Each Travertine floor will exhibit its own unique coloring, veining and natural characteristics such as hardness and porosity. This non-uniform variety of color enhances the overall intrinsic beauty of the floor. Fading, stains, odors, and dirt and can be cleaned up with a damp mop or sponge or common household cleaners. The grout between the tiles will be a darker gray/brown color, which will be easy to keep clean since the installation is a mud room area. Several online sites offer great buys on Travertine tiles, but in Chicagoland, Century Tile is the place to go for tiles of every type, style and price.

Once the old vinyl flooring was removed from this remodel, previously discussed here, here and even here, the surface was washed. The old particle board was also removed and replaced with cement board. New tiles were glued onto the cement board today and will be allowed to dry at least 24 hours before grout is added. Excellent progress is being made on this mudroom/bathroom remodel and soon all will be completed.
Photo attribution: somewhatfortyplus