Roxana is looking for DIY advice.
Dear AT:
This weekend, I plan on putting up mosaic tiles of unpolished marble (which I purchased at Tile Outlet for a great price) for my kitchen backsplash. The little stones are all tightly packed on 12" X 12"squares of mesh backing.
I have no experience on how to do this, so any tips or ideas where to look for help (books, websites, etc.) would be very much appreciated. I am mostly nervous about putting up the concrete and cutting the stones to fit around the outlets and other weird shapes.
Thanks,
Roxana
Here is some info we found online:
Natural Handyman Q&A - Tumbled Marble Backsplash
This Old House - Backsplash Bonanza (page 3)
Mosaic Tile Installation How-to (for glass tiles, not an exact match, but might be helpful)
We tackled a similar job when we tiled the walls surrounding our tub with glass mosaic tiles and it was a surprisingly easy. It took quite awhile (3-4 days), but it was not super-challenging, even though we had never done tile installation before.
We found the most useful tools to be patience (only apply a small area of adhesive at a time) and a good level (we did wide vertical stripes of alternating colors which HAD to be straight). Once the adhesive dried, the grouting went quickly - although cleaning it off is another story; it was a big job.
Our bathroom floors are unpolished marble so we have a word of advice about that material...make sure you use a really good quality sealer. We ended up using two sealers that allowed in water (causing a hazy look to the tiles in areas) before finding one that worked well. Having to strip off the bad sealers (twice!) was no fun.
Good luck with the DIY (and send us pictures when you finish!).
Anyone have any good advice or resources for Roxana? Let her know in the comments below...
When you put up sheets of mosaic tile you have to do something that is called toothing together. You have to remove bits of mosaic tiles from the edges of the sheets so they will interlock like jigsaw puzzles. Then you want to stagger your horizontal lines on the install. Otherwise you will be able to look at the finished backsplash and see where each sction of sheeted tile was installed. The one time I tried to do something like that I actually did a backsplash myself i made up a full scale mockup of the backsplash with craft paper and a mark up of every electrical outlet and weird area and laid out the tile exactly befire I started to install it.
My husband and I did a glass mosaic tile backsplash in our kitchen. I did a lot of reading up but it still didn't prepare me for the task. It didn't turn out exactly as we had imagined, and it was sort of tedious work. Would I do it again? Without a doubt. It's almost like you have to do it once before you really know what you're doing...if that makes sense.
The medium we were working with (glass) is obviously different than yours, but we had a huge problem with the glass shattering when we tried to cut it with tile nippers. We tried three different types. We found that we didn't have to have perfectly smooth cuts anyway as the electrical outlet covers covered much more area than we realized.
Our biggest problem was allowing the tile to set without sliding down the wall. My husband had decided to tackle the project WITHOUT tile spacers, which was a dumb idea in hindsight. The tile spacing is "off" in some places, so I suppose it is a good thing that our tiles were all the same color.
I guess my post and experience can be summed up in this way: Follow every direction you can on the internet. Do not read, then do the opposite, like we did. :)
Similar to Janel, we tiled our shower and it turned out pretty well in 12 by 12 sheets of one inch mosaic tile. (not glass). My one word of advice do NOT leave any grout to linger on your tiles figuring you can go back and wipe it laterwe have a spot that is forever and always very "plugged up" looking because we slacked on continuing to wipe the tiles off after grouting. It's good to have a helper, too!
You can do it! Good luck!
Thanks so much for your advice everyone. I should have sent in a picture of what the tiles look like. I posted one on flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhadad/286856887/). David's toothing idea sounds like a really good one ... should I still do it with this kind of mosaic setup? Also, because the stones are so tightly packed together, I was going to forgo the grout and put on tons of sealant. Stevie, did you put your outlet covers over your tiles?
Roxy, call me on my cell phone today (Friday)when you have a chance. I'll help you land the airplane.
Kevin Daly
I plan on installing one inch tiles for a backsplash. The tiles I purchased are on a mesh material. Should I use Quick Set or a mix ready to go, also how thick should the mix be when applied to the wall for best adhesion?