The Rich Poor House: Diagonal

Well, that shower floor tile is going in diagonal after all. It's the craziest story. For some reason, this bothered me enough that the tile guy and a carpenter both encouraged me to ask to have it changed. I agreed, and decided to bite the bullet. I authorized the approximate day's work.

I told the jobsite foreman I'd like it changed.

Then the tilesetter guy put me on the phone with his boss, the master tile contractor. He explained that pulling up the tile in a showerpan could damage the underlying hot mop. Besides, the diagonal set left some oddball pieces. We could put a diagonal on top, but that would cover some of the base tile and make the drain hole too deep. After much shouting into a cell phone over the racket of power saws, he talked me out of it.

I told the jobsite foreman to leave it square.

But the jobsite foreman looked at me and said: "Nah. We can pull up that tile."

He grabbed a claw hammer and chisel from his car, and five minutes later, the square-set tile was gone! It hadn't been grouted yet, and the house is so cold that the underlying mortar hadn't set, in fact, some of it was still gooey.

Now that's service. I really appreciated his taking me under his wing like that and making it happen. It's interesting too how many different opinions there are from the pros on how something will work. The master tileguy was understandably conservative. The tilesetter journeyman vastly overestimated the demolition work (he said half a day). Our jobsite foreman, whose job includes customer satisfaction, took matters into his own hands and used his experience and confidence -- and chisel -- to fix the situation!

Meantime, far more important things transpired. The cabinetmaker who will make our mantel was out measuring, and discovered a highly unstraight wall that will complicate installation (on the left, it angles in about an inch). More drywall and framing repair. But the new hearth has been floated and is ready for tile.