Decorating & Renovating
*photo removed*
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Tips for installing glass/tile back splash
We're finished our bar back splash and have chosen a mix of glass and natural stone tile. Do we need to do a backer board of some sort? The wall is drywall and has not been previously tiled. Also we've chosen a white premixed adhesive but is there a certain way to trowel the adhesive? I read somewhere (for glass tile) that after applying the adhesive with the trowel you have to knock down the trowel lines so they won't show through the glass tile. WTH?
ETA: This is similar to what my tiles look like. They are the ones in the border only.
*photo removed*
Re: Tips for installing glass/tile back splash
We just installed a glass backsplash on our vanity last night. Yes you need why thinset (don't use mastic) it should not be premixed.
Yes a cement board backer would be ideal but it will be very difficult to install after the fact so you can get away with making sure your drywall is heavily screwed and adding a waterproof membrane (even better a decoupling one at that). I would recommend getting one gallon of Hydroban made by Laticrete. It does both and is easy to apply (you just paint it on). Another option would be the Kerdi membrane sold at HD but you'll add more depth with that and it has to be troweled on the wall with thinset which is messy. Lowe's I believe sells Redguard which is very similar to Hydroban.
Find out what size trowel the manufacturer recommends and use that. It will most likely be a small notch or V shape. You need just enough thinset for a good bond but not too much that it squirting out between all of the tiles (that will have to be removed so you can grout). Yes if your glass pieces are large enough that you can see through them you should (1) trowel in one direction making sure the low notches have little to no thinset, (2) carefully go back over with the flat side of the trowel and spread the thinset to be all one even height (it should be half the height of the tall notches previously), and (3) putt up the sheets. The key is to try to get everything to be the same depth which can be tricky.
We saw this but I was weirded out by it. The HD employee recommended it but then said someone didn't grout it and their tiles fell off. Why you wouldn't grout is beyond me but it made me hesitant. I'm not thinking my tiles would fall off since they're all stuck to a grid but it made me question the durability of the product.
Thanks for the tips, I'll certainly be watching some videos.
*photo removed*
This does not work for a long term tile installation. Tiling is not that hard just do it right the first time.
Painter's tape is your friend. When you are hanging small tiles on a vertical surface, they can slip. It can be really helpful for keeping the horizontal tiles level.
We used the premixed thinset appropriate for glass tiles when we did the backsplash in our bathroom. We made sure that it said that it could be used on drywall. You only have to knock down the grooves if you can see through the tile...our glass tile was not see through so it made it much easier.
It was still a pita though. I have quite a bit of tile experience, but still found the glass tile to be more difficult, and mosaics are definitely a pita if you are picky about keeping things level.