Crafted In Florida

The Design

          This project was for my own home, meaning the design lead was my wife. She wanted to add new flooring to replace the old vinyl that was in there from the previous owner. The walls also left a lot to be desired so she mentioned adding something around the walls. After showing her a few options of projects I’ve done in the past, she landed on board and batten.  We also decided to add a tub skirt to dress up the tub which wasn’t the style that she wanted, but we didn’t want to replace the entire tub. The final touches for the bathroom included a new toilet and a store bought vanity. 

       The Process

Demo

  This project began with demo of the old bathroom. It is helpful to demolish things in the correct order. First I pulled all the baseboards and the transition piece from the hallway to the bathroom. Next I pulled the floors up, until I got to the toilet. When I got to the toilet I turned the water off to the toilet, located right behind the toilet, then I flushed the toilet to let all the water out of the tank and the bowl. Once that was clear I unscrewed the water connection, unscrewed the toilet from the ground and took the toilet out of the house. Upon coming back into the house I took a plastic bag with some rags in it and stuffed them into the toilet drain to keep gasses from the drain coming into the house. Once the toilet was gone I began the process of taking out the sink. The sink is similar to the toilet in that the water can be turned off under the sink. Make sure the water is completely off by turning on the faucet and making sure there is no water coming through. Once the water is off I unhook the water lines and unhook the drain, again stuffing a plastic bag in the drain pipe. Then I took the sink, and cabinet out of the house. 

Tile Work

         Once the demo is complete it’s time to start the floors. I take a few of the tiles and lay them out before laying down the thinset. I use a laser level to ensure my first line of tiles is straight, then it’s time to mix some thinset. When mixing thinset I’m looking for a peanut butter like consistency, this allows for it to spread easily and still be thick enough to hold it’s form. I like to put the box of tiles on a furniture dolly so I can easily move them around while I’m laying tile. I start from the doorway and lay a couple of rows along my laser line  and then work along the back wall. I take care to not tile myself in the room without a way out. It’s important not to step on tiles while the thinset is wet. I used a wet saw and a grinder with a diamond plate on it for cutting the tile, the grinder really comes in handy for the curved cuts around the toilet drain. 

Board and Batten

       Now that the tile is down, I begin prepping the board and batten by priming those pieces. The next day I get the grout prepped so that I can fill in all the spaces in the tile. Again the ideal consistency is peanut butter, maybe slightly looser. I like to be able to work it around easily, I accidentally added a little extra water so I was working with a looser version than I like. It still worked fine by using a float at a 45 degree angle to push the grout around. I like to push the float across the gaps at an angle as well to avoid digging the grout out while pushing it around. I keep a bucket with a water and a sponge in it so that I can do sections of the floor and clean the grout as I go. 

       The next thing I did was set the vanity in place to see where everything would line up with the board and batten. I put the vanity in place and then measured out the space where the board and batten would appear to go behind the vanity. I then cut the backer boards to size, cutting around the outlets and light switches and just tacking them to the wall. Next was cutting the boards for the trim portion of the board and batten. These are all butt joints so simple 90 degree cuts. The tub skirt was similar construction, but I added some ½” plywood behind the backer board for extra support, I also scribed a pvc trim board to fit the tub exactly. Everything was installed and then caulked and painted. Lastly the toilet was installed and it was time for clean up. 

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