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Help! I am not sure what to do with this backsplash

9 years ago

Dear friends,
Sorry this is long, but...
We are having our cabinets re-faced. It was the best decision for us because I hated the thought of throwing out solid wood cabinets, no matter how ugly they were. We are keeping the quartz countertops - again, not a pattern I would have chosen, but no way am I tossing that stuff out. I had planned to remove the 4-in quartz backsplash and replace with mosaic tile, but then I learned that sometimes the fabricators don't scribe to the wall as carefully as they do when there is no BS. So we were going to tile above it. Now for the real problem: to my horror, I discovered what I thought was painted drywall between the BS and the cabinets is actually a sheet of plastic stuck to the wall, extending down behind the quartz backsplash! The cabinet refacers say we can put a tile BS on top of the plastic, but what to I do about the aluminum channel rounding off the edge? I tried to get it off but so far no luck. To make matters worse, there is another piece connecting two sheets of plastic, right behind the faucet. How can I tile over that?
Should I bite the bullet and risk ending up with damaged drywall if I remove it, or should I try to figure out how to tile over the aluminum channel behind the faucet?
TIA for any help you can provide. It will be greatly appreciated!

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Comments (4)

rantontoo
9 years ago
Have you tried heating an area of the plastic pieces with a heat gun to see if it softens any adhesive so it is easier to pry off?

I would want it removed...partly because I think you might have more of a chance for cracked tile/grout if it was tiled over but, speaking for myself, I would want to know what it is "hiding." I think drywall repair can be a fairly easy DIY project after research and practice.

After looking closely at the pict...I am not sure you even have drywall behind the piece to damage. If that is the case, the piece will probably be fastened along the studs and/or cross pieces fitted into the cavity between the studs.
szruns
9 years ago
Drywall is cheap and easy to patch. I'd just take a metal scraper and start prying that bugger off. If you can't figure out how to patch the drywall, surely one of your contractors can! It really is easy. And cheap. Especially since you will be tiling over most of it, so you don't need a perfect finish coat. (Getting a perfect finish coat is the trickiest aspect, IME.)

I had a plastic thing like that as a backsplash behind by utility sink, but mine was screwed to the wall so it was easy to remove without harming the drywall, and I can't see any screw holes in yours, so it was probably glued on. Even so, it might pry off easily enough and then you can just patch the drywall a bit, prime it, and you're good to go. Worst case, you trash the drywall, and you'll just need to cut the drywall to nearby studs, slap up a patch piece, tape and mud a few coats, and it'd done. In my reno, my contractors have had to do that to good drywall at least a dozen times, and one competent guy can get it cut out, patched, taped and mudded to finish coat in just a few hours work.
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Good advise so far. I like that you are going with calm. It is difficult for us to sometimes get the right color variations on our monitors. I would try to match up the lightest cream colr in the granite. It will also tie in your floor color. If you go with a subway tile, it will tie in the brick in the brick fireplace, although other shapes would do fine too. When you get samples and narrow them down, if you can get quite a few, or even sometimes they have sample boards, that can be helpful as well. What sometiimes happens when you string tile together is that the color can play off itself and you can then get an undertone that you did not see with one tile. For example, some traveertine tiles tht should be beige, give off a pinkish or grayish cast when installed as an entire backsplash.
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Thanks prill...I'm leaning towards only doing tile in area to the left of the casing...then in the window area just doing paint and the casing down to the counter. I guess I'll just have to be more dilligent with cleaning. The Reef was the first tile that spoke to me...I really thought I was going to go for a more solid blue, but reef is so much softer....it allows me to play up the color of the walls more...not that I have a lot of walls...And, I found out that my designer can get it for about 12.50/sf where I was quoted around $15/sf.
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Posted by budgeteer_s (My Page) on Wed, Dec 31, 08 at 18:18 Thanks for all your suggestions. I wanted so much to follow with ci_lantro's suggestion because then I'm done. I'll gladly let you snatch that paint brush out of my hand. ha ha. But at the same time if a little tiling will tie up the project, then I'm game. jodi_socal: I'm a little disappointed when you said fire and ice won't work. I just LOVE that F&I BS. But then agin, I think I know all along it's a little too much for my kitchen. Caryscott & petra: Thanks for the picture petra, it says a thousand words. Is spectralight glass tiles? Prices are pretty reasonable. What about that milk green color? will it work? maybe with some garnet pieces sparingly mixed in. I will take some pictures and post two HD Behr's paint card to aid in the discussion of color. Thanks again ALL! Correction: My tiles were Alfagres: Gema4x4: different from what caryscott posted: I loved what caryscott linked:
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I will get some photos but the kitchen faces south. I really like Azul Platino-will this be too dark? I am thinking of lighter grey, subway tile with a matte finish possibly uneven texture
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Terri_PacNW
9 years ago
Looks like laminate? Likely well glued.
We had that type of "back splash" in my mom's kitchen. It did make a pretty good mess of the drywall removing it. Heat gun did help. Metal putty knife and heat gun helped remove the aluminum trim too.
User
Original Author
9 years ago
The cabinet refacer guys came up with what I think may be the best solution: Don't try to remove the BS, just cut off the aluminum trim with a flush cut saw. They have had to do this a few times before and say it works great. No trying to remove the glued-on BS and no worries about drywall repair.
Thanks everyone for all of the suggestions!

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