Learned a HUGE lesson the other day that sure could have flip flopped into a "oh my god we are screwed, there is no way to fix this" moment. Never, (I repeat) Never think that manufactures just put "guidelines" on there products just for fun. Just follow the guidelines. So, I will explain.
This isn't our first rodeo.
We have tiled bathrooms, kitchens etc. and are very familiar with Hardi Backer. For those of you who aren't... its the cement board that is mudded using thinset onto the wood sub floor to create a solid non-flexible surface the tile is mudded to with thin set. The point being, it removes any movement the sub floor might have so that the non flexible tiles will not crack or move.
Back to where we went wrong.
1. We are tired, working 7 days a week to complete this project. 2. This is the most square footage we have tackled in one area and it's a little intimidating. 3. And, I really wanted to get done early for the day so I could make it to my friends bachlorette party. (just being honest)
On each hardi backer board there are these wonderful little recessed dots that indicate where a nail should be placed when attaching to the floor. Each 3 x 5 panel has roughly 1 every 6 inches. Alot.......right? Understanding, that our mind set were numbers 1 2 and 3 from above, so we decide that we don't need that many nails. "We have been doing this enough times, we will be fine."
Big fat WRONG.
Why did we think that "we" two little peons could out think some engineering master who sits in a lab all day testing and specifying products for companies, so that they could give us guildelines to properly install there products?
Our entire floor squished and creeked and moved. Expecially in ALL the high traffic areas.
A rush of panic set in, this was not something that we could just pull up and start again. These cement boards are mudded down and ripping them up would ruin our subfloor completely. Not Good...... and just saying oh well and installing our tile would eventually leave us to cracked tiles and a waste of our time.
So my husband being the researching maniac as he is ran down to the computer (where he usually finds most of our problem solving solutions) and quickly determined that most people run into problems like ours and that there is not a really great solution other than screwing the hell out of each panel.
3 lbs. of screws and nails later, our hardi floors looked like a crazy person had used the floor for shot gun practice. Insert image of a buck shot here......
To my amazement and extreme thankfullness, it worked. Not a squish, or giggle not nothing! Solid as a rock!
So folks, lesson learned.
