I learned some good lessons from my first round of tiling. So, I was looking forward to this day. I believe I was better prepared than last time. There were a few changes. I would make smaller batches of thin set to prevent the thin set from drying out. I wanted to keep area clean. Keep the thin set off the floor, the appliances, the cabinets and me. I went with paper, instead of plastic to cover the countertops. Plus, I would back-butter the sheets on the paper, and when I got too much thin set on the paper, I would throw it away and start with a new sheet of paper. I had a bucket of water with a sponge to wipe off any extraneous thin set.
I got up a little earlier so I could prepare the kitchen prior to picking up the tile saw. I re-masked the countertops and put down the paper. I got my bucket of water and a sponge. I pulled Efiwym’s, my wife’s car out of the garage to set up the table for the tile saw. I gathered all my buckets, trowel, putty knife, groat float, electric drill, mixing paddle, measuring cup and thin set so I could have it ready when I got back home. I went to get the tile saw and headed back home drama free.
When I got home, I set up the tile saw. This time, I used the garden hose to fill the reservoir, instead of lugging buckets of water. Once the tile saw was ready to go, I mixed a batch of thin set. Again, I used about a third of the bag for this batch, using the recommended 3 to 1 ration of thin set to water.
Once the thin set was mixed, I got my first sheet of mosaic for behind the stove. That was where I was going to start. Based on my layout of the sheets of mosaic tiles on the family room floor, I would cut this sheet approximately in half and use the other half when I got to the corner of the wall. Well, at least that was the plan.
Using my quick square to mark the cut, I put a pencil mark through the two sheets where some of the rows had a common grout line. I lined up the sheet on the tile saw and made my first cut. Then, another cut on the second sheet. I was starting off feeling pretty confident. I went back to the thin set to give it a recommended additional 3-minute mix, before I brought the bucket into the house. I was ready to lay my first sheet of tile.
I decided to use the putty knife to apply the thin set and follow up with the trowel. Using the trowel to apply the thin set, at least for me, was awkward and I was getting less on the walls and more on the countertops. I applied the thin set across the complete space behind the stove. I knew I would be able to lay 4 sheets pretty quickly. This time I ran the trowel vertically. I watched a Youtube® video where it suggested for mosaic tile to keep the thin set out of the grout lines.
I got the first two bottom sheets applied using the edging I already installed as a guide. As I was going to apply the two top sheets, I noticed I needed to cut them. The second sheets were too tall, and I needed to make a rip cut to make them fit. I was fortunate not to lay the sheets into the thin set. I made that mistake last time. What a mess. Now, I had thin set on the wall, and I needed to cut to sheets.
However, I recognized that I could just cut the mesh and separate two rows of the sheets, so I did not need to cut any tiles. I removed the extra rows of tiles and proceeded to apply the two sheets. I used less force with the grout float to set the tiles. I believed I pushed the tiles too hard last time causing the thin set to ooze through the grout lines. I gave the tiles a quick wipe with the sponge to wipe off any thin set.
I had my bag of finishing nails to use to help with keeping consistent grout lines. I thought last time that the sheets were starting to sag, and the grout lines were not as wide as they should have been. For each sheet, I pounded a couple of nails through the top grout line into the drywall. My hope that this method would prevent the sheets from drooping. I placed finishing nails where I thought a gap was needed, especially between the sheets of mosaic. I checked to see if there was any excess thin set in the grout lines, but fortunately, the use of a lighter touch on the grout float and running the trough vertically was working.
So far, I was not happy with the edging. One, it did not hide the edge of the tile completely. And two, the tiles over the edging protruded out because of the thickness of the edging behind them. I was hoping the grout would minimize it.
I continued to finish up the tile on the oven wall, and over all that wall went a lot smoother than yesterday. I made every attempt to keep the area clean. Back buttering the mosaic was cleaner and easier as I used the putty knife to apply the thin set. I did not press too hard to get the thin set into the grout lines and I wiped up any excess with the sponge. If the paper had excess thin set on it, I would just toss and start with a fresh piece of paper. I wanted to make sure I was having consistent horizontal grout lines, so I was inserting finishing nails in about all the lines. There were nails all over the place.
Once I completed the oven wall, I took a break. I made a new batch of thin set for the refrigerator wall. I grab a can of Diet Coke® and sat for a few minutes to admire my work. But I had no time to waste, as I had a lot more tiling to do.
I needed to check out the levelness of the cabinets on the refrigerator wall. I discovered yesterday that not only were the cabinets not level, but the countertops were not level either. Unfortunately, they were going in opposite directions. The cabinets sloped downward to the left and the countertops sloped upward to the left. I had about ½” difference in space from the left side to the right side at the desk part of the wall. I had a thought of splitting the mosaic sheets horizontally and making the grout lines thicker on the right side of the desk to compensate for the difference. That was the plan, but first I needed to tile near the refrigerator.
Having the tile sheets already laid out saved me some time, but it was mid-afternoon, and I still did not start on the refrigerator wall. I thought I could work into the night. I would get this wrapped up by 8:30’ish. That was the plan.
Again, the tiling under the cabinet went well. I continued to put nails in all the grout lines, even though I nailed the tile sheets to the wall. The grout lines were kept clean of thin set. (I did forget to back butter to sheets of tile, but I hope the tile does not fall off the wall.) I got to the point where the next sheet of tile would extend past the cabinet and over the desk. This was a critical time to ensure the tile was level as I tiled across the desk. I would be working from the middle of the wall and working my way upward and finish down to the desk countertop. I put my level on each sheet as I applied to the wall. I would maneuver each sheet to make sure it was level. Somehow, I did not accomplish that. The tiles were sloping downward and now I would have a worst issue at the desk countertop. That was problem number one.
The second problem I had was I decided to use all the tiles that were left over when I trimmed under the cabinets. The cabinet backsplash height was 16 inches. The tile sheets are 11 inches high, so I had 5 inches of tile I could use for the desk backsplash. I had already laid out the sheets on the family room floor, so I knew I had figured it out. But…when I got the point where the upper cabinet of the desk was higher than the regular cabinet, the tiles did not line up. I mean, I needed to make sure the one-inch-high tiles lined up with each other. I had to turn the tile sheets upside down and remove a strip of tiles to get the sheets to match. Not fun, but I got it done.
I now had hundreds of nails holding up tiles on this wall. The wall looked like the game, Plinko®. I just needed some ping-pong balls to play the game. Time was slipping away, and with all this extra work on the tiles, it was going to be later than 8:30. I did not feel tired, nor frustrated like last week, and I was still willing to get the tiling done today.
I plotted along, as it got later into the night. Efiwym, my wife, was willing to help. She would try to clean up around me and put stuff away things I no longer needed. I sensed she was staying up just because I was still working on the backsplash. She did say, “I feel bad. I know you did not want to do the backsplash over the desk, but I did. Now, you are staying up late to work on it.” While I was not a big fan of all this tile, it actually looked good, and it would have looked unfinished if I did not tile it.
I needed to make one more batch of thin set. It was past 10 o’clock, and the neighborhood was quiet. The lights were still on in the garage. I went to end of the driveway to clean the bucket, trowel, putty knife and my hands. I mixed up the thin set and closed the overhead garage door. I still needed to make more cuts on the tile saw, so maybe closing the door would keep the noise in the garage. I did not need to have the neighbors call the police about the noise. (And they would.)
As I finished up the desk wall, Efiwym told me to forget about the unevenness of the tile by the desk countertop. We could just live with it. At that time, I was not going to argue. I was very agreeable. I finally convinced her to go to bed. I had a few tiles to install. I cut the remaining tiles for the desk. The difference was about 3/8 inches across the desk. I had to make these angled cuts of individual tiles. The tile would crack as I tried to make these rip cuts. I also had the tiles under the cabinet by the sink that needed to be cut and installed. Eventually I got all the tiles I needed to fill in the gap for the desk. I found tile in the scrap pieces of tile to fill the gap under the cabinet. I decided I would install them tomorrow with silicone caulk. I was done.
I started cleaning up the kitchen. I swept and wiped down anything that had thin set on it. There had to be 500 finishing nails on the backsplash. I eventually went outside to clean up my tools and the tile saw. I put the tile saw back into my car to drop it off tomorrow. No, it would be this morning. It was 1:00 AM.
I drove the cars into the garage; closed the overhead door and grabbed a beer. I needed something to get me sleepy.
I was sure what kept me going on this 17-hour marathon. Was it the Diet Coke®, adrenalin or the motivation to get it done. In retrospect, I probably could had made it a 3-weekend job. However, it was done. One more beer, some Zen time, and I headed to bed. Tomorrow, I would remove the 500 finishing nails.
