Tile Baby!

After a small blip Sunday morning Radim arrived and started right in on our tile.  We had already done the remaining demolition of the old tile down the hallway and into the toilet compartment.

Working down the hall

A view form the other end

Demo in the toilet compartment

We decided that another section of plywood to replace the damaged, from removal, OSB was appropriate.

New plywood down the hallway

Then as I said Radim arrived and we had a bit of discussion determining our final layout and the challenges of the slide out.  The slide out has two rollers mounted in the bottom of the slide, under the kitchen cabinets.  The slide moves in and out on these rollers, in fact they roll right over the new tile floor.  It is imperative that the tile when installed goes all the way back and under the rollers so they roll freely with the movement of the slide.  I made that clear to Radim as he started laying out the tile.  

Planning the layout

Radim starting on the job

In this picture above you can see a door, actually a full height drawer in the left foreground.  One of the rollers is right below it, and to Radim's right side you can see double doors, the other roller is under there.  Being a small job it required a lot of cutting and fitting.

Almost ready for thin set

He used a very high line somewhat flexible thin set that should work very well for an install in a motorhome.  He had a bit of a problem getting the tile under the rear roller, so I came in, removed the floor of the cabinet and raised the roller up so he could slide the tile underneath, causing a problem we didn't realize until yesterday.  He worked until about 5:30 and rewarded us with a beautiful job only needing the grout in a couple of days.

Looks great, doesn't it?

Well, Jan and I decide we better make sure the slide rolls in and out okay, better to know now rather than when we are leaving, huh?  I adjust the roller back down that I had raised earlier, hit the button and WHOA, it is bound up and doesn't want to move!!  OMG!  We are trying to figure what we could have done??  It seems to be hung up somehow on the front or middle roller.  We have to remove the full drawer as we are unable to see in under the cabinets.

Drawer pulled out.
That is a heating duct that you see hanging out

We can see the top of the roller just fine, but can't see below it unless we take it out completely.  A good learning experience because now we know how to replace or repair a roller:-)

Looking down on the roller

What the roller looks like.
The large bolt on the top is the adjustment

We get it pulled out and we see the problem immediately.  The tile was only installed back to the roller instead of under it causing a blockage that the roller couldn't go up and over, in fact it caused a 5/8" high block right in front of the roller.  I inadvertently caused the problem when I raised the rear roller all the way up.  That caused the middle roller to carry the weight of the slide, pushing it down, so when Radim installed the tile, he pushed it all the way back until it firmly stopped just like he had at the beginning not realizing the roller had moved down.  We inserted a plywood shim in the gap and all is well now!  The slide moves in and out just like it should, the tile is beautiful, and the grout will be done tomorrow!  All is well.