Posts Tagged ‘cork’

what happens in the shower

Friday, June 1st, 2012

… stays in the shower. Pretty sure that applies to the fancypants aluminum edging that now divides the tile and the cork ceiling, because I can’t imagine it escaping its new confines…

aluminum edge between tile and ceiling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks good, no?

aluminum edge in the shower too

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s still more to be done, so don’t be too judgmental yet. The niche will be tiled soon and there’s more metal edge to come. And grout, of course. But I’m loving how it’s coming together so far!

tile check-in

Friday, May 18th, 2012

Mark was back at it yesterday, tiling those walls in the bathroom downstairs…

mark at work

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That shot doesn’t really show off his handsome side. I apologize for that. By the end of the day, tile stretched across the full width of the room…

tile by the end of the day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eventually it will meet the ceiling and this will really start to look like a bathroom. Thanks, Mark!

the highs, the lows

Friday, May 4th, 2012

Want to see something that turned out perfect? The floor and ceiling, finished. TA-DAAAA!

the highs: floor and ceiling look fantastic!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the highs: still looks great from this angle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s so great when a project turns out the way you hope it would.

And now that that’s out of the way, want to see something that turned out craptastical?

Sure you do…

the lows: paint peeled off

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yup, when the plastic held on by the paint-friendly blue tape was pulled down, it took the brand-new paint job with it. All. the. way. around. the. room.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF…

Why did the paint fail? Who knows. But one thing is for sure: it’s not a simple fix. It probably means sanding and another full coat. Kill me now.

progress report: floor finishing

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012

Well this is going quickly! David and Joe are putting four coats of finish on the cork flooring downstairs. The first two coats went down yesterday. This morning there was sanding, vacuuming and dust mopping…

get that dust off the floor!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now the final two coats are going on…

Joe adds a finish coat to the hallway into the downstairs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More later!

floor finishing is happening

Monday, April 30th, 2012

There may be only one in this shot but I assure you there are two swarthy dudes laying down the first coat right now…

first coat going on!

 

get your feet on the floor

Friday, April 27th, 2012

… everybody rock and roll! Think you can name that tune?

So with the ceiling now finished downstairs, the floor is in motion. No wasting time here, nuh-uh. David and Joe are gettin’ down to bidness, if ya know what I mean…

readiness starts at the knees

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The floating cork planks are huge — 12″x36″ and 1/2″ thick, so theoretically the floor should go down even faster than the ceiling…

Duro cork plank

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s some trimming involved to get things to fit…

David trimming cork planks to fit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But these things snap together easy-peasy…

fitting pieces together

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work began yesterday and already the boys are more than halfway done!

floor in progress

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ceiling done!

Thursday, April 26th, 2012

Yep, the ceiling is dunzo! Finito! Completo! David has the lurid details…

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Joe and I finished installing the ceiling tiles and tackled the final step earlier this week: sealing them. As I just reminded Brook, cork is wood, right? So it benefits from having a finish on it to resist marks and scuffs, and to keep the stain from discoloring over time.

Because the cork on the ceiling won’t get wear and tear from countless feet, we applied two coats instead of the four recommended for floors. The ceiling in the bathroom got four coats because of the increased humidity and the probability of water splashing up onto it in the shower.

The water-based finish was supplied by Duro, the flooring maker, as well as filters to ensure that no grit or anything else was in the finish, and applicator pads…

duro cork finish for the ceiling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They even sent us the mixing stick! The finish is a catalyzed, water-based polyurethane. According to the instructions, you add 6 ounces of resin (the Catalyst bottle) to the gallon of finish and stir well. Easy. As long as you remember that the gallon needs to be used within four days or it will harden in the can.

We whipped up two poles to attach the pads to and then applied elbow grease liberally. To be honest, it was a little tricky keeping a wet edge on such a large expanse…

finishing underway, quick quick quick!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second coat dried very quickly and required moving fast to stay ahead of it. Invigorating exercise.

The finish dried within hours to a dull, not quite matte but far from lacquered, sheen…

ceiling is finished, yay!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking good. Next up: the floor.

happenings

Monday, April 9th, 2012
Before we get started, I apologize for some text and spacing issues the blog seems to be experiencing. Hmmmm. Can’t figure that one out.
So here’s what you missed since I got slammed with work:

The ceiling is now completely tiled in cork (click to biggify the grandness)…

ceiling is corked, yay!
Something about it says eco-chic luxury spa, doesn’t it? The planks will get a protective finish tomorrow and the floor will be prepped for cork installation after that.

I mentioned the other day that Rob has been busy giving us light. The ceiling fixtures are in now…

first lights going in
Best of all — they actually work! Illumination. I dig it.

Also ongoing: tiling the bathroom. Our friend and fellow remodeling pro Mark Cummins has been prepping the walls, furring them out (building them up with wood shims) such that the diminutive wall tiles we’ve chosen will space out perfectly and require no cutting. That required a good amount of mocking-up and measuring. (And patience.) Followed by much re-measuring and marking, just to be safe…

marking the tiles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once Mark was confident we had it right, the 1/2″ cement board went up. In the shower, it’s gone from this…

shower wall before

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To this…

walls cement boarded in shower

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s the hand-held shower pipe poking through on the right. There will likely be an inset section in that wall for setting soap and sundries… a complication but hopefully not an impossibility. After that, water-based waterproofing and then tiling.

At this rate we may actually have a functional downstairs by summer. Doh! I just cursed us, didn’t I? Fudge.

the planking edition

Monday, April 2nd, 2012

Ruefully late to the meme, our remodel is finally the site of a planking…

david planking

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No, not that planking. This planking…

box of cork planks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Destined for the floor and ceiling, boxes and boxes of cork planks (Edipo from DuroDesign) have been waiting patiently since last summer…

boxes of cork

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

David and Joe started under the stairs — an out of the way place to practice installing these for the first time. First there was adhesive…

joe applies adhesive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then the planks went on, staggered…

corks goes on staggered

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost done…

cork almost done under the stairs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry, it’s a little dim under there and the shots aren’t so great. It looks nice, take my word for it.

The reason we chose the Edipo was for its linear strips…

edipo cork plank from duro design

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We want those strips to run the length of the house rather than the width, because upstairs the angled ceiling that runs front to back is a feature we want to accentuate. Downstairs, the ceiling is flat rather than angled, of course, but it makes sense to be consistent with what we’re planning for upstairs. To that end, the tiling began with a long reference line to keep the planks straight…

reference line

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first plank went up and then the boys worked their way down the hall…

first cork plank goes up in the big room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You really have to like the guy you’re working with to do this job…

david and joe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so the planking continues…

planking continues

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moving pretty quickly now. This could be done some time tomorrow… well, hopefully.

view down the hallway

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very happy with the cork thus far, I must say. How happy? Dancing on the ceiling happy!

 

when maffmaticians remodel

Thursday, March 15th, 2012

David and Joe are downstairs planning the layout for the cork ceiling…

joe with a cork tile

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was math…

figuring out the math

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What does it all mean?

math on wood scrap

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have no idea.