A Busman's Holiday

So what does someone who is obsessed with tiling her way through a home renovation do when she takes a long-weekend vacation to a restful cottage on a beautiful lake in Northern Michigan?

She tiles something, of course.


Now that I am home again, it occurs to me that I should have taken pictures of the 3 previous tiling projects I did at my aunt and uncle's summer cottage. Here is a picture of them, standing outside the front door. Aren't they cute in this picture?


I did those other projects years ago, back when I was just getting my start - a kitchen back-splash and 2 bathroom floors. I was worried about how these would hold up in the extreme environment of deep solid freeze every winter, but there is nary a crack anywhere in all 3 of them. So when I got there and saw the raw concrete of the recently repaired fireplace/grill, I knew it needed some embellishment, and no one could stop me.

Here it is, in context: and up close:











My sister and her husband had repaired the concrete on their recent visit. As soon as I saw it I thought about tiling the top of it and knew just what tiles we needed to get. Home Depot, 1"x1" slate tiles in 12"x12" sheets. They are perfect matches for the stones in the structure of the grill. Plus, the uneven surface of the grill would be a real challenge if I tried to use anything larger than 1x1's. Some of the tiles have a coppery glow, and some have a slightly quartzy look, just like the stones that came from the lake and surrounding dry land areas. You can see the same stones on the lower facing of the cottage.


First I painted the iron collar that my aunt and uncle had made at a local welding shop. Then I scrubbed the concrete with a dry brush and dusted it off with a rag. Then I cut the tiles into strips 3 tiles wide and laid them out to make sure of spacing and placement. If it was mine, I would have covered the entire top. But my aunt just wanted a border around the iron collar, and I decided to please my client rather than myself. I didn't want to have to cut any tiles, so I shifted them around until the spacing was just right.

To keep things neat and clean, I used painters tape to mask the dry paint and also the concrete. Then, I spread the adhesive on the backs of the tile strips, rather than the concrete surface to minimize clean-up. (Adhesive that went outside the application area would have been extremely difficult to remove from the rough concrete.) The adhesive was a type recommended for shower floors and other areas that would be exposed to standing water, since this will definitely be exposed to the elements.

I let it set for 24 hours, even though it was very tempting to grout it later that day. It seemed dry, but I have learned the hard way that it is not good to start grouting before the adhesive is dry. My aunt chose a beige color for the grout. We bought that at Lowe's so we could get the brand they carry that has matching sanded caulk. That way it is a really good match - I hate it when the caulk is distinctly a different color from the adjacent material.




The grout is also sanded, since the grout lines are fairly wide. The sand makes it a lot stronger, and there is no concern about the sand scratching slate tiles.








The next day, I was ready to caulk the edges, but sadly, it was raining. So I had to drive back to the airport after giving my aunt instructions about where to caulk. Here is the un-caulked-but-otherwise-completed project, somewhat wet on a rainy Tuesday-after-the-Fourth-of-July morning. I will be curious to see how it stands up to the elements in the years to come.