The day my new kitchen backsplash tried to escape

I was in my apartment in Cincinnati, trying to install those little glass subway tiles with the pre-mixed adhesive. I left the room for maybe ten minutes to grab a drink, and when I came back, a whole section in the middle had just slid right down the wall, leaving a slow, sticky trail. It looked like a weird modern art piece. I had to scrape it all off with a putty knife and start that square foot over from scratch. Has anyone else had tile adhesive just give up like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

alicesingh2d ago

Always back-butter those tiles, even a little.

the_joseph2d ago

Oh man, pre-mixed stuff is the worst for that. It doesn't set up fast enough on a vertical surface. You need the powder kind you mix yourself, the thinset. That stuff grabs and holds. I learned the hard way too, had a whole mosaic do the same slow slide. What a mess to clean up.

the_james2d ago

Ugh, tell me about it. @the_joseph is totally right about the powder mix, but man, the real killer is the humidity in the room. If it's too damp, even the good thinset takes forever to grab. I had a bathroom job once where we didn't run the fan enough, and it was like watching paint dry, but worse because the tiles were creeping. Gotta control your air or you're just fighting the same problem with a different bag.