Saturday, August 30, 2008

Our new floor...

... is done.  Almost done.  Lots of details that threaten to take weeks to get around to doing (like putting moulding back in and cleaning the last bit of mortar off the wall) but done enough that we've moved all the furniture and appliances back in.  With that, I present this visual history.

First up, the "before" shots.  These were taken when we purchased the house (a little over a year ago).  A lot has changed in the house since then but do your best to focus on the floors.  The kitchen had very old and short carpeting while and the dining room was a lighter and fluffier.  The entryway (not pictured) had a marble-ish tile of sorts.




Underneath the kitchen and dining room was a fantastic stone-patterned brown/green linoleum straight from the 50's.  We didn't even wait to take it out.  As we began to pull the linoleum we came across our first home-improvement hitch: the subfloor in these two rooms was particle board.  After some reading it became obvious that if we wanted a stable floor to lay tile on we had to pull it out as well and replace it with something more rigid.  So we did.



(For those of you interested in the engineering side of laying tile, all the trouble with tile come from one simple fact: it doesn't bend, it just breaks.  If the subfloor isn't stiff enough, the floor will bend when people walk on it but the tile won't.  Once enough force is put on the tile, it will simply crack.  This has a big impact on how you build the structure of the house.  The joist of the floor have to be close enough together to support the weight of the tile.  If the subfloor is the wrong material or isn't thick enough it will bow between supports or deform as it absorbs and releases moisture in the air (the latter is the problem with particle board). The tile above it can't deform and instead cracks.  The strength of tile, its hardness, is also its greatest weakness; it doesn't really bend even when you wish it would.)

The entryway was an entirely different surprise.  Back when this house was built in the late 50's, laying tile was done differently. Rather than doing something like we did, a thick (~2 inch) bed a mortar was poured and the tiles were set directly in it.  I discovered this when I started trying to chisel the tiles out.  I was very dismayed at first but found that the job of tearing out that much mortar is not as hard as it may seem.  The big saving grace is that mortar is not near as hard as concrete and it tends to break apart in chunks.  In the pictures below you can see a metal mesh that was embedded in the mortar, kind of like poor-man's rebar.



Here's what the old subfloor looked like after we had torn everything out and cleaned up.




The next step was to lay down new plywood to replace the particle board we had torn out.  The extra thickness gave us more rigidity for the tile so as to prevent cracking and breaking.  When adding another layer like this, the only really important "secret" is to not align seams on one layer with seams on the next.  This helps make the subfloor more rigid.  In our case, our second layer was half-inch plywood, and lots of it.




We found out the entryway was uneven and so after filling in most of the 2 inch gap with plywood where the mortar previously was, I had to pour some self-leveling concrete to level it out.  Pretty neat stuff, actually and it worked rather well.  The first two pictures were taken just after I poured it (you can see reflections in the pool) and the last is after it had dried.






With the plywood in, we next install what is called an "underlayment" for the tile.  Most people today use a cement board of some kind, the popular brands being Hardibacker or Durock.  The biggest problems with these boards is that they can be hard to cut and attach to the subfloor and they are relatively thick (at least 0.25").  Our biggest concern with a think underlayment was our under-counter dishwasher.  Our friends found out the hard way that by adding height to the floor, it is very possible to "tile-in" your dishwasher.  They actually had to disassemble the dishwasher in-place under the counter to get it out when it came time to replace it.

So, to save height and time, we used a relatively new underlayment by Schluter Systems called Ditra.  The material is basically a plastic waffle-like grid with a cotton backer.  The plastic grid acts as a moisture barrier as well as a "decoupling membrane".  The decoupling part is important because it allows our house to move (slightly) without forcing the tile to as well.  If there was no decoupling, then the flexing of the house could crack and chip tiles as they were pushed against each other and the walls of the house.

(Historical note: centuries ago this was accomplished by laying a bed of sand between two beds of mortar.  The sand was "strong" enough to support the weight of the tile but any lateral movement resulted in one mortar bed sliding past another.  This isn't done much any more as the height of the two beds and the sand (not to mention weight) make it tough to work into modern buildings.) 

Ditra is significantly thinner than cement board and rolls out like a thin carpet.  Rather than nailing or screwing it to the sub-floor, you simply use a very thin layer of mortar and press it in.  The material can be cut with a utility knife and installs very quickly.  The only downside: it is a bit more expensive than cement board.  I'm glad we used it, though, if for no other reason than the day-or-two times savings.



Now for the tile.   The tile we had chosen was meant to resemble a wood plank and was rectangular in shape rather than square. No special instructions needed here.  Slop on the mortar, spread it around, comb it with a trowel, and press in the tile.  We decided to do a parque-ish pattern in the dining room (suggested by my father) and a linear pattern in the kitchen and entryway.  Many days of mixing mortar, cutting and placing tiles, and generally making a mess.  (The last picture shows where the parque patterns meets the linear one.)







The last big step was grouting.  The color we choose was supposed to be right around the color of the tile but,  for reasons I don't understand, it turned out much redder.  Not the end of the world but a bit disappointing.  We're looking into staining it a darker color but I'm guessing that won't happen for quite a while.  Word to the wise: grout is cheap; test it in a small area before you commit to a color.





So that's that.  We like the floor and are glad its done.  The whole project took about 6 weeks or so; we obviously weren't working on it the whole time but on many days it was our life.  My wife is glad to have all her kitchen appliances back (there are only so many meals you can cook on an electric skillet) and we're both glad that the house is finally back in order.  

Our big thanks to our friend Michael for his guidance, expertise and assistance and also to Desha's parent's for loaning us a tile saw.  

Friday, August 29, 2008

Number Two

We've been looking for a sibling for Basil for several months now and today we found her.  She's an English Springer Spaniel (just like Basil) and is about three months old.  She is very much a puppy; high energy and very cute.  We don't have a name yet but if you have any suggestions let me know.  We are leaning towards a spice name but are open to other ideas. 





Tuesday, August 26, 2008

WSU Chemistry Building

I was telling a friend of mine who teaches chemistry at WSU about my experience with the intimidating hazard diamond this past Sunday and he got a big smile on his face and asked, "Did you see the blast wall?"

Blast wall?  

From what Kevin says, they keep all the really dangerous stuff in a separate closet on the exterior of the building.  They've built the outside wall so that it is structurally weaker than the others and then, about a foot or so away from that wall, poured a huge concrete wall.  The thinking is that if something goes wrong and those chemicals explode, the weak wall will blow out and direct all the force into the concrete blast wall.

I have a class in the chemistry building so on my way there I snapped this picture:



Right next to the white rain gutter you can see the "crumple zone" as it were for the building.  

So I'm a bit worried....


... I haven't seen any signs for the incumbent (the USA) running for Kansas.  Come to think of it, I think this might be an uncontested race.  I REALLY hope that changes before Nov. because I think it will be a big pain to have to get a Kenyan passport while still living in Wichita.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Olympic Sponsorships

Why is McDonalds an Olympic sponsor?  I mean, I know the pragmatic such a relationship exists: McDonalds has a lot of money that every national Olympic team could use and I'm sure the company enjoys all the prime advertising they get in exchange.  For all I know, there aren't very many other corporations that are willing to donate at that level.

But seriously, McDonalds?  McDonalds is the symbol of cheap, non-nutritious food to me (thanks to the film Supersize Me) and it seems highly incongruous to have the best athletes in the world using their achievements to sell products that would have a detrimental effect on their performance.  Athletes selling for Nike, Addidas, Spaulding, Speedo, all of these make sense to me.  Athletes selling deep-fried, high-calorie food?  

What's REALLY funny is that McDonalds has been a major Olympic sponsor for years and just now I'm catching on to this oxymoronical fact.

Back at School

This past Thursday was my first day in class for my Master's degree.  I am now officially a graduate student at the famed Wichita State University.  I'm taking three courses this semester: Linear Systems, Control Systems Concepts, and Power Systems Analysis.  One of them is kind of a review course to get me back into the swing of things.  I've attended two of these classes so far and right now I am feeling a bit overwhelmed.  It has been seven years since I did any of the math and engineering that is being expected of me now and I'm feeling it. The first homework set I got had three problems on it and though I've worked through some of it, I don't feel confident in any of the answers.

Put simply, I think this first semester of grad school is going to be rough.  I'm working half-time right now but fear that I may have underestimated my ability to get back into academic rhythm.  It doesn't help that I will be attending weddings nearly every weekend in semester leaving less time for studying.  Like I said, right now I feel a bit overwhelmed.

On a lighter note, I spend part of Thursday wandering around campus and discovered a few things.

  • Most of the buildings are clearly marked ON ONE SIDE.  Why?  I spent a lot of time walking around buildings trying to determine if this was the one I needed to be in.
  • Of the ~ 100 students in my Linear Systems class the ethnic breakdown is:
Central Asian (Indian, Nepali, etc): 90
East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, etc): 7
White (for lack of a better term): 3

This is the first time in my life I've been that much of a minority
  • As I was trying to find my second class of the day I stumbled across a building with a particularly aggressive hazard diamond on it.  All three hazard types were at their maximum level (4) and the special instruction in the white section indicated to not use water to put out any fire. After thinking about it for a few minutes I decided that this must be the chemistry building.  I was right.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Dreamlifter

On my way home from work today I saw this landing at one of Wichita's airports:





This is the airplane the flies the fuselage of the 787 Dreamliner from where it is assembled here in Wichita to the Seattle area where the aircraft goes through final assembly.  There are some perks to living in the air capital of the world.