"How to install tile," in the Spotlight on Flooring Professionalism forum, begins: "I have a cousin Jeff in middle California that owns a carpet store he inherited from his dad. He has ..."
I have a cousin Jeff in middle California that owns a carpet store he inherited from his dad. He has done carpet and vinyl in his life, but never tile, at least not professionally. Here is the thing about Jeff, he is a genius, mechanically anyway. He went to vinyl school for a week 25 years ago, and walked away one of the best vinyl guys you have ever met. After a week or two of helping me lay carpet, I was learning tricks from him. No matter what he puts his mind to, be it auto mechanic and body work, welding, or any facet of home construction, give him a few days and some tools and he will blow your mind.
When I went out there in January, I knew two things. One was that his house was going to be amazing, and the other was that it wasn't going to be done. He is always tearing something out and starting over.
The tile work he did in the kitchen is what really did it for me. A good friend of my cousin and mine Tom, owns a tile store. Tom says he doesn't even know anyone capable of tile work like this, I don't either. He started with regular old 12 x 12 tile, cut all of his patterns out, then ground down all the corners and reglazed them. The outside corners are mitered and epoxied together. I wish I had better pics it looks much better in person. I threw in a picture of the shower in his master bath, also the stair going up to the master bedroom. He couldn't find stair treads to match the wood in his house, so he just cut them out of wood, and hand scraped them himself. I didn't get pics of the fountain he built outside, it rained most of the time I was out there, plus it was green with algae. That's another thing about Jeff, it isn't about having nice stuff, it's about building nice stuff. Anyways, not bad for a do-it-yourself job eh?
I couldn't get an answer to that question. He gets something half done then moves on to something else and so on. Probably not as long as you think though. He doesn't make a lot of mistakes. Once he has in his head what he wants to do, he just does it. It wouldn't surprise me if most of those cuts were eyeballed and free handed.
Back when he was maybe 20, he built a roll bar for my pickup. He took one measurement, marked it in the dirt, drew the whole thing out with his finger and started cutting pipe. I was nagging him the entire time that it wasn't going to fit, but sure enough it dropped in there perfect. The welds were so tight that we used it as an air tank to fill up tires.
Then there was the time that he built an RC model plane from scratch with a round wing that looked like a UFO, all off the top of his head and it flew. I mean the Wright brothers had to make a few attempts at it before they got flight down. Not Jeff, he somehow bends mechanical stuff to his will. He really missed his calling, I think taking over his dads flooring shop is the worst thing that could have happened to him. He should have been an engineer, or just a freelance inventor. He could have been just about anything, but he got stuck in this business .
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