Our Big Tiling Weekend

This past weekend we kept busy by tiling the back splash. I had never tiled before, but it wasn't too bad. It was more time consuming than it was difficult.

We started out by mixing the mortar that's used to stick the tiles on the walls. I'm sure different kinds of mortar have different instructions, but this one said to put the mortar and water in a bucket, mix for 5 minutes, let sit for 10 and then mix for another 2 minutes. I would definitely recommend using a corded drill as I think this would burn a cordless drill out in no time. It's about the consistency of peanut butter when you're done.

I didn't get a photo of the mortar on the walls, but you use a mortar spreader to put it on, which makes ridges. This makes the tiles adhere better. The fun part about putting the tile up is going around all of the outlets etc. We had 4 outlets, a phone jack and a window to contend with. Put spacers in between the tile to make sure they're the right distance apart.

After all of the tiles are up, wait for around 24 hours.

The next step is the messy bit. Grout! We chose a charcoal coloured grout. The mixing process was similar to the mortar. You use something called a grout float to apply it. You have to be quite quick while you're doing this part as it dries really quickly.

It looked pretty horrible at this point. I was really hoping it would wipe off and look nice! After 25 minutes, we started to wipe the excess grout off with large sponges.

After a lot of wiping, it finally started to look good. We had to keep on rinsing our sponges off so that we weren't just spreading the grout around. In this photo the grout is still wet.

This is the finished product up close.

Before

After!

I'll put more after pictures up when it is completely finished. I still have to do some painting around the windows, and caulk around the counter top.

I would definitely recommend that everyone try tiling at least once. The end result is really rewarding!