how to install ceramic tiles

Everything a do-it-yourselfer needs to know about tiling floors, walls, counters, patios, and more can be found in Ultimate Guide to Ceramic & Stone Tile. Design and planning information helps readers prepare the site and select the right tile–ceramic, stone, vinyl, glass, and more. Chapters on tools and materials feature how-to photo sequences so even novices can tackle tile projects successfully. The emphasis is on solid, durable installations that can stand up to years of use in kitchens, baths, and other areas. The book also covers exterior applications, and includes a practical and complete guide to repairing and maintaining existing tile.

 

To many homeowners, laying tile sounds like a recipe for stress, physical injury, artistic embarrassment, or all of the above. But we’ll let you in on a secret: with some basic knowledge and a little persistence, anyone can do it—and you’ll feel especially proud when you tally up the money you just saved by doing it yourself. With HomeSkills: Ceramic Tile, you’ll receive expert instruction in the fundamentals of tiling your living space. Through user-friendly project descriptions and vivid how-to photography, you’ll learn all the necessary tiling skills in a concise, accessible way: designing your layout and selecting the perfect tiles, handling and cutting them properly, working with grouts and adhesives, and putting the finishing touches on a confident installation. You’ll be able to tackle any surface, from floors and walls to countertops and backsplashes, and at any pace you prefer—take it easy and get it just right over time or blast away and transform an entire room in an afternoon. So set your hesitations aside. HomeSkills: Ceramic Tile is your one-stop DIY guide to the custom tile job you never thought you could pull off.

 

Check out our five other HomeSkills guides on carpentry, deck building, landscaping, plumbing, and wiring.

In 1994, Anchee Min made her literary debut with a memoir of growing up in China during the violent trauma of the Cultural Revolution. Red Azalea became an international bestseller and propelled her career as a successful, critically acclaimed author. Twenty years later, Min returns to the story of her own life to give us the next chapter, an immigrant story that takes her from the shocking deprivations of her homeland to the sudden bounty of the promised land of America, without language, money, or a clear path.

It is a hard and lonely road. She teaches herself English by watching Sesame Street, keeps herself afloat working five jobs at once, lives in unheated rooms, suffers rape, collapses from exhaustion, marries poorly and divorces.But she also gives birth to her daughter, Lauryann, who will inspire her and finally root her in her new country. Min's eventual successes-her writing career, a daughter at Stanford, a second husband she loves-are remarkable, but it is her struggle throughout toward genuine selfhood that elevates this dramatic, classic immigrant story to something powerfully universal.

The DIY trend for women involves more than knitting and sewing: today more women are tending to their homes, and they're not just sewing curtains and arranging flowers. They're installing new toilets, laying ceramic floors in the kitchen, and drywalling the den. With 23 percent of all power tool purchases in 2004 made by women, and the number of unmarried females owning homes climbing by nearly 4 million owners from 1994 to 2002, when it comes to home repair, maintenance, and improvement, these sisters are doing it for themselves.

At the same time, a survey by Home Depot found that 73 percent of women would like to learn more about tackling home improvements. But who has the brains, brawn, and beauty to really understand a woman's perspective and give her the confidence to conquer what had traditionally been men's territory? Norma Vally.

Norma Vally is a rare combination: construction worker, former model, television and radio host. As the host of Discovery Home's Toolbelt Diva, Norma showed women how to throw out the Honey Do lists and "Honey, do it yourself." She's beautiful, sassy, confident, and competent, and with a radio show, a line of tools, a website, and her top-rated TV show she is a franchise dedicated to educating women on home repair, maintenance, and improvement. The Norma Vally book series is as sassy as Norma, packed with real-world tips showing women how to take charge of their homes.

This four-color, fully illustrated series provides a basic overview of big-picture renovation. In Norma Vally's Kitchen Fix-Ups, Norma guides the reader through determining not only how to do the work, but how to determine what is right for her: How does she use her kitchen? What features are truly important? Is it the domain of one person or the family hangout? Are there storage considerations? Is plumbing position and function optimal?

Then she provides an overview of the jobs best left to professionals and those the reader can master with Norma's guidance: fixing a leaky faucet, installing a backsplash, building in recessed lighting, resurfacing countertops. Tasks are broken down into three levels of difficulty and cover sinks, countertops, appliances, cabinets, walls, and floors.

The book is written in Norma's trademark can-do, sassy voice and provides confidence to the most nervous renovator, showing readers that Honey-Do lists can truly become a thing of the past.

The book is packaged with a $9.99 value-add DVD of Norma walking the user through three key tasks, one at each level of difficulty: cleaning out a faucet aerator, repairing a leaky faucet, and installing a new faucet. None of the competition contains this multimedia element.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.