The Further Adventures of NotBatman's Bathroom
So last weekend, we laid the tile, and it was good. Wednesday we grouted.
The grouting was fraught with trouble.
The tiles we installed are natural stone. They've got pockets and cavities (some filled with calcite crystals, which is sweeeet) and other stuff. In an effort to preserve these, the guy at The Fancy Tile Store said we should use a grout bag thing. Like a pastry bag, only for grout. Grout which is supposed to be roughly the consistency of peanut butter, mind you. And there was too little space between the tiles for the bag's opening (pre-cut, thank you very much).
So we decided to skip that. As an alternative, we chose the extremely tedious task of putting scotch tape over all the cavities to keep the grout out. And then we made TartQueen perform most of this unpleasant task (while we were at work).
The grouting itself was a mixed nightmare. The box said precisely how to mix it, and we tried to follow. What we made by their specs was still in the peanut butter range, but it was thick, hippy-style, all-natural peanut butter, not smooth, creamy Jiff. It was a lot of work cramming it into all the cracks. In addition, that clever lip we made on the backsplash made it so a regular float wouldn't fit back there, and I ended up using a bit of lathe to grout the backsplash.
To add to this, the scotch tape plan fell through utterly. Some of it stayed down, but not enough, so I had NBW running along the counter in front of where I was working, hurriedly pulling the tape back off, because it was screwing everything up.
What we mixed first (about half of our supply) got us through about half of the job, so we went to make more. And this time, it was soup. Thick soup, more like stew, but nothing approaching peanut butter. The Hippy Peanut Butter made more sense now, we'd accidentally measured too much grout dust into the first batch, and didn't have enough for the second.
So NotBatwoman made a hurried trip back out to The Fancy Tile Shop to get more. And by the time she got back, what we had mixed had thickened to being workable, so there was a wasted trip. The second round of grouting (wherein which the grout was more like super-creamy peanut butter) went much better than the first and NBW helped with the edging. Then we finished grouting/cleaning and began picking and cleaning grout out of what cavities we could. We lost some detail (there's more picking to do yet) but it certainly hasn't ruined anything. We are very pleased.
Then last night I went out and bought me some plumbing.
What's Not Wrong with These Pictures?
Yes, it's true. We again have a fully functioning bathroom.
From here on out, the hard/bulk work is done. Now it's the tedious detail work of making the rest pretty. Wainscoting (with baseboards and top piece) and Venusian Plaster and we're done. We're locked in a desperate race against the baby, but I think we'll make it
The grouting was fraught with trouble.
The tiles we installed are natural stone. They've got pockets and cavities (some filled with calcite crystals, which is sweeeet) and other stuff. In an effort to preserve these, the guy at The Fancy Tile Store said we should use a grout bag thing. Like a pastry bag, only for grout. Grout which is supposed to be roughly the consistency of peanut butter, mind you. And there was too little space between the tiles for the bag's opening (pre-cut, thank you very much).
So we decided to skip that. As an alternative, we chose the extremely tedious task of putting scotch tape over all the cavities to keep the grout out. And then we made TartQueen perform most of this unpleasant task (while we were at work).
The grouting itself was a mixed nightmare. The box said precisely how to mix it, and we tried to follow. What we made by their specs was still in the peanut butter range, but it was thick, hippy-style, all-natural peanut butter, not smooth, creamy Jiff. It was a lot of work cramming it into all the cracks. In addition, that clever lip we made on the backsplash made it so a regular float wouldn't fit back there, and I ended up using a bit of lathe to grout the backsplash.
To add to this, the scotch tape plan fell through utterly. Some of it stayed down, but not enough, so I had NBW running along the counter in front of where I was working, hurriedly pulling the tape back off, because it was screwing everything up.
What we mixed first (about half of our supply) got us through about half of the job, so we went to make more. And this time, it was soup. Thick soup, more like stew, but nothing approaching peanut butter. The Hippy Peanut Butter made more sense now, we'd accidentally measured too much grout dust into the first batch, and didn't have enough for the second.
So NotBatwoman made a hurried trip back out to The Fancy Tile Shop to get more. And by the time she got back, what we had mixed had thickened to being workable, so there was a wasted trip. The second round of grouting (wherein which the grout was more like super-creamy peanut butter) went much better than the first and NBW helped with the edging. Then we finished grouting/cleaning and began picking and cleaning grout out of what cavities we could. We lost some detail (there's more picking to do yet) but it certainly hasn't ruined anything. We are very pleased.
Then last night I went out and bought me some plumbing.
What's Not Wrong with These Pictures?
Yes, it's true. We again have a fully functioning bathroom.
From here on out, the hard/bulk work is done. Now it's the tedious detail work of making the rest pretty. Wainscoting (with baseboards and top piece) and Venusian Plaster and we're done. We're locked in a desperate race against the baby, but I think we'll make it