DITRA, as promised

I don't see to be able to manage a post every day, but every other day will do. Since the last update, I've managed to keep to my schedule from the last post. Thursday's goals were all done, although the leveling only got put down around 6 PM, and considering I started at 7 AM, it was a long day: 

• Patching
• Sanding
• Joint Compound
• Tape
• Joint compound
• Sanding
• Leveling

A close-up of fiberglass tape embedded in joint compound, before sanding

A glimpse of how much taping and compounding had to be done (the ceiling, not pictured here, is the real pain, however)

And here’s the floor with some partially-dried leveling compound

One of the main reasons that I wanted to do this when the my family was somewhere else (besides having only one working toilet in the house) was the need to have tools and crap scattered everywhere for a month: bags of mortar, toolboxes, work gloves, etc. Witness, for instance, the preparation of last night's risotto:

That's just not going to fly with Lilya around. Anyway, got up this morning and unrolled my DITRA™. Behold its immense orangeosity:

I'm a little frustrated by my inability to find out what DITRA is an acronym for, but I'll live. One thing to know about it is that it's expensive: the smallest roll of it you can buy is $90, and it's for 54 square feet -- I need 12. Happily, there are guys on eBay who sell it in increments of 5 square feet, so the roll above is a meter wide and about five feet long. I didn't measure it, but it's definitely big enough. It goes under the tile, allowing the floor to move underneath it without stressing or cracking the tile. If Lilya really wants avant-garde, we could also just leave it as is. Step #1: cut the DITRA to fit the space:

Like that. It cuts pretty easily, once I figured out to use a pair of scissors rather than a utility knife. Step #2, lift that off, and cover the plywood with mortar:

That dark gooey stuff in the bucket. Don't worry about the color -- no one will ever see it, since this goes under the tiles, not between them (that's grout). And finally step #3, press the DITRA evenly into the mortar, squeezing out air pockets, etc. Any left over mortar can be put on top, since all those little pockets will have to be filled up tomorrow anyway. 

And that's it; in theory, the floor tile could start going down tomorrow, although in practice, that's a very delicate step where you kind of need to get everything right, particularly cutting the tile, for which you don't get any do overs. I read all about how my angle grinder works (I have a healthy respect for power tools), so I might go out to the Home Depot and pick up a few tiles (porcelain if possible) and do some practice cuts. Otherwise, I'm in the unusual position of being done at lunchtime, and I need to stay out of that bathroom for the rest of the day. I'm going to do some reading and enjoy a nap, I hope.