This post will cover the bathroom floor tile with brass inlay for the modern classic small bathroom remodel in the Main House at One Hundred Acres Home. You can check out more on the bathroom remodel in other posts such as the bathroom design planning, the bathtub install and custom shower niche framing, and the full height subway wall tiles.
Before we tile, we need to do some prep work on the floor before we can lay the tiles. Let me show you.
Subfloor Preparation for Bathroom Floor Tile:
This is a photo of the exposed plywood subfloor in our small bathroom. I’ve gone ahead and primed the subfloor with a mold and mildew resistant primer to help against rot and water issues, so that is why is it a dull white.
You may be able to kind of see it in this photo – there is a minor hump in the floor along the plywood joint on the left side. That’s a high point, and everything slopes downward from there. I want to level this floor out and stiffen if up a bit before tiling.
Similar to the backing for the wall tile, I first installed WonderBoard Lite over the subfloor. For the floor, I used 1/4 inch thick WonderBoard over a thin layer of thin set mortar. The WonderBoard is screwed to the subfloor plywood with the shorter 1 1/4 inch Rock-On screws.
Unfortunately, I can’t find any photos of the installed floor 1/4 inch thick WonderBoard Lite. But here are the screws I used.
This is the thin set mortar I used to set the WonderBoard and for laying the floor tiles later. It is ProLite white tile and stone mortar found at Home Depot. I chose this over less expensive mortar mainly because it is sag and slip resistant for wall tiles, and you can use it in thin or medium thickness up to 3/4 inch think. So it works great for the small subway wall tiles AND the large format floor tiles I will be using. It is nice to simply use the same mortar all around and not worry about changing products.
After I had the WonderBoard in place, I taped and mortared the joints, similar to the shower walls. Again, sorry no photos of the WonderBoard on the floor. But once that dried completely, I could tell the floor was still unlevel.
Floor Leveling:
So, to level out the floor tile area, I outlined the perimeter of the area with sticky rubber foam tape. It is the black strip you can see along the walls and around the toilet flange. This will accomplish two things:
- Provide a 1/4 inch thick expansion gap around the perimeter of the leveling cement. I installed the WonderBoard Lite before that with an expansion gap as well.
- Keep the runny leveling cement from flowing into places is shouldn’t while it cures. This applies to the toilet flange, the water heater area, and the door entrance to the bathroom. Large spans such as at the door entrance need a 2×4 screwed to the subfloor to stop the leveling cement as the foam tape cannot span far. I did have some leakage near the water heater as the foam tape not properly backed.
With the floor area blocked out, I mixed and applied the leveling cement using LevelQuik RS self-leveling underlayment, a squeegee trowel, and my hand level that I promptly rinsed it it got leveling cement on it.
This step was tricky because the product says it’s self-leveling, but I could see it wasn’t settling perfectly level. Maybe I didn’t mix enough water. Either way, I helped smooth it out as best I could.
Waterproofing:
This small bathroom is NOT a wet room, so it is a bit of overkill to waterproof the floor before installing the tile. But it’s my bathroom, and I like the extra peace of mind. Plus I had leftover RedGard from the shower walls, so I figured I might as well use it.
Here is the roll-on RedGard I used. Two coats are needed for waterproofing, so that’s what I did.
This RedGard goes on pink and dried super bright red. Here is the waterproofed floor area. If you look closely, you can see horizontal lines that I’ve drawn with a Chinese marker to help plan out the rows of floor tiles.
Bathroom Floor Tile:
Modern classic is the design theme for this small bathroom remodel. We are using a classic Carrara marble-looking porcelain tile. I like the Carrara look but don’t want all the upkeep or cost of marble, so porcelain it is! Home Depot has some nice options. We’ll be using 12 inch x 24 inch large format matte finish porcelain floor tiles in Carrara white. The matte finish is less slippery than the polished option and works great for bathroom floors.
Here is a progress shot as I am laying out the tiles. This is a “dry-fit”, meaning they are not set in mortar yet. I want to make sure everything is cut to size and fits before we actually set the tile.
Brass Inlay Between Floor Tiles:
Did I mention that this is a bathroom floor tile with BRASS INLAY? YES! We’re going a bit off-book with the brass. I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t seen this done this way before, but I really like the idea. Fingers crossed it will turn out well.
Here’s the plan. I am going to use brass tile edge trim. But instead of using it at the tile edge, I am going to cut it to size and install it BETWEEN tiles for a cool DIY brass inlay effect.
These are small sections of the brass edging. It is the Schlueter Systems Deco 0.438 inch solid brass board tile edge trim. I bought one 8ft long edge piece from Lowes and cut it to size with a hack saw and a miter box to keep my cuts straight. You could cut this on a table saw with a metal cutting blade as well.
These are small leftover sections of the brass inlay I will be using. You’ll only see the raised strip once the tile is placed. The notched leg is part of the edging that goes under the tiles.
Floor Tile Dry Fit:
This is the finished dry-fit tile and brass inlay layout. I even installed the small spacers to make sure the dry-fit is accurate. The small blue tape markers on the tiles identify each tile to a specific location.
The large tiles are offset 1/3 between rows as recommended by the tile manufacturer. 1/8 inch grout joints are recommended to avoid lippage between tiles, but I don’t like the look of 1/8 inch grout. So I am using 1/16 inch grout spacers shown below. It worked out just fine.
The next photo shows you the full floor layout with the brass inlay pieces. I’ve laid this out so that the brass is in the seen walkway areas and shouldn’t occur below the toilet or the vanity.
Mortar Set Bathroom Floor Tiles:
Now that everything is dry fit, it’s time to actually place the floor tiles! I used the Prolite Thin set mortar and a large 1/2 inch notch tile trowel in the photo below.
Leveling spacers wouldn’t work with the brass inlay pieces, so I just used those 1/16 inch rubber “t” spacers and did my darndest to level each piece by hand. It was slow going and tedious. I think using the ProLite thin set helped because it is low slump. So I could set each brass piece by hand and have relative confidence that it wouldn’t settle when I looked away. I used a small rubber mallet to help level the tiles when needed. I also used a small metal pick to adjust the brass sections if needed. It is messy and slow going. I just kept hoping it would turn out because the idea seemed really cool
Here is the set bathroom floor tile with brass inlay. It worked! You can still see the rubber spacers as I am waiting for the mortar to dry.
After all this, you probably want to see the finished floor huh? Ok, but there are some *spoilers* because everything is grouted, including the wall tile with bright white grout, but here you go.
This is the finished bathroom Carrara porcelain floor tile with brass inlay.
Do you like how the flooring turned out? Next post I’ll be adding all the finishing touches and making this a functional bathroom again. Let me know what questions you have in the comments below.
