When re-tiling a bathroom, here are some things not to do:
- buy 13 inch tiles and a 12 inch tile cutter
- buy pre-mixed mortar, lest you discover halfway through your project, at 9PM on Sunday, after all the hardware stores have closed, while you are up to your elbows in wet cement, that your last gallon of pre-mixed mortar is also conveniently pre-set. In the bucket.
- decide that a $40 mixing paddle is a silly indulgence for the 1 gallon of (non-pre-mixed) mortar (which you just acquired on Monday morning), so you'll use your hands
- if you do decide to mix the mortar with your hands, do not be lured into a false sense of security just because it is a lot like mixing cookie dough, and therefore it would be silly to wear gloves...else you will discover that mortar will, in fact, set on skin and fingernails. (and hair, in case you were wondering) Oh, and just because it feels like cookie dough, do not be tempted to lick your finger
- if your non-pre-mixed mortar looks and feels like Play-Doh after mixing instead of pudding...for the love of God, add more water before you start using it
- ...and speaking of gloves, if you get a pre-blister "hot spot" on your thumb after 15 minutes of using the evil tile nipper, and you ask your husband to bring your work gloves, and he says he can't find them, do not say "Eh, don't worry about it, I've only got a couple more tiles to nip, I doubt I'll get a blister that fast."
- put those little white plastic tile spacer thingies on the floor between the tiles. Yes, they have four corners, and therefore it is tempting to think they go in the corners between four tiles. But they don't. You place one little poke-y part between TWO tiles and leave the other little poke-y part poking up, so you can easily remove them when it comes time to grout
- take a break from cleaning up grout (which, in case you were wondering, starts to set in about 30 minutes) for dinner and putting the kids to bed
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On the other hand, I did find color-coordinated grout and caulk. The color? DeLorean Gray. How cool is that?
Comments (2)
Good tips! And I love that the color is named after the coolest car ever used for time travel. :)
Posted by Aimee | February 14, 2008 11:12 AM
Posted on February 14, 2008 11:12
Whenever I work with something that sets like that, I always have the timing worked out in my head. I think it goes back to working in darkrooms. "That goes there, that goes there, I'll need this and that in about 30 seconds. Ready... GO!"
Cuz, once you start it going, you can't stop. No pause button!
(To continue the darkroom analogy, we used to do that when transferring film from the little instamatic plastic doohickies onto a film spool and into a fixing container. So we'd get everything laid out, turn the lights out, you'd hear "crack, snap, crack" as everyone cracks open their film container, and the inevitable "thunk" as someone drops their film. "No one move!")
Posted by dbs | February 14, 2008 6:02 PM
Posted on February 14, 2008 18:02