Sunroom Flooring: Zero to Hero With Inset Tile

Our last house had an absolutely stunning deck out back where we spent many a summer’s day and night over the years of living there. It was two stories tall and looked out into treetops. One thing that always bugged me about it (pun intended) was the bugs. The DC-region is very hot and humid in the summers, and there are plenty of mosquitoes to go around. We had to setup fans, wear bug spray, use citronella candles… It was a big production to try and make it pleasant.

This is why, when we moved into our new house in late 2020, we were very excited to eventually be able to use the little sunroom on the side of our house to survive bug-free during the summer. The view doesn’t compare to the old deck, but it’s secluded and intimate.

The previous owners had the sunroom added on to accommodate a hot tub, which was thankfully no longer present when we moved in. What was still present was the moldy, mildewy smell of the carpet that adorned the floor. Needless to say, the first step in being able to enjoy the sunroom was to get rid of that carpet and lay down some tile.

Kind of a Blank Slate…

Since this was a sunroom and not a room in our house, we decided it would be a good candidate to try something different and fun. And so… inset tile, for some reason?* We wanted to do a beach-y theme, so we selected one of the tiles for that vibe. Otherwise it was just about perusing the online tile catalog to figure out what we thought might be a good pairing that we would like. Pretty simple.

I may do a longer post at some point about tiling in general, but I’m going to skip the details for now. Here is a very brief rundown though:

I started with removing the old carpet, then cleaning the concrete slab underneath. Once that was finished, I measured and measured and measured some more, until I settled on a design I wanted. I dry laid the inset tile to see how it looked in the space and finally decided to proceed with the tedious (and messy) part of cutting and laying the tile. About 7,042 hours later, I finished this stage, grouted, and sealed.

So here is how it turned out:

And here we are about eight months later and I still haven’t gotten to fully decorate it yet… but c’est la vie.

Learn From My Mistakes…

For those of you considering doing your first inset tile job, I would recommend a few different things:

• Budget a lot more time than you would for a straightforward tiling job. Laying and cutting the tile in this room took me at least three times longer than it would have otherwise. I had to cut all but twelve of the tiles. Not smart.
• Many tile manufacturers sell tiles that go together for inset job purposes. Their dimensions line up nicely when used as recommended (or so I’ve read). I didn’t do that, which probably provides part of the reason for my first bullet.
• Ensure the tiles you use are the exact same thickness as one another. Otherwise, it’s a huge headache (and, again, probably provides part of the reason for my first bullet).

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*The inset tile decision was fully on me. I just didn’t exactly know what I was getting into…