wanted.

Wanted Bathroom Week: Fixing A Tile Disaster

So, back in October this happened.

A whole bunch of tiles fell off the wall in my bathroom. Yep, I was in the shower at the time. It was traumatic and I don’t want to talk about it. There are a few reasons why tile might fall off of a wall. Namely, moisture got back there. My bathroom hasn’t been updated. Ever. Some of the caulk and grout were cracking, and I think that is where the issue occurred.

I explored a few options for repair: replacing the whole shebang with a liner, installing a vinyl liner right over the tile disaster, and retiling. I’d rather keep my tile than install a liner, and adding vinyl over the existing problem didn’t seem like the right way to go. I’ll be the first to say, this isn’t a permanent solution. If the moisture got back there to begin with then there might be some bigger damage that I can’t see. However, a gut renovation just isn’t in the cards right now. So, I chose option three – retiling.

I did a lot of research, and by research I mean I read this blog post, watched some youtube videos, and asked an annoying amount of questions at Lowe's. This is not a step-by-step tutorial. Consider this an inspirational anecdote. If I can tile (all by myself, I might add), then so can you.

Here are the basic steps:
Remove all loose tiles, clean the area, and clean the tiles (this includes chipping off the grodie old thinset off the back).


Apply thinset using a notched trowel and attach the tile. (I picked up all of these supplies at Lowe's. Seriously, I said, “Give me everything I need to tile.” and walked away with about $80 in supplies. They helped me out a bunch – I really feel like we built something together.) I probably could have done making sure they were flush/flat against the wall. I should also note at this point that I used a mix of old tiles that fell off, and a few replacement tiles I had in the attic. The last few tiles were a beast, since things weren’t lining up as evenly as they should have. I had to practically pound them in there, and was worried that the rest of the tiles would fall in. This was one of two steps that ended in tears – just keeping it real.


Next comes grouting, which was way better than I thought it would me. I was pretty nervous about mixing and getting the consistency right, but this was the easiest part of the whole thing. After the grout sets up, you go over it with this nice soft sponge that makes a huge difference in smoothing out the lines.

After the grout cured for a few days, I was able to add the soap dish back on. This led to crying moment number two. I used Liquid Nails to add the soap dish, and then caulked around the edges. Until the Liquid Nails sets up, you have to tape that sucker to the freshly applied tiles. This was terrifying, and awful. I decided to use packing tape because I didn’t want to hurt my new tile job (and then later because I couldn’t find the duct tape). I can still hear the crinkle of the tape as it slowly came undone. I probably used a whole roll to keep the soap dish up overnight, long enough for it to dry.

Lastly, comes caulking and sealing. I used the painters tape trick to make a clean caulk line, and it definitely helped. You’d think that would be the easiest part, but caulk is messy stuff and hard to get perfect if you’ve never used it before. And this is what it looks like today!

Is it perfect? No. Am I proud as hell? You bet. I know this isn’t a long-term job, but I’m pretty pumped about what I did with what I had available.

How about you? Have you tackled a tile job before? What proud DIY projects have you conquered lately?

images: Megean

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