DIY on the Killing Floor

The tiling has begun.  For several days I've been nervous.  I knew I had to get started on this task, and I had done all the study and how-to reading that I could reasonably do, but this is something I had never done before or even seen a demonstration; and it's the kind of thing that if you screw up badly, there's no easy way out.

Having plenty of experience in making mistakes on unfamiliar tasks, I had reason to be nervous.  Where errors in painting can be painted over, or errors in carpentry can be ripped out and redone, errors in a tile job would require either years of looking at a botched job or a major expense to redo after a messy demolition.  I'm a worrier. I can't help it.

I got all my tools together and mixed up a small batch of thinset.  I just want to get a feel for it and lay a few tiles to start.

The instructions say the thin-set should be the consistency of peanut butter or toothpaste, mine was the consistency of both on a 100 degree day.  It was runny.  I was afraid to make it too thick and have it set up too fast but I erred on the thin side and this created a problem.

As I started laying the mats of mosaic tiles, the thin-set oozed up through the grooves and started getting all over the top surface of the tiles.  I panicked a little.  How was I going to clean that stuff off?  What if it set up on top of the tiles, would I ever get it off then?

The first mat of tiles was a mess so I pulled it back up off the floor and tried to clean it off.  I was afraid, though, that the thin-set I had spread on the floor would start to set up while I was trying to clean off the messy tile so I called my wife Cybele and asked her to come clean it while I tried to lay down another.

I was more careful with the second, but the stuff still oozed up through. I cleaned out the grooves as best I could and wiped up most of the excess thin-set and then went about laying the next mat.  In the meantime Cybele had cleaned off the first mat. 

I told her to call my brother for advice as to this oozing problem.  He had laid mosaic tiles in his bathroom so I figured he had encountered this.  It didn't matter.  He wasn't home.

I kept cleaning out the tile grooves and wiping up the runny thin-set.  Then I remembered my neighbor Greg Gorman, a stained glass artist, does mosaic work as well.  "Honey, call Greg!"

Well Greg was out too.  With the phone cradled in my neck while my hands cleaned up oozing thinset, I chatted a bit with his wife hoping she may offer some insight.  Who knows, maybe she looked over his shoulder enough to know what I was confronted with.  She didnt'.  But soon Greg walked in the door and took the phone.  His advice was, clean the thin-set off the tiles.  Don't let it set up.  And keep the grooves clean for the grout. Well, this is what I figured but hearing someone with experience say it was helpful.  He also said not to worry about the runny thin-set; it would just take longer to dry was all.  And, oh yeah, read the cleanup instructions on the thin-set bag.  Ah! Yes! Read the instructions!  This I had done earlier but in my state of panic had forgotten.

Talking to Greg got me to calm down and just work at taking care of the few tiles I had laid down. When those were looking good, I spread a little more runny thin-set and laid down a few more tiles. 

There was only one more problem. The runny thin-set did not spread well over the radiant heat mat; nor did it seem to provide enough support to hold the mosaic tiles stably over the heating wires.  Some of the individual tiles were wobbly on top of the radiant heat mat and I was worried that there were voids in the thin-set.

I went to bed that evening a little worried that I'd have to perform some kind of repair on the tiles that seemed wobbly.  It was all for naught.  The morning proved that once the thin-set had set, the tiles in question were not wobbly.  It was only that the thin mix was misleading me.

So all that drama and only a few square feet of tile down.  But the worry is done. I've made my beginners errors and got my feet wet (and a little muddy) in the process.  I'm ready to get on with the rest of the job.

handyman