How to Install a Simple Tile Backsplash | Ask This Old House

[Music] so the reason that I emailed you is I love to cook yeah but there's no backsplash right along my cooktop here behind it I see that you have what is called a four-inch backsplash here and that's good for around the sink and wiping things on the countertop but I agree when you cook if you have a pots and pans here they can splatter on the wall so you have to keep that clean have you ever tile before no never okay well if you were to tile this whole backsplash around over here on the other side there you've got a corner to deal with you've got all these outlets and switches to deal with and for someone that hasn't tile if you're probably looking at three or four long weekends to get this tile it's a lot of work my suggestion would be to tile right here under the microwave and run it down to the 4-inch backsplash that you have and that will give you a place that you can clean the wall real easy and I'll act like an accent piece for the wall that sounds perfect all right well I've got an idea and I've got some tricks I think we can use today that we can tile this and finish it all in one afternoon excellent all right I'll be right back alright Robin here's the tile that you've chosen it's a nice color it's gonna go good with your cabinets in your kitchen and it's a great tile for a beginner it's a square detail and they stack right on top of one another so it's easy to match and put together there are actually patterns like this where it's actually called a subway pattern where they're rectangles and the piece is staggered out so in some cases you'd have to cut it straight or you take the other piece and you marry it in you line up all the joints it's a little more work alright so the nice thing about this is that this is actually on a mesh and that holds this piece together rather trying to put up each individual piece on the wall now a tile guy would come in and he'd mix up a thin set or a mastic use a v-notch trial and he'd put it on the wall work it in and then take the tile and push it into the mastic and make sure that it's laying flat so what I want to use is this right here this is like a big sheet of two-phase tape if you look right here these little nubs that you see is what we stick the title to that's sticky and to hold this on the wall will peel the back off and it's sticky on that side and we'll stick this whole thing to the wall take our tile up and push it on the glue the next thing is is when you're grouting the tile you have to get a bag of grout you want to get the color that you have you mix it up you need a drill and water take it and you put it on there again you'd have to wait 24 to 48 hours for the mastic to dry and put it on it can be messy so what I got is some pre-mixed growth in the color that you want now we have to do is open this up take it out smear it on the wall fill all our joints wipe it clean and we're done today excellent alright let's get started now before we put our two-faced adhesive onto the wall we want to make sure that the wall is really clean so if you want to wipe that down really good we'll have a nice clean surface all right the wall looks good and it's dry that's good now we could lay this on the wall or stick it to the wall horizontally or vertically but I think we'll do it vertically so I'll get a measurement and then you can cut them off on me all right so we need 15 and a half right Tommy I have the four sheets cut okay great well I've got everything covered with a drop cloth here to protect the area I've run tape up the wall nice and straight and that's where our tile is gonna go in between them so the next thing I want you to do is take these pieces and peel off the back all right perfect okay so now before you stick it to the wall let's flip it over I want to show you something see how this edge has a wider space before it hits to the globe this is the side that we're going to overlap each sheet this edge is a little narrower the reason I had you keep the paper on there when we fold us down like this this allows us to move it around line it up make sure it's straight hold it on the wall like that don't let it move take this piece that's very sticky bring it up and just touch it to the wall up there not down here with the papers so we stick it on there now that holds it into position it won't move you fold it up you then peel this out and as you peel it you just gently push it down onto the wall and that makes it nice and straight and tight so there's no bubbles behind it okay why don't you finish doing that work it down with your hand at the same time nice perfect nice so now you're ready to do the next you perfect and just to get started let's just peel this one back just a little bit not too much so when you lift it up you'll be able to grab it it's like that okay just work it down nice and easy nice now peel it off there you go okay so now I want to measure for our last piece I'm gonna have a little bit of an overlap and I'm gonna measure through the tape and that's four and a half inches let's cut it an eighth of an inch less to be sure to get it in there without any problem so we'll make it four and three-eighths okay just push the top and now what we want to do is make sure that the adhesive is really stuck to the wall you're gonna just take this rubber float and hang it on the wall like that so now let me show you what our layout is gonna be we can actually establish our width for our last piece to cut so I'm gonna take the pieces I'm gonna lay them on the wall like this and I want to keep it on the line here right in the edge take my next piece and lay it beside this one I want to keep a grout line between the sheets about the same that's in the field that's spacing okay so now for our last piece it will hold it into position looking at my grout line and right there that is where we're gonna cut this tile down good let's see you make it yep perfect right right out of your way I'm gonna touch the backsplash right they say now you feel if it's square don't let it touch the wall yet let it rest on it gently that's right about there work it right up nice okay so then just gently push it in like a pro okay now the last piece yep all right so now what we're gonna do is we're gonna finish it off while using this premix grout and want you to go diagonally yeah through that nice forcing it right in there all right Robin stage one of your grouting is done you did a good job it's starting to set up so now we need a bucket of clean water and a sponge because we're gonna wash it down so all I want you to do now is take the sponge you get a little bit of water in it not too much if you don't want to run all over the place and wring it out so that it's damp and you're just going to take it and you're going to gently rub it onto the wall cleaning off all the excess all right all right Robin not bad a little under two hours and you have a tile backsplash behind your cooktop it looks fantastic did a good job I guess you could say you're a Tyler now but seriously the grout is not dry and it won't dry it until overnight so I would suggest that maybe you want to eat out tonight don't use the cooktop in the morning you might notice a little haze over the tile just take a coarse rag and wipe it off and it'll polish that tile right up perfect

Channel: This Old House

Views: 1,605,671

Rating: 4.6916151 out of 5

Keywords: This Old House, Ask This Old House, DIY, Home Improvement, DIY Ideas, Renovation, Renovation Ideas, How To Fix, How To Install, How To Build, Episode, TV Show, DIY install, simple tile backsplash, contractor, tiling, Tom Silva, backsplash tile installation, backsplash ideas, how to backsplash a kitchen, how to install backsplash in kitchen, how to install a backsplash

Id: mNDISOzizbY

Length: 9min 0sec (540 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 22 2017