3 thoughts

You’re right, it was a lot of work. Each tile project I do seems to be difficult in a different way, but I don’t think it will be long before I’ve learned most of my lessons and things will go smoothly. Here are the main things I’ve learned with each tile project I’ve done so far:

• I taught myself to tile in our guest bathroom with a conglomeration of online instruction. I installed average sized square porcelain tiles (like ceramic, but much harder) and used only a score-n-snap tile cutting tool (like this one, but not as nice). Because the tool cuts straight and is rather rudimentary, fitting the tiles around corners or the toilet base was kind of hit and miss and I ended up with some blemishes in the finished product. I later discovered how convenient "nippers; can be and that that Lowe’s will cut marked tiles for a dollar a tile, or so. (Home Depot doesn’t have this service.)
• After learning on the guest bathroom, I felt confident moving on to the master bathroom and picked out some huge porcelain tiles for it. However, the surface of the tile was rough and I ended up on my knees with a wire brush getting the hardened grout (that I missed with the sponge when the grout was still soft) out of the little nooks. I learned that the sooner you get the grout out, the better.
• On this last project, I ventured into glass-mosaic land and worked with epoxy grout for the first time. I learned all of the things that I passed along in this article (e.g., how messy epoxy grout is, when to adjust tiles, etc.).

The next project I have in mind is either the entryway or the kitchen floor. I plan to secure a sturdy razor floor scraper for those projects to avoid the pains of removing the mortar with a "lesser" tool. I have no doubt it will still be a lot of work, but I am set on banishing this pink/beige tile from our house!