Book – Stanley Complete Projects Made Easy

Book Description:
Detailed photos and easy-to-follow presentation for tiling floors, walls, countertops, and showers guide novices and experts.

Two-tiered design offers instruction for common tiling situations plus additional information for unusual circumstances.

Comprehensive guide covers basic and advanced tile techniques to plan patterns, measure and cut tiles, seal finished surfaces, and repair broken tile.

Prestart Checklists detail the tools, materials, skills, and time needed to complete each job.

Stanley Pro Tips offer shortcuts to work easier, faster, and safer.

Includes installation instructions for all types of ceramic tile, plus vinyl, laminate, carpet, and parquet tile products.

 Review

This  is an introductory book and mostly a coffee table book. The images are great but the book lacks real world instruction needed to perform many of the tasks correctly.

In one section they tell the user that the cost of special mastic / mortar to adhere stone to a counter top can be circumvented simply by sealing the back of the product and then using regular ceramic tile type adhesives. I cant imagine how someone would feel when they took this advice and a week after installing their new expensive tub / shower surround or counter top they found that the adhesives were leaching through causing staining and ruining thousands of dollars worth of product. This is just wrong. You chose to buy expensive stone so you use the proper adhesive / product that researchers have worked decades to perfect.

In another area they are laying 1″ octagonal tile that has a web backer. They show the use of a standard manual tile snapper to cut these small tiles. That is just insane, I mean maybe in a pinch sure and only if that edge will be hidden but the damage that will occur to all of the tiles makes that method wrong. They would be better off telling the installer to use a tile nipper or to do it the correct way and rent a wet saw for $20 and save yourself the cost of a bottle of aspirin.

In another area they show someone installing grout on Ceramic Tile using a metal pointing traul. UMM you don’t use metal trawls on the surface of glazed tile or you will ruin it. And in another area they are installing porous stone on what looked to be a mantle and they were wiping grout all over the face of the stone letting it embed into the cracks where they will never be able to remove it.

I don’t know what contractor  they hired to review this book but I sure hope they were smart enough to not let them do work in their own homes.

What is good about this book

This book has a lot of good parts. They do not cover every job in perfect detail but it is up to you to use what they give you and then supplement that information with conversations with professionals and also with your supplier. What-else is good? The pictures and illustrations are great and just looking through the book you will get a number of ideas for projects around your home.
Buy This Book NowThis book is available in our book store
BUY IT NOW

At the time of writing it was about $14
Yourepair.com Recommends that you purchase this book for your library It will give you a lot of great ideas and does have some useful information.

This Review was made after a 10 minute browse of this book at our local Supply House. Our review is not meant to be a detailed description of the book and since we are very skeptical we tend to point out the bad points and leave you to discover the good ones. We do recommend this book as it is probably one of the better ones covering this subject and its cost is very reasonable. Just remember that just like when you read information on YouRepair.com You should always double check any instructions with another source or two before you start a project on your own.