Bathroom Project with Rialto Tiles and Hardibacker

[grisby]

Steve, I don't have the original boxes anymore. I just kept a few as spare so I dont remember what the box said on it. But my Rialto tiles from lowes are definitly porcelain.
You will find that out as soon as you try to cut or drill into one of these.
Best to use a wet saw, because I could not score these and get a straight line cut.
Hope this helps,'
gris

[Steve C.]

Hi Grisby,

I agree. They are porcelain for sure. I am using a wet saw so they cut easy. But I tried drilling a hole yesterday and the $13 bit struggled. I still need to drill 3 more holes and not sure how that is going to go.

I'm wondering if there is a tile place that will drill them for me if I mark them up.

[Steve C.]

In John's book, he described some grout release to use on the tiles before you grout to help with clean-up. The Rialto tiles have lots of little cavities and I have learned from experience with them that they are hard to clean the grout out of.

I went to Home Depot and couldn't find anything like that and the guys working there thought I was crazy. Does anyone have any specific brand name product that I can use to prep the tiles before grouting. I don't want to use sealer prior to grout, so I'm hoping I can find something like the "grout release".

Or any other suggestions?

[Steve C.]

I just did a search for "grout release" and learned a lot.

I'm not going to use grout release on the porcelain tiles. I'm going to take it nice and slow.....work in small areas at a time and clean the tiles up as I go. I'm going to concentrate on grouting the joints instead of just floating the grout over the entire tile. I'm also going to let it sit for 5 minutes before wiping the joints.

If that's wrong, please let me know.

Thanks.

[grisby]

Steve, I did not use grout release either, but I grouted the entire tile and did not have any problem with clean up on the Rialtos. As for drilling holes, I ended up cutting the tiles from behind with the wetsaw and made"square" holes that the estucheon plates from the plumbing covered. Its time consuming but its cheaper than a bit. Oh and be prepared to break a few tiles in the process.
gris

[Steve C.]

I hope Lonny is around to help.

I finished tiling my floor. I did not remove the toilet flange as it looks like it is in pretty solid. I tried tiling around it and sliding the tiles underneath, but this turned out to be difficult. I've not yet grouted and can pull the tiles around it up and redo if I need to take off the flange.

Unfortunately, the flange is not level. It's flush on top of the tiles on one side, and gapped on the other. The flange also appears to go on the outside of the drain pipe...not inside it. Then the actual pipe appears to be notched and bent over the flange on the inside. I've pushed on it and I can't get it to go down at all. I've attached some pics.

Do I need to remove the flange, redo those tiles....and then install a new flange level on top of the tiles. Or is this good enough? If good enough, should I grout underneath the flange.

Bathroom is going VERY slow...........

Thanks again for the help.

[LonnythePlumber]

Your flange looks good. Flanges go on the outside of the pipe except in some newer repair instances. The flange does not have to be perfectly flat. A toilet can usually handle a 1/4" difference. The answer is to sit your toilet on the flange now without a wax and see if the toilet sits flat on the floor without the flange keeping it up.
When anchoring your flange try not to break your joint loose. Put a shim under the higher part of the flange. The pictures are great. It looks like you have a brass flange on a cast iron pipe which is unusual but okay. We usually use cast iron flanges on cast iron pipe and brass flanges with lead pipe.
Thanks for alerting me to your thread. I always like to see plumbing stuff.

[Steve C.]

Thank you Lonny for the quick response and great advice. I was okay with the flange yesterday when I got to work.........but then I read some of your posts about how important the flange was. As most Type-A/High-blood-pressure guys would, I worried and stressed all day yesterday. Then took the pictures late last night.

Once again, thanks for the expertise and guidance.

[grisby]

Hey Steve, that floor pattern looks familiar!!

gris

[Steve C.]

Grisby,

Well..........I won't say where I got the idea from. And may I say "thanks" for the pictures my wife saw of your project that changed my "easy-to-lay" square pattern to a "lot-of-cuts-diagonal" pattern.

[30all]

I had a similiar question about leveling the toilet flange, think the 3" waste pipe under it is tilted for drainage, a 90 degree pvc toilet flange glued onto the pipe will never be levelled on its own, the flange will tilt to the same direction as pipe under it.

Steve, your flange is in very good shape, flange is not going to seal the toilet anyway, wax is. and you did a very good job to tile around it.

[grisby]

Originally Posted by Steve C.

Grisby,

Well..........I won't say where I got the idea from. And may I say "thanks" for the pictures my wife saw of your project that changed my "easy-to-lay" square pattern to a "lot-of-cuts-diagonal" pattern.

Don't thank me, thank my son in law. I was going to lay a square pattern also, but the son in law suggested that I lay it diagonal. It was a lot of cuts especially since he wasn't around to help. AH, such is life. Your project is looking good!!!

[LonnythePlumber]

The flange will be level. Grade is 1/4" per foot but even if it was twice that it would not bind the fitting for the flange to be normal. All over the world we have flanges that are level connected to pipe that is graded.

[Steve C.]

The floor is done and good news is that Lonny said the toilet flange is fine.

I painted last night and my next step is to put the 3" x 12" bullnose moulding around the wall along the bathroom floor (outside of the shower). I was told to keep it up about 1/8" from the floor tile and grout underneath it. Do I use the same modified thinset for installing or should I buy some mastic for this?

Thanks.

[bbcamp]

Use the same thinset for everything. No need to buy an additional product.

The 1/8" gap between the tile and the floor is supposed to be caulked, not grouted.