Monica Zinda of Moonshine Mosaics came back to do my mudroom floor. The 12" square granite tiles are a match for the kitchen countertops, bought at the same time from the same place and stored lo these many years, waiting, waiting.

The procedure is: clear the room, scrape the floor flat (especially the raised joints in the subfloor where the glue bead is), vacuum and sweep, then lay the water barrier (15# tar paper). The tiles are about 3/8" thick and the main floor is 3/4" thick, so we're using ¼" cement board backer so the finished floor will be just a little lower than the main wood floor. The cement board is cut up, dry fitted and the joints adjusted, then screwed down to the joists and subfloor with SS screws. Joints are covered with self-adhesive fiberglass mesh tape, then mortared over.

Now it's ready for tile. Layout lines are chalked— the pattern is centered in the room— then the tiles are layed in quadrants, starting at the centerline and working towards the walls.