Prep work has begun on my next home improvement project. I've got a little over 800 sqft. of kitchen/pantry/breakfast room/bathroom/laundry room to cover.
I've started pulling up the linoleum and refastening the 3/4" plywood with screws. Each existing nail is getting a 3" screw installed an inch or two away. At 800 sqft., I've got my work cut out for me.
After doing quite a bit of shopping, both at local retailers, and on-line, my wife and I have decided on the tile. Locally, it's called Jack Rustic, online it goes by the name of Rusty. You can see why in the pic below.
I'm a bit concerned about the weight of this stuff though. For the area to be covered, I'm looking at a little over 3 tons of slate (est. 6228 lbs shipping weight). This averages out to just under 8 lbs per sqft of floor.
My floor joists are 16" on center, and as I mentioned above, the subfloor is 3/4" plyboard. I also plan to cover the entire floor with 1/2" backerboard. There are also a few areas that aren't quite level, so a bit of leveling compound will be called for in those areas. All in all, I'm looking at prolly 10 lbs/sqft. (And that's not counting the weight of the thinset and grout.)
The entire area covered by all of this slate sets over my basement, so I'm wondering if I might need to add a support post or two to shore up the floor.
Aside from the question of support posts, is there anything else that I'm missing here? I'm all about asking lots of questions before hand, as I'm also all about doing it right
the first time.
Randy
PS. Oh yeah. My friendly neighborhood contractor quoted me $6.00/sqft for labor. This included everything. tearing out the old flooring, leveling, etc. It does NOT include any of the materials. Does this seem reasonable?