So I did a thing.

No, not that thing, a different thing.
Over the last month I have been combing through the site to update posts (stuff changes), clean up any rogue information (see above ‘stuff changes’ disclaimer), and going through each post’s comments to see what the biggest pain points are.

Collectively it seems to be not enough beer money.

Once I got past that, though, each posts has particular things everyone asks about.
And I mean everyone.
Over and over and over and…well, you get the point

And that’s completely fine! But I said to myself – Elf, why don’t you just figure out what everyone keeps asking and tack that onto the end of the post and have more time for beer???

I made a good point.

So I’m doing that. Right now on about 1/3 of my posts (I have a LOT of posts) the end of the post includes the top three or four most common mistakes, and three or four most asked questions, all taken directly from the comments on that particular post.

So now I have more time for beer!

Also, throughout this process I run into common things sitewide that seem to be an issue, like
‘”‘How much cement and sand do I need if my shower floor is…’
Or ‘How many square feet of tile do I need for my shower’
Or ‘Is my floor strong enough to support a tile installation’
Or, How much beer do I need for…’

So Not only am I adding to each post, I also created some handy online tools to solve (most of) these issues.

I built five in total – here’s what they calculate (more likely coming as I comb through more comments):

• Deck Mud Calculator – How much sand and cement you need to buy.
• Floor Deflection Calculator – Can your floor can support tile? (how bouncy it is).
• Shower Tile Square Footage Calculator – How much less beer money you’ll have.
• Shower Waterproofing Selector – Which waterproofing method is best for your project.
• Thinset and Trowel Size Calculator – How much thinset you need to purchase for your project and the correct trowel size for the type and size of tile you’re installing.

You can find all those here: TileTools by FloorElf, or just click the ‘Tools’ tab on the menu at the top of the page. Go play around with them, they’re completely free and I won’t make you sign over rights to your first born or wash my truck or anything like that!
You’ll also find them (gradually) interspersed throughout the site on relevant posts.

Also, if you’re like me and stand around in other people’s showers all day constantly trying to figure all that stuff out (or if you’re just another tile nerd…), they are all in the form of an app (PWA) you can put on your phone and have all that useless information at your fingertips 24 hours a day! (More beer drinkin’ time!)

You can find the app here: TileTools by FloorElf app.

If you need one – there they are. Completely free to use, no ads, no BS. Just answers.

If you have any questions about any of them, or suggestions for a tool you would like to see, just drop a comment below.
I’m still working on the beer app thing. It may take a while…