The foundation of your home's most beautiful spaces.
The foundation of your home's most beautiful spaces.
The shadow of the saturated subfloor Grout stays dark after it dries when moisture is trapped in the substrate or when the grout has absorbed oils and minerals that permanently alter its refractive index. This phenomenon usually indicates that the capillary pores of the cementitious matrix are still holding liquid water or that the waterproofing […]
I spent three days grinding concrete on a job last month just so the floor wouldn’t click like a castanet. Most guys skip the leveling compound. They think the underlayment or a bit of extra thinset will hide the dip. It won’t. I have seen fifteen thousand dollar projects ruined because an installer was too […]
Why Your Bathroom Grout is Crumbling into Sand Most guys skip the leveling compound. They think the underlayment will hide the dip. It won’t. I spent three days grinding concrete on a job last month just so the floor wouldn’t click like a castanet. I have seen countless homeowners stare at their shower floors with […]
I spent three days grinding concrete on a job last month just so the floor wouldn’t click like a castanet. The homeowner was complaining about their tile grout turning a sickly shade of amber, and they thought the solution was to pour straight bleach onto the lines every Saturday. They were wrong. By the time […]
I spent three days grinding concrete on a job last month just so the floor wouldn’t click like a castanet. Most guys skip the leveling compound. They think the underlayment or the tile will hide the dip. It won’t. I walked onto a job site where the previous installer had left a haze so thick […]
Most guys skip the leveling compound. They think the underlayment will hide the dip. It won’t. I spent three days grinding concrete on a job last month just so the floor wouldn’t click like a castanet. That job taught me that the smallest fraction of an inch can ruin a five figure installation. It is […]
I can smell the floor wax and oak dust on my clothes as I sit here at my desk, looking at another photo sent by a frustrated homeowner. It is always the same story. They spent thousands of dollars on a custom tile job, and six months later, the pristine white grout lines look like […]
The Right Way to Clean Soap Scum Off Your Bathroom Tile I have spent twenty five years on my knees with a trowel in one hand and a level in the other. I have seen floors that were masterpieces of engineering and I have seen floors that were crimes against architecture. Most people look at […]
Most guys skip the leveling compound. They think the underlayment will hide the dip. It will not. I spent three days grinding concrete on a job last month just so the floor would not click like a castanet. That level of obsession with the substrate is what separates a professional from a guy with a […]
The chemical lie of chlorine bleach on porous surfaces The Mechanic with Sawdust Under His Nails knows that beauty is only skin deep, but a failure in the subfloor or a mold colony in the grout goes all the way to the bone. I smell like WD-40 and oak dust most days, and I have […]
