# Old School?!?!?!



## Drockafela (Feb 12, 2008)

How come everybody on here uses durock, hardibacker or schleuters new system for shower walls? Does anybody actually float their walls with mortor and leveling strips. Am I missing something here, because Ive only been taught how to "float" my walls. Is is a "custom" thing. Dont get me wrong, Ive used the cement boards on a few occasions, but I much more preffer my "true" prep work. 
Ive read a lot of helpful topics on here, but this stumps me.


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## Chris Johnson (Apr 19, 2007)

I think California is the only place left that floats, everywhere else I read about uses something different. I have seen here they use Hardi or Durock for floors, but walls are still floated...even in tract homes here that I have seen. 

Does anyone still hot mop or is that a California thing as well?


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## Bill_Vincent (Apr 6, 2005)

Chris Johnson said:


> I think California is the only place left that floats, everywhere else I read about uses something different. I have seen here they use Hardi or Durock for floors, but walls are still floated...even in tract homes here that I have seen.
> 
> Does anyone still hot mop or is that a California thing as well?


Hot mop is strictly a west coast thing, but as for mudding walls, there may be one or two of us "east coasters" who still mud a wall or two once in a while!!


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## Bud Cline (Feb 12, 2006)

I notice you didn't float the ceiling you big show off, why not?


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## Drockafela (Feb 12, 2008)

Bill,
Just curious about what you used for a steam prep.


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## Drockafela (Feb 12, 2008)

Looks like Im gonna need to go buy a tripod so I can post a couple 11 footers on here.:thumbsup:


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## Taranis (Feb 23, 2007)

Good pictures, Bill.
When I do rendering or screeding I use wet screeds to pull off rather than timber. There's no need to go back and take out the timber and infill.
Much prefer that way of working.


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## Bill_Vincent (Apr 6, 2005)

Bud Cline said:


> I notice you didn't float the ceiling you big show off, why not?


It wasn't spec'ed!! If it were. I'da been pissed, but I woulda floated it!! Groutin Spectralock over my head was bad enough!!












> Bill,
> Just curious about what you used for a steam prep.


Contractor put up 6 mil poly,. and then 2" foam panels, attached with ready rod, nuts and flat washers, and then once the mud was finished, everything got covered with Laticrete 9235. 



















There's a whole thread on the project as it progressed:

http://johnbridge.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=52816&page=1&pp=15


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## Magnum P.I. (Feb 10, 2008)

Hey Bill that is just incredible work on the steamer and also on the hex tile bath showcased on the JB forum. I am envious of your skill. Do you have any special way of handling a 1-foot by 2-foot mosaic sheet on your saw while cutting? Or do you first razor down the sheet so it is more manageable on your saws tray? I will be using spectralock on a floor today on similar tile used in your steamer. Any tips? I have used spectralock dozens of time but I’m always up for new good info. Thanks and awesome work.:thumbsup:


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## Bill_Vincent (Apr 6, 2005)

I use a Target Supertilematic. It's an oversized saw made for handling large format tiles, and comes with a secondary tray (only one shown in the picture). With the two trays, about 4" overhangs the end of the tray, so what I'll do is slide the sheet along the trays into the blade until the back of the sheet is fully on the tray, and then I'll cut it like any other tile.


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## Bud Cline (Feb 12, 2006)

Forget all that tile stuff, WHAT THE HELL do you do with all that kerosene?


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## Bill_Vincent (Apr 6, 2005)

Hey-- that wasn't MY house!!



(I've only got TWO jugs!!)

*KEROSENE* jugs!!


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## ChrWright (Jul 17, 2007)

Bill,

Do you two coat the liquid over the membrane on your 9235?

I never did until I had problems with a site built soaking tub. From your picture, it looks like one coat on the wall, then the fabric, then one coat over the top.


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## Bud Cline (Feb 12, 2006)

> Hey-- that wasn't MY house!!




OH!!! I thought you were in your own garage practicing!


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## Bill_Vincent (Apr 6, 2005)

Chris-- Usually, I do. If you read the directions (  ), that's the way it's supposed to be installed. On this project, though, I actually TRIPLE coated. Because of the roughness of the mud surface, there was only about 1/2 the normal bonding surface, and I had a tough time keeping the fabric up, and it hadn't been figured for skimcoating with thinset (although the next time, there's not going to be a choice for the "powers that be"!!). So I had to coat the mud once, let it dry, and then the next day, coat it again, put up the fabric, and then coat it the third time. That sucker ain't leakin fer NOTHIN!! :no:


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## ChrWright (Jul 17, 2007)

Have you ever done any vessels with it? Fountains, tubs, etc.?

That extra coat makes a big difference, that's for sure.


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## Bill_Vincent (Apr 6, 2005)

No. The only "vessel" I've ever done was a roman tub, and although the base was 1" thick fiberglass, I used Hydroment's Ultraset as a bond coat to grab the thinset I was setting the mosaic marble with:


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## ChrWright (Jul 17, 2007)

Very nice work. I saw that project on one of your previous posts.

I built this soaking tub from scratch on site--wood frame, bending plywood, skimmed mud, 9235, then tile.

Had to re-waterproof after it leaked the first time. :furious:

I've used 9235, per spec, on a number of steam showers but this was the first vessel I had to build from scratch.

We went the extra coat the last time as well (a total of three) and that fixed it.


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## Bill_Vincent (Apr 6, 2005)

Man, that is stinkin awesome!! Very nice work!! Just out of curiosity, what kind of tile is that on the wall?

Yeah, it doesn't take much-- just a pinhole, and you've got problems. The very first steam shower I did, I used the Ultraset as the membrane, and the guy I was working for demanded that I put three coats of it all over the shower. This is before they reformulated it, and it made PVC glue look tame. I argued back and forth with him that it wouldn't be necessary. But after that first coat, I got really close up and checked it out, and you could see where little miniscule bubbles had popped and left little holes, so I recoated it, and gave it the third coat without even checking, just to be safe. The only other vessels I ever did looked more like this:










hey Chris, you obviously appreciate good custom work-- check this out:

http://johnbridge.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=31546&page=88&pp=15 

from that page to the end. Some real HOLY SH*T work. Actually the whole thread (90 pages) is that good, but these last few pages from today are unbelieveable.


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## ChrWright (Jul 17, 2007)

I told myself "never again", after we finished that project. What's worse it was on the third floor (attic conversion).

I've always wanted to do a really cool pool floor all in glass mosaics.

There's some very cool stuff for pools in Bisazza's catalogs.


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## ChrWright (Jul 17, 2007)

Wow, some really amazing work there. Thanks for the link.


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## Bill_Vincent (Apr 6, 2005)

Taranis-- Sorry-- somehow missed your post!! I didn't want you to think I was ignoring you!!

I'll use wet screeds when I'm pulling dry pack on floors. But I don't trust myserlf to do that when I'm floating walls. WAY to easy to dig in. Probably because I don't do all that much of it. Not very many willing to pay what it's worth. Too bad, too, becuase it just takes that much more of the craft out of the trade. :sad:


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## Bill_Vincent (Apr 6, 2005)

ChrWright said:


> I told myself "never again", after we finished that project. What's worse it was on the third floor (attic conversion).
> 
> I've always wanted to do a really cool pool floor all in glass mosaics.
> 
> There's some very cool stuff for pools in Bisazza's catalogs.


I'll bet there is! There's a forum I go into that's 95% homeowners doing research for their kitchen and bathroom remodels, and that name comes up more than just about any other, besides Walker Zanger and Ann Sacks.

I think I could twist my arm enough to work with their material! :laughing:

Oh yeah-- I almost forgot-- the very first mud job I ever worked on as an apprentice-- my family had a commercial union company in Connecticut, and one of the GC's we worked with, the owner had grown up in the same village in Italy with my grandfather, so when his daughter built her home, we did all the tile in it. 6 bathrooms, walls, floors, and ceilings, all mudset-- three floors, and guess who was hauling all the mud into the house!! I slept well for a few weeks!!


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## ChrWright (Jul 17, 2007)

Bisazza makes some very cool patterns in their glass, in addition to solids & blends. You buy them by the unit, in whatever the repeat is. This one, the sheets were 12"x12", in a 2 wide x2 high pattern repeat (the sheets come numbered):


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## Graeson (Feb 17, 2008)

*Wow*

:notworthy

Bill and Wright you guys rock! I thought I had done some cool stuff, but the Roman Tub and the Soaking tub were off the hook! And Bill - nice "old school" skimmin'; you were doing there! Me and my main contractor man were just talking about being "old school" yesterday and he sent me the link to this thread... Man, I gotta upload some pictures of my work on here to get some "contractor talk cred"

:thumbup:


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## Bill_Vincent (Apr 6, 2005)

What you do is get yourself a free account over at photobucket.com . With every photo you upload, you get what's called an "img" line. Copy it and then paste it into the test of your post, and WAA LAA.


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