Updated 3-13-23
Ceramic Tile install in a kitchen.
⏱️⏱️Chapters⏱️⏱️
00:00 Tile project with 13″ tile
00:25 Want to make sure your pattern will match all the way across
00:40 Putting a mesh boarder on the edge of the tile
01:00 There are ways to have the tile right directly on the corner
01:10 Material to hold to the wall
02:30 Putting the first tile is put up
03:30 Back after putting most of the tile up
04:00 Got spacers in, down to two more pieces.
04:34 Putting tile glue on the back of the tiles
05:00 Adding the water first to mix materials
06:05 Mainly want to do this with small batches only
06:28 Sanded vs unsanded grout
07:15 Mixing grout with a battery powered drill
07:35 Mixing on the tailgate of a truck
07:55 Using a 6″ finishing knife to do grout
08:25 They will clean it off with a sponge
08:55 He will show how he finishes drywall
09:12 Anything worth doing takes time to get good
09:35 Pulling off the excess with a sponge
09:55 For a flat floor might use older towels
10:17 Pull main off in one direction
10:50 Cleaning off, eventually you’ll get to powdery look
11:15 You don’t want any thick material that you have to work off
11:30 You’re hunting for the straight edges
11:55 End of the job
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All right. This is a ceramic tile project that we’re doing here. It’s going to have a 13 inch tile like this and it’s going to go on this wall. So we’re going to it’s really important to to try to match this. And these tiles. So that they the pattern matches.
And goes across all the way over here. So that’s what we’re doing now, is breaking down the math what we’ve been using is a border on this edge. And we’re going to get some more over there that allows for. You know, not being a ceramic tile edge on this corner. Such a nice, smooth, easy to clean. And you can get a variety of different colors.
But there are also ways to put ceramic tile right directly on the corner they have pieces made especially for that. In this case, we’re doing something like this.
3 to 1. All right. Here we are getting ready to put this material that we’re used to hold to the wall and you can see what it is. This is from Lowe’s and I’m going to use an inexpensive trowel because they were, it’s at their expense.
And I don’t need a high dollar one, and this is not a big job. And this is the middle. Look of the material. There will be a with that kind of dries so it will adhere to the back side of this this tile real good. So here I am getting ready to put it in the areas that I marked mathematically, make sure it’ll fit and then you can put it on flat and then wipe it down, which I might end up using a six inch knife to wipe it.
On and then pull it down with this 3/8 notched trowel, but this first one is sort of go right here and it will stay within my marks just because I want to make sure everything fits good. Oh, so.
This won’t dry real quick, but it dries pretty quick. Here are my spacers. I got a screw holding me off or a warp in the wall. I’ll leave my spacers there. Don’t have to… Okay, there’s the first one.
Hey guys this is what is shaping up to be making, taking care and make sure everything is even and square. The distances are the same. It’s a lot of work, but once you do it, it’s done. It has a real nice look. So we’re down here working on these pieces down low and I’m trying to make it fall out so that this will be ending about where it would have been if it carried on through.
And we’re going to take another view with him cutting those little pieces. Or maybe he’ll screw up right in front of us. Be great to watch. So that’s what we’re headed to next, we’ve got screws holding this up. But probably by now we can take those screws out because this matchstick sets up real quick. We did the little piece way over here and go spacer there and check the spacer here.
So we’re just down to two more pieces and then we’ll start putting grout in all these areas that have already dried and we’ll clean up.
So anyway, we are buttering the toast. We’re putting the mastic on the back side of the tile instead of trying to reach in there with that trowel and that little inch and a half area. And this is something you’re going to see you’ll have to do as time passes. When you get into small pieces, don’t drop it in a break.
What we’re doing right now, there’s a little trick that we learned along the way is we’re putting water in before we mix our material. Sometimes it’s powdered fast mud and sometimes it’s grout. In this case, it’s a grout. So we’re going to pour that in and then we’re going to mix it with a battery powered beater. Took it right out of the kitchen. Not my wife’s kitchen, but a kitchen somewhere. And we’re mixing it up.
Which particularly works with small batches, you know, want to do this for like big batches of…
“Fast mud?”
Like a thin set and things like that, because you’re going to end up using quite a lot, although this can make quite a lot and keep you busy for quite a while. A pan full of grout in this case. Unsanded grout will go a long ways, even at quarter inch and half inch. And so…
“What determines use for sanded or unsanded?”
Well, the sanded generally is where you’re not going to clean up as much. It’s just kind of so you don’t slip. And there’s other reasons, but the unsanded is like in bathrooms and kitchens, so you can clean readily. If you had sanded, imagine rubbing. Trying to rub grease out of that or anything else that might have got up on the wall.
It’d be hard to clean it the sand in grout. So it’s generally good to use unsanded in kitchens and in bathrooms, especially kitchen walls. Just that simple. This is a method we use.
With a battery power drill and a beater from like kitchen in this case where you’re mixing grout but you can do fast mud, thin set. For ceramic tile, if you’re in small batches, let you get away with not having to make a huge mess in case we’re doing it on the tailgate of a truck. I kind of got in the habit of that because we learn from a fat boy who didn’t like to bend over and I was like, What a great idea.
You know, we don’t get whatever area dirty just to tailgate in my truck, which I can wash over a car wash or whatever, as if.
I know that they give you the ideas that you should be using a rubber float, float, trowel and put the grout in. I’m very familiar with finishing knives. So, six inch knife in a pan that we mix with the battery power drill.
I can fill this in much faster. Sometimes in real small places, I’ve had to reach my hand in there and use my fingers to get it, but that usually lets me get into pretty tight places like in this corner. Of course, we’re going to clean all this off with a sponge and that way it won’t really be this nasty looking, but it would be the same kind of rough looking if it had been done with a rubber float, which I have.
So you might consider using some of these methods when you do it yourself. At some point I suppose I better show people how to do drywall finishing. How I do it as far as getting good at it, it’s sort of it takes time. You have to be capable. And honestly, everything that’s of any use or any skill takes time to be good at.
But I’ll show you some ways to make yourself look better than what you really are, and eventually you’ll become good. May take a while, but anyway.
Right now what we’re doing is pulling off the excess and maybe even filling holes at the same time that I normally do is pull off the main part first. And I use, if I can, I try to use all four sides or corners of that sponge. For a flat floor.
I might use a older towels and of course you wouldn’t want to use your nice guest towels or nothing like that. And it covers a big area and cleans a lot faster, but you’ll have to clean your water fairly often. But what you do is pull the main part off the direction, one direction. If you rub around, you will get there eventually.
That is right. But you wiping in a particular direction. That way you’re hunting for the straight edges. Down here, which looks like this one shifted. It did, So, we’ll have to fix that. Didn’t notice it. So we’re cleaning this all up and eventually it’ll have a powdery look like this that will all be able to be cleaned up with a dry rag and dust will come off.
And that’s what it ends up being. You don’t want to thick material that you have to work hard at it. But you’re hunting for those straight edges. We will get the main part of the grout off.
All said and done. We’ve sealed it all up, twice, actually, and we’re probably going to end up changing the grout because she doesn’t like it so light. But this is what ends up looking like. There you go guys.