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GointoClarksvi lle
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# Posted: 26 Jul 2011 03:15pm
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Hi All...question.. i have a 3 season cabin and would like to add a tile backsplash and possible a formica counter top or perhaps tile to freshen up the kitchen. Can anyone provide detail or comments on if this is a good idea with the hash cold here in WNY in the winter. Will the tiles come off, lets say even is a concrete backer board is used? Any advise would be most appreciated! Thanks!!
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Vince P
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# Posted: 26 Jul 2011 04:43pm
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My cabin is in upstate NY at high elevation (Read: COLD). I tiled my counter directly to a homeade wooden countertop 4 years ago and never had a tile pop off. Also did the same with the floor, tiling directly over the wood subfloor. The trick is to use mastic instead of thinset cement. The mastic stays flexible.
If you grout the tile, use the premade grout rather than the kind you mix up. It will also stay flexible.
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 26 Jul 2011 09:55pm - Edited by: toyota_mdt_tech
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I built my own counter and also covered it with formica. I did lots of research before diving in. Its an absolute snap to do. Here is my work. I havent added the backsplash yet.
First Formica Counter Job
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GointoClarksvi lle
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# Posted: 27 Jul 2011 09:27am
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Thanks for the great pix Toyota!! Let me ask.. are you concerned with the freeze of the winter. What you have is exactly what I am going to do. Love the cabinets....did you build those? My only concern is freeze and thaw but Vince P says mastic is the way to go. I am thinking of nice slate tiles as a backsplash. I'll post pixs once complete. Thanks!!
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PlicketyCat
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# Posted: 28 Jul 2011 08:59pm
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The hard freeze in most cabins over winter isn't as much of a problem if you aren't using the cabin in the winter. Normally, it's the rapid heating/freezing cycles that weaken adhesives and crack brittle materials. If you use a low-temp flexible adhesive and either keep the cabin warm or let it stay cold all winter. Naturally heating and cooling slowly with the season, you should be fine with tile, stone or laminates.
There's a beautifully tiled 3-season cabin down the road from us, and that puppy is frozen solid for 4+ months a year. The only problem they ever had was when they decided to spend Christmas at the cabin after it had been cold for a month... when they fired up the woodstove, a few row of tile around the hearth cracked and lifted due to rapid heating/thermal shock.
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 28 Jul 2011 10:02pm - Edited by: MtnDon
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We have a Formica covered counter. The floors are ceramic tile everywhere. Ceramic tile cemented with thinset to the Hardie cement fiber backboard. The backerboard is screwed to the OSB subfloor on the recommended 8" x 8" grid. The cabin is unheated over winter.
However, we put the structure through several extreme heat/cool cycles through the winter. We snowshoe in mid December through April every two weeks. Every trip in we find a very cold cabin and build a fire in the wood stove and fire up the propane wall heater to get the cabin warm as fast as we can. Sometimes that means raising the interior temperature from 10 - 15 degrees F up to 75 F or so. When we leave the propane heat is turned off and the wood stove is left to burn itself out. The building cools off and interior temperatures can return to the below freezing range. We have a few winters use as of now.
We have has NO problems with the floor tile, the counter top or the drywall walls. (One wall and ceiling are T&G pine, no issues there either).
I also used the regular dry, mix with water, grout. Again, no issues.
Possibly most important is the matter of a solid foundation, one that goes below the frost depth to ensure the structure will not shift from frost heaving.
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gtrem
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# Posted: 3 Aug 2011 09:34pm
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I'm located in western MA where it tends to also get very cold. I used cement board on both the floor and kitchen walls for tile. Used mastic on kitchen wall and countertop, used thinset on floor. Managed to get through first winter with no cracks. I did put cabin on 5' footing tubes to ensure adequate frost protection.
cement board in kitchen
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view of tile from loft
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tile in kitchen
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 4 Aug 2011 09:24am - Edited by: toyota_mdt_tech
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Quoting: GointoClarksvi lle Thanks for the great pix Toyota!! Let me ask.. are you concerned with the freeze of the winter. What you have is exactly what I am going to do. Love the cabinets....did you build those? My only concern is freeze and thaw but Vince P says mastic is the way to go. I am thinking of nice slate tiles as a backsplash. I'll post pixs once complete. Thanks!!
No worries about freeze or thaw. Area is dry, not a lot of humidity. I think that will help. I had the cabinets all custom built. I have a friend who hooked me up with $6500 worth for $2100 (he is in the business). All the drawers have that "blu motion" or whatever its called, it closes itself slowly at the end, same for the cabinets, you will never hear cupboards or drawers banging. The cabinets are made to look like it was built out of 100 yr old barn wood, ie worm holes, dings and dents, knots (these were actually put in by the builder)
In addition to adding backsplash, I will do something else on the walls behind the counter, not sure what yet. Maybe small tile...
Picture of eating counter, I will be removing the trim under the windows and elevating the eating counter to right under the widows. Right now, its too low by about 4 inches. You want 12" from eating counter surface to seating surface.
another view (no sink added yet)
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Eating counter (aged saddlemans stools)
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