Helping my son tile his kitchen: from flooring to structure to electrical ***updated 9/29/25

My son bought a cozy little house several years ago. 936 square feet, two bedroom, one bath, with a full unfinished basement. Although this 1959 house needs remodeling, my son is a mechanic at heart and prefers to work on car projects. 

But a few months ago he finally got the motivation to start on his house again. A dozen boxes of ceramic tile, obtained very cheaply, have been sitting in his living room for a long time, so he decided to tear out the ugly and worn kitchen floor and install the tile.

Now, we did do some work on the house prior to this latest binge, which involved moving the basement stairs out of the dining room and into the living room. We also demolished the scabbed together basement and started framing out a basement bathroom. But this was 3-4 years ago.

Here's a floor plan to help you understand the things we were undertaking:

The kitchen had vinyl sheet flooring laid over half inch plywood, which in turn was laid on top the hardwood strip flooring. But, the house was originally constructed by laying this hardwood strip flooring right on the floor joists with no subfloor. So, in order to put tile in the kitchen and have not it be higher than the adjacent hardwood, thus the kitchen floor needed to be stripped to the joists. 

The top plane of the subfloor will be the top of the joists, which is 3/4" below the top of the adjacent hardwood. Everything had to be built atop this plane, because we needed to accommodate 1/4" plywood, the Ditra membrane, the thickness of the thinset, and the tile itself. 

So we developed a plan to glue and nail horizontal sleepers to the side of each joist, positioned 3/4" below the tops of the joists. We then would cut widths of OSB to glue and nail and glue on top of the sleepers so that our new subfloor would be made flush with the top of the joists. 

First step is demo. We started by removing the base cabinets and peeling off the vinyl and plywood:

This the south wall (the "wet" wall). Notice also the condition of the sheetrock.

This is viewing north:

Under the plywood were two more layers of vinyl. Ugh.

We started making cuts in the hardwood parallel with the floor joists to make it easier to remove. At first we thought we might be able to salvage the hardwood, but the two layers of vinyl were adhered like crazy. So we just cut it, pulled it up, and hauled it to the landfill.

This is first pieces of the new subfloor:

You can see how we recessed the OSB into the joist bays. You can also see we need to eliminate the landing stepdown (top center). The basement stairs were located here on the north wall (the dining room table is now occupying that spot). When the basement stairs were in this location the landing functioned as the first step down into the basement. Which also means the entry door used to be positioned lower, but we have already raised it up in anticipation of eliminating the landing. 

But, at this point we were forced to make a detour. Some prior remodeler had removed the wall dividing the living room from the kitchen and a beam had been installed in its place. After we had stripped part of the floor adjacent to the north wall we found that there was no structure underneath the plate, where a post should continue down to support the beam. So what was holding the beam? 

Now were were curious. And troubled. With the heavy snow we had this winter the sheetrock covering the beam had developed cracks, and a couple of other cracks had appeared other places in the ceiling. Now we needed to know how this was structured (or even, if it was structured).

We started cutting sheetrock. The north wall had this:

What you see here is a 2x4 jack stud holding up the beam, and to the right another 2x4 turned sideways (this is known as a strong back, which makes a two pieces of wood rigid by being fastened together to form a right angle). You can also see the previously-mentioned area below the wall plate, which was completely empty. Those little stubs of wood you see sticking up under the plate are cripples, vertical pieces of 2x material that carry the point load of the wall to the foundation below. 

But as you can see there were no cripples under the post. So we immediately put in a jack to temporarily support the beam. We then we glued and screwed some blocks to fill the space below the post. Now the point load goes all the way to concrete.

The beam itself (two 2x8s nailed together) had less than an inch of length actually sitting on the jack stud. While the jack stud with a strong back was marginally sufficient, everything else about this was substantially sub par. 

We needed to check the other end:

You can see the new basement stairs.

This support does not look good. The base of this jack stud was sitting on the hardwood flooring, in between floor joists, with no post in the basement, no cross bracing, and no doubled floor joists. Plus the single 2x4 post itself was just not good enough:

The previous remodeler used the very same technique on this end, a 2x4 jack stud and a strong back. But this is not buried in an exterior wall, it's the end of a stub wall with the only sideways support supplied by how well secured the stub wall is into the floor and the trusses. And it really wasn't secured at all. You can see the spikes toenailed into the strong back.

Also notice that the wiring is fastened to the strong back, which means this entire area was open but this remodeler just couldn't be troubled to add in more structure or put in more than four nails. This is just not sufficient. Just a light hit with someone's hip could take the beam down.

The beam itself was also problematic so we started taking it out:

This beam was installed 1/4" BELOW the ceiling surface, and the ceiling sheetrock was left in place OVER the beam. Sheetrock cannot carry a load, it just compresses into powder. It should have been cut away and the beam positioned higher and in actual contact with and nailed to every truss. But there were only six nails toenailed up through the sheetrock into the trusses. 

So the beam wasn't actually holding anything. Or at least, it wasn't holding anything until a snow load was on the roof and the trusses gave way a little, coming to rest on the beam, which cracked the living room ceiling sheetrock and also the beam's sheetrock, dead center vertical.

Astonishing.

It had to be replaced. We first checked the ceiling height in several places and found it dropped a half an inch, right about center span of the beam. So we built a temporary wall at the height of our longest measurement, which happened to be exactly eight feet:

This brought the ceiling even. We demolished the posts:

Out comes the beam:

And the other post:

This again is the north wall, after we removed the jack and the beam. The original top structure is comprised of the stud wall cap first, which was notched to accept the beam, an inner and outer rim joist above it (the inner was also notched), and then the bottom plate of the gable on top of that. Somewhat unusual construction, because ordinarily the gable is just built right on top of the cap.

You can also see here that the previous remodeler did not remove the ceiling sheetrock as I mentioned before.

Out comes the beam:

Time to begin reconstruction. The first thing did was nail in a king stud, flush with the notch: 

 

We then cut a two jack studs minus the 11 7/8" height of the new BCI joist we were using for the beam. Plus, we nailed in a 2x4 wall stud to each side of the two jack studs, forming king studs on each side. 

Now, back to the other end of the beam. We first needed to deal with the floor (at least temporarily). We cut off the mangled end of the floor plate and added a new longer piece, so that the stub wall would be 33 1/2". We did this for two reasons. First, to fully cover the side of the fridge. Second, to be able to position the jack stud on a floor joist. We then went into the basement and installed a couple of pieces of blocking between the joists. This will at least give it some strength until we get a post put in.

We measured for two king studs and a jack stud and made our cuts. We installed the two kings and now we're ready to measure and cut the beam. 

BCIs aren't heavy, but anything that long can be hard to manage. Our friend Taylor answered the call to help, and we lifted the beam into place and tapped the jacks in underneath it on each end. We nailed in the jack studs and nailed up through the flange into the trusses. 

Here's what it looks like:

As mentioned, there will be king a stud on each side. And, the old wiring with the silver woven jacket will be updated.

***Update*** Sheetrocked:

Here's the other end:

And here's the whole beam:

Now. We can finally get back to the floor, which is the actual project we set out to do.

We had a couple of little items to finish up. We put in the subfloor piece around the heater duct on the west wall, and also closed in the floor gap at the north wall:

We then spread some thinset and started screwing down our 1/4" ply:

Once that dried we spread some more thinset and laid down the Ditra (this thinset is made especially for Ditra). I wasn't there for that, but our good friend and expert tiler Phillip came by to assist. Once that dried overnight my son spread some more thinset on top of the Ditra and let that dry:

We started laying tile. Interestingly, this was the easiest part of the whole project. It took only a half a day to lay all the whole tiles:

We let these set up and the next weekend put in the cut tile:

That's Boomer. 

As mentioned, the sheetrock was pretty well mangled by a previous electrician who cuts some holes to run new wiring. Also, the wiring is messy because a previous remodeler chased wires through the wall cavities from the basement. We cleaned that up and added a couple of outlets. 

Here's what that looks like:

That ugly light fixture will be replaced. Also, those uppers on the wet wall will need to be rearranged to suit the new configuration of the kitchen.

We also needed to add an outlet for the dishwasher, lower right:

We sheetrocked and then started with the corner cabinet:

The whole purpose behind rearranging the layout from the original is to create space for a dishwasher next to the fridge. In the above pic our friend Taylor is leveling the newly acquired blind corner cabinet, which replaced the original lazy susan. The lazy susan took 3 feet of wall space on each side, so the bind corner cabinet will give back 12" to the wet wall. The sink base (which will be on the wet wall of course) will move over 12 inches to the right (west) to connect to the blind corner cabinet.

In addition, we deleted the 12' base cabinet which was formerly between the fridge and the sink base, giving us even more space. But unfortunately we didn't gain the full 12 additional inches because the sink base needed a filler strip so that the doors and drawers have the clearance to open. In addition, the new dishwasher will be positioned on the left side of the sink base next to the refrigerator, and it will need a closeout panel. So that also steals part of the space we gained, a total of about 5 inches. 

That means an 18" dishwasher.

As we made progress we're now getting a sense of the space:

You can see the moved sink base, the new blind corner cabinet, the new drawer base to the right of that, and also the leftover original base cabinets temporarily forming a peninsula. The existing 24" end cabinet to the right of the oven was turned 90 degrees to open towards the dining room, forming the corner of the peninsula. The two left over cabinets for the peninsula are 24 inches and 12 inches wide.

Upon reflection, however, it just didn't look right. Too crowded at the oven. My son opted to replace those cabinets with a 36" long x 12" deep wall cabinet. That will give him additional space to the right of the oven. 

9/3/25 We detoured to repair the hardwood floor. The north wall, as mentioned, was the former basement stair location and was mostly tiled over, but part of the stair opening intruded into the living room. My son saved the hardwood from when the basement stairs were relocated to the living room, so we had matching material. 

We got started by creating a stagger in the layout by carefully cutting back the existing flooring:

It was then just a matter of cutting and fitting pieces.

Here's the final result:

Came out nice. That black is residue from the vinyl flooring.

9/20/25 Back to the cabinets. As mentioned, my son bought a 36' long X 12" deep wall cabinet to form the peninsula, and of course wall cabinets don't have toe kicks. The toe kicks on the existing cabinets are 4" tall. But when sitting on the floor the wall cabinet is 4 1/2" short of the top of the existing cabinets. To bring it even with the top would make the toe kick 1/2" too high.

We needed to come up with something. So we built a base out of 2x4s (36' x 18". We made it wider because the peninsula didn't look right at just 12" deep) and drilled some holes in the tiles to fasten the base to:

That elevates us 3 1/2". We squared up the base with the existing cabinet and screwed the base to the floor and the neighboring cabinet:

Notice that we gained the needed space for the oven access. 

A piece of 1/2" ply bought the toe kick even with the existing cabinet. We put the cabinet on top of the box but the top was still short by a 1/2". So we screwed another piece of 1/2" ply on top of the cabinet to bring the top even:

That ply will be hidden by the countertop.

As mentioned, the 12" cabinet is really not deep enough for it to look right as a peninsula, so we built out the back of the cabinet 6 inches:

So this makes the peninsula 18" deep. The peninsula is now set away from the oven 6" to create space to access the oven door. Much better. 

Also note we skinned the box with 1/4" oak veneer ply. Here's the other side:

You can see the base cabinet in the corner that we rotated 90 degrees (right center). You can also see that the upper cabinets for the sink base still need to be rearranged (top center). 

9/29/25 So we did that:

Next, we started building the counter tops. The peninsula countertop will have an overhang of 6" on the dining room side for a total width of 24", which will complete the proportionate look of the peninsula.

Here's how that came out:

We will add an oak strip to the edge, and glue formica to the top.

The other side:

This will receive the same edge treatment.

More to come.