Pictures of Entry Tiling Project

Here are the promised pictures of the entry project. Enjoy.

The area was not very large; I even had to trim the carpet back a bit to fit a 3' x 5' backer-board.

The backer-board did fit perfectly when I laid it. I was also lucky the front door has a good amount of extra clearance so I didn't have to cut out the hardwood under the peel-and-stick tile.

Laying the tile out and grinding down the diagonal edges to fit the mosaic tile in the center while maintaining the grout line width took the most time.


Placing the tiles went smoothly and quickly, with the exception of running out of the thin set and having to run to two stores to find more. Other than that, and having a little squeeze up through the center mosaic section, setting the tile was quite easy.

I was able to lay the outer mosaic border before dinner that night...

With the final outer layer of tiles being laid later that night.

After grouting on Monday night, the finished product looks pretty nice.

Some of the grout lines aren't perfect regarding consistent width...

...but Carolyn and I think the center mosaic feature turned out especially nice!

Thanks for taking the time to look. The relative ease of this project has made Carolyn more confident of my ability to tile larger rooms in the future. This will probably not occur for some time, but tiling rooms of a house is a relatively easy way to boost the appeal of a house, and you definitely can save some money by doing it yourself.

Tile project finished!

Well the tile is set and grouted, and will be ready to walk on tomorrow. Carolyn and I think it turned out well. There are a few spots where the grout lines are not quite as thick as in other places, but overall the grout lines all line up, the spacing is consistent over most of the area and it looks good (Pictures will be posted later.)

I needed to grind down a few edges, especially on the 4 tiles surrounding the center mosaic-tile section. That made the initial cutting, fitting and setting take longer than I planned, so I was setting the last of the tiles later Saturday night. The only other little mishap is when I was cleaning the mortar out of the grout lines in preparation for grouting a couple of the center mosaic tiles came loose, so I had to pull them out, cut the morter and fiberglass backing the strips were glued to out, and re-set the two tiles. I let them dry until Monday evening and gouted then, which went well. I will post some pictures of the project later today (hopefully).