Prepping the Kitchen Counters for Tile

I need to tile and grout minimally the area around the kitchen sink before we can call the plumber in to install the new sink, dishwasher, and disposal, and until we do this, we have no kitchen plumbing.

I bought ¼” HardieBacker Cement Board from Lowes, in a convenient 4x6’ size which Just Barely fit in the back of my Volvo. The HardieBacker site has explicit installation videos, which I found quite educational. The score-and-snap method worked fine to cut most of the drywall sheets down to size, but I had to cut the sink cutout using a carbide tipped blade in my Jigsaw, and filed it down in a few places with a rasp. Once it was sized to fit, I set the cement board in latex modified thinset on the plywood top my carpenter built, and since the counter was going to be covered by tile, I wouldn’t care about nail pops, so I just used 3/4" roofing nails to secure it. Super easy. I secured the seams with mesh tape and more thinset.

And then…..time for my Trusty Tile saw. I bought a saw while remodeling Ballardia Classic, faced with the realization that tiling work was Expensive, but was one of those lovely remodeling tasks that simply required Patience. I can do Patience….sort of.

But Tile Saw rental proved to be a problem. They rent big burly tile saws at Home Depot, which I can’t lift. So I’d have to wait for Martin to get the saw out of my car whenever I wanted to rent it, and then I’d need a rapid completion schedule for its return. It was pretty easy to justify my own saw. I bought the MK Diamond 770. It has great reviews, and I can lift it (well, barely). It was quite pricey, but I figured I could sell it on Craigslist when done, so it might work out around the same as the lesser saws.

Tile For Less had Santa Cecilia granite tile, which looks much nicer than this picture, and conveniently blends right in with the two things we are most likely to spill on the countertop - red wine and coffee. Since I purchased the tile fromTile For Less, they charged me $7.99/sq ft to polish the edge of the tile so the countertop edge looks finished. They can also do a beveled finish, which costs more, so luckily I didn’t like it.