Saturday, May 10, 2008

Surprise, Another Post on Installing the Counter Tops!

I broke out the tile saw today to get things rolling. I got this saw at Home Depot a couple years ago for around $90.00 or so. So far, it's performed well, although the fence is semi-useless as it's extremely hard to get it set up properly. Either way, I haven't had any real problem cutting straight lines with it. The final cuts aren't as perfect as the factory cuts on the tiles, but they're pretty darn good.




It's got a deep enough cut to be able to go through the trim pieces in one pass.




As mentioned earlier I am laying out the tiles on these two tops to have the center piece be full-width. The top and front are cut and installed, but I still need to do the sides and backsplash. I'll take care of these after the adhesive for these tiles is completely dry. I could do it while the adhesive is setting, but I think I'm better off waiting




I picked up a corner trim piece. The other option was to use two straight sections and miter the ends at 45 degrees on each. I did that once before and don't like how it looked compared to a pre-cut piece.




Done for the day. Tomorrow I'll try and get the edging done.




Coming up I'm going to need to get creative on some of the edges. The main surfaces are glossy and smooth while the edges are dull and slightly rough. Two corners by the stove will have the rough edges exposed, and they'll stand out like a sore thumb. That is unless I find a way around it.

I picked up a disc for the angle grinder that is supposed to easily cut & trim granite.




I took a standard edge and tried rounding the corner over, similar to a bullnose corner. As you can see in the picture it's now rough and really stands out.




I used some clear polyurethane to coat the rough edge and it did a great job in mirroring the shine. The edge of the tile is still too rough and needs some sanding with a very fine grit, but it's a good way to verify that it'll work.