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melissastar

Question for Bill V or other tile guru....please.

melissastar
12 years ago

Well, the one thing I attempted to DIY in my new kitchen was a small bit of tile work...a row of large format tiles, plus a grouping of multiple decos ...around the bottom of the custom wood range hood. And I think I screwed up. I'm hoping you can reassure me that what I did is salvageable and how.

Here's the issue: For some reason, although I read multiple directions for tiling, I blanked out and did not put the mastic on the hood, but instead, buttered each tile and stuck it up there. There really were only 6 tiles, each 10 X 13 or somewhat less--2 on each side, plus 2 on the front, with the deco arrangement in the center. The decos consist of three 4X8 tiles framed with 1" wide tiles. After 24 hours, all seem securely adhered to the hood, BUT...two things are apparent.

The first is that I laid the mastic on quite thick on the large format tiles. And the second is that where the decos are, there is no mastic to speak off between them. The mastic behind the decos was NOT laid on heavily, as those tiles were so much thicker than the others...they are 1/2" thick.

So, first question...is the thickness of the mastic on some of the tiles an issue? Will they tend to fall off or something in the future?

And second...will I be able to fill the deep, wide (1/4") joints between the deco tiles with just grout? And if so, how critical is it to use sanded grout? I, in fact, bought only unsanded because I knew I wanted the grout lines between the large format tiles to be minimal, overlooking the fact that the joints between the decos would be wider.

Thanks

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