Downstairs Bathroom - Tiling the Walls
That giant rush of air you just heard was my sigh of relief that the bathroom walls are finally tiled! This job took me four or five days to complete, working anywhere from two to nine hours each day (since you have to allow time to let the mortar and grout harden), so I'm very glad that it's over!
For this project, we wanted to use the same wall tile as we did for the upstairs bathroom: United States Ceramic Tile's 3" x 6" wall tile in 'matte snow white' color. We had three leftover cases (80 pieces each), plus one box of bullnose (rounded top) and cove (curved bottom) tile of the same type. Unfortunately, at some point in-between the bathroom projects, USCT discontinued production of this color! After many internet searches and phone calls, we were lucky enough to learn of several cases in the clearance section of a Home Depot about an hour's drive away. As soon as I heard the news, I hopped in the car and sped off, imagining all the way about someone spotting this great deal and snatching it out from under me. Luck was with me, though, and I returned home with a half-dozen cartons of just what we needed. The only thing we couldn't find was more cove tile, but we came up with a 'make-do' solution that I'll talk more about later...
So, with thin-set mortar, notched trowel, and tile in hand, I was ready to go. Tiling a wall is a lot like tiling a floor, but easier on the knees. The main differences (at least in my case) are the ledger and the spacers. The ledger is typically a long, level wooden board used to support the first row of tile - since the floor isn't usually level, you nail this board to the wall and set the tile on top of it, then put the bottom row on last. I had a few long metal supports leftover from shelving an upstairs bookcase, so I used those instead (with some wooden pieces to extend the row on really long walls). The spacers are little plastic bits that you stick between the tiles to create even gaps for the grout. Spacers are really necessary for square and rectangular tile, though I didn't use them on the floor's hex sheets - but probably should have, since it would have made my life a bit easier.
I find that the most time-consuming part is measuring and cutting pieces to fit the corners and around the electrical outlets, pipes, and windows. My system is to hold a tile to the empty slot and mark its reverse side with the cut line and a number or letter (or both) to tell me where it goes on the wall. That way, I can just take a stack out to my portable wet tile saw on the back patio and make lots of cuts at once. However, since few of the corners are truly square, due to the house shifting over the last 110 years or poor craftsmanship on a previous remodel, I couldn't assume that every piece in a column or row would be exactly the same size. On the rare occasions when I did, I often had to re-cut at least half of those tiles to shave them down just a bit.
I mentioned above that we couldn't find more cove tile to match what we already had - and since our tub guys are coming soon to refinish the tub, we needed to just finish this job. So, I decided to use the matching 4" x 6" matte snow white cove tile on the most exposed walls, and used some 4" x 4" matte ice white tile on the walls where that tile will be hidden by the tub, sink, and toilet. It bugs me that I had to do it, but it makes the best of a bad situation - and it's not something that will be noticed in a casual inspection.
The corner behind the toilet remained un-tiled (except at the bottom), since it's a convex corner that hides the PVC vent pipe for the toilet, and we couldn't find any discontinued corner tile for it. We plan to do something special with this - perhaps some stenciling - to make it a feature rather than an omission. That's much later, though. For now, it was time to grout.
One 25-lb bag of white grout was enough for me to cover the walls, though my mistake was trying to grout all the walls at once and then wipe off the excess grout with a damp sponge. My mistake was that I should have only grouted one wall at a time. When I finished grouting the fourth wall, the previous walls were mostly dry, so I had to lightly scrape off the excess dried grout with a plastic putty knife. I used a plastic spoon to remove the excess grout from the gaps, but again there were a few areas that were simply too dry to scrape down, so I ended up leaving those as they are.
The next step was to wipe off the remaining invisible 'haze', but this is more difficult than it sounds. I've done it twice so far, and I still get a hint of powdery white dust on my fingers when I run them across the wall. I'll have to wipe the walls down at least once more before I can spray on the sealant. If it's too frustrating, I'll purchase some 'haze remover' but I prefer to just use water when I can.
Here are some photos of the (nearly finished) result! I took these at night, and - as you may have noticed - the overhead light throws a bit of a yellow tint in some areas, but I think you'll get the idea!
So, other than wiping off the haze and caulking around the edges (which I mostly finished on the aptly-named Labor Day), that pretty much covers everything for the wall tile. The only other issue is that I had to leave a few tiles off so our handyman can access the electricity for the bathtub fan/light/heater combo above the tub. After he's finished, I'll use some small tubs of pre-mixed mortar and grout to place the few remaining tiles - and that will be that!
After our handyman also fixes the window frame, my next tasks will probably be staining the woodwork and painting the walls before the tub guys arrive. I hope there's no delays getting this done before then - because working around a tub in the middle of the floor will be a major pain.
Stay tuned and see how it goes from here!
For this project, we wanted to use the same wall tile as we did for the upstairs bathroom: United States Ceramic Tile's 3" x 6" wall tile in 'matte snow white' color. We had three leftover cases (80 pieces each), plus one box of bullnose (rounded top) and cove (curved bottom) tile of the same type. Unfortunately, at some point in-between the bathroom projects, USCT discontinued production of this color! After many internet searches and phone calls, we were lucky enough to learn of several cases in the clearance section of a Home Depot about an hour's drive away. As soon as I heard the news, I hopped in the car and sped off, imagining all the way about someone spotting this great deal and snatching it out from under me. Luck was with me, though, and I returned home with a half-dozen cartons of just what we needed. The only thing we couldn't find was more cove tile, but we came up with a 'make-do' solution that I'll talk more about later...
So, with thin-set mortar, notched trowel, and tile in hand, I was ready to go. Tiling a wall is a lot like tiling a floor, but easier on the knees. The main differences (at least in my case) are the ledger and the spacers. The ledger is typically a long, level wooden board used to support the first row of tile - since the floor isn't usually level, you nail this board to the wall and set the tile on top of it, then put the bottom row on last. I had a few long metal supports leftover from shelving an upstairs bookcase, so I used those instead (with some wooden pieces to extend the row on really long walls). The spacers are little plastic bits that you stick between the tiles to create even gaps for the grout. Spacers are really necessary for square and rectangular tile, though I didn't use them on the floor's hex sheets - but probably should have, since it would have made my life a bit easier.
 |
| The ledgers |
 |
| and the spacers. |
I find that the most time-consuming part is measuring and cutting pieces to fit the corners and around the electrical outlets, pipes, and windows. My system is to hold a tile to the empty slot and mark its reverse side with the cut line and a number or letter (or both) to tell me where it goes on the wall. That way, I can just take a stack out to my portable wet tile saw on the back patio and make lots of cuts at once. However, since few of the corners are truly square, due to the house shifting over the last 110 years or poor craftsmanship on a previous remodel, I couldn't assume that every piece in a column or row would be exactly the same size. On the rare occasions when I did, I often had to re-cut at least half of those tiles to shave them down just a bit.
I mentioned above that we couldn't find more cove tile to match what we already had - and since our tub guys are coming soon to refinish the tub, we needed to just finish this job. So, I decided to use the matching 4" x 6" matte snow white cove tile on the most exposed walls, and used some 4" x 4" matte ice white tile on the walls where that tile will be hidden by the tub, sink, and toilet. It bugs me that I had to do it, but it makes the best of a bad situation - and it's not something that will be noticed in a casual inspection.
 |
| Cove on east (left) wall base, square on the south (right) wall base. |
The corner behind the toilet remained un-tiled (except at the bottom), since it's a convex corner that hides the PVC vent pipe for the toilet, and we couldn't find any discontinued corner tile for it. We plan to do something special with this - perhaps some stenciling - to make it a feature rather than an omission. That's much later, though. For now, it was time to grout.
One 25-lb bag of white grout was enough for me to cover the walls, though my mistake was trying to grout all the walls at once and then wipe off the excess grout with a damp sponge. My mistake was that I should have only grouted one wall at a time. When I finished grouting the fourth wall, the previous walls were mostly dry, so I had to lightly scrape off the excess dried grout with a plastic putty knife. I used a plastic spoon to remove the excess grout from the gaps, but again there were a few areas that were simply too dry to scrape down, so I ended up leaving those as they are.
Here are some photos of the (nearly finished) result! I took these at night, and - as you may have noticed - the overhead light throws a bit of a yellow tint in some areas, but I think you'll get the idea!
So, other than wiping off the haze and caulking around the edges (which I mostly finished on the aptly-named Labor Day), that pretty much covers everything for the wall tile. The only other issue is that I had to leave a few tiles off so our handyman can access the electricity for the bathtub fan/light/heater combo above the tub. After he's finished, I'll use some small tubs of pre-mixed mortar and grout to place the few remaining tiles - and that will be that!
After our handyman also fixes the window frame, my next tasks will probably be staining the woodwork and painting the walls before the tub guys arrive. I hope there's no delays getting this done before then - because working around a tub in the middle of the floor will be a major pain.
Stay tuned and see how it goes from here!
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