Wonderboard!

For those of you who don't have any idea what I'm talking about, wonderboard is a cement board underlayment which is installed under tile to provide rigidity.

It is made of cement. But it really smells A LOT like Play-Doh. :)

To install it, you simple cut it to shape, lay it out on the floor and screw it to the floor with a million screws. Yes, a million.



Look how excited Joe is. :)



Generally you would also use some sort of mortar under the wonderboard, but we are installing this tile onto a pre-existing hardwood floor. If we used mortar, the wood floor would absorb the water in the mortar and probably warp. As the wood dried out, it would then try to "un-warp" to it's original shape and this would drastically increase the chances of the grout between the tiles cracking. We do not want that! So no mortar in this particular application.

For those of you who ever want to do this yourself, it goes much quicker as a two person operation. One person can go around and get the screws started by tapping them into the surface of the wonderboard with a hammer in a six inch grid.





The second person can then go around with a drill and screw them all in the rest of the way.



Wear work gloves if you have them, because unless you use a drill full time every day, you are probably going to get blisters. We did.

The funniest thing was when Otter walked across the wonderboard...it creaks slightly when it is first layed down. He would take a step and hear the creaking, and get all freaked out. His ears would go back and he would freeze in place. Then he would take another step and have the exact same reaction. I don't think he ever really figured out what was going on, but whenever he walked across the wonderboard he would try to tiptoe to prevent the creaking noise. It was hilarious.

It stayed like this for a few days before we were able to tile.