Checkerboard tile floor installed in Manchester, NH

Customer called with a couple of 2ft x 2ft porcelain tiles from Daltile in Derry that they wanted installed in their kitchen floor in a checkerboard pattern. They had just had new cabinetry and quartz countertops put in before Thanksgiving. And were hoping to have a new kitchen to entertain in before New Year's Eve. Which we accomplished before Christmas.

There was an inclination that the pre-existing sheet flooring may have been put down decades ago with an adhesive containing asbestos. So, instead of doing a demo that may put that into the air, we used two rolled coats of Prime-N-Bond by Laticrete over the floor covering.

The homeowners enter through a garage door into the house after work. So the layout was based on the entry hall going into kitchen.

The lady of the house really had her heart set on a diamond pattern tile layout. Although their home in Manchester doesn't have the most grandiose space. It is sufficient enough to move around. (And I wasn't really bumping into things during install. And was appreciative they had moved out the appliances for me to work a few days.)

The majority of the field tile was set in one four hour workday. Then, we resumed another day to do perimeter cuts. 

We used LFT Rapid Setting thinset mortar by Mapei to install the large format tiles. And being that the kitchen flows to the front hall and other rooms of the house, we wanted to allow foot traffic within a few hours of me setting tiles on this under construction, yet lived-on floor.

It has been prevalent of recent that wives opt for darker color grout. As to not over stress on immaculate cleaning of a new tile floor and the minimal upkeep for future maintenance.

So we used standard "black" grout, a 12lbs bag of Mapei Ultra Color Plus FA. After a couple of pre washes. Floated, then wiped clean. Now, these customers are proud owners of a new tile floor installed by Matt Cupan in their Manchester, New Hampshire home.