How To Install Subway Tile 🛠 Installing TILE BACKSPLASH for the FIRST TIME

what's going on everybody I'm Johnny Brook welcome back to another craft workshop video and welcome back to my kitchen so this is the last video in this kitchen remodel series which has been sponsored by Lowe's big big shout out to them for sponsoring this whole series and the last major project to do in this kitchen was to get this glass subway tile backsplash installed I made plenty of mistakes I'm a total tile newbie so if you guys are new to tile work as well hopefully you'll get something out of this video just by watching the mistakes I made and I guess with all that said let's go ahead and get started with the video the tile I ended up picking was a glass subway tile so the first thing I needed to do was swap the blade on my tile saw over - a glass cutting blade and this is important as using a normal tile blade will cause you a lot of issues with chipping and ragged cuts as you can see this glass specific blade left me with a pretty clean cut overall but I actually think a snap cutter would have been better in some of these situations but I'll cover that a little later people were actually getting to adding tile I needed to figure out where I was going to end the run and how I would make that look purposeful so I decided to use this Schluter strip for this and I really like to look this strip gives the end of the tile that said I inadvertently purchased the wrong size Schluter strip which I didn't realize until I went to lay my first pieces of tile so we'll get to that in a bit these strips are aluminum and cut easily with a normal miter saw and I just got them pre-cut and temporarily taped to the wall with some painters tape so I started my tiling from the end of the run with a piece of this mosaic cut in half and I figured out this would work by laying out the tile and sketch up a 3d modeling software even if you don't fully model your kitchen in 3d like I did you should definitely spend some time measuring out the width of your wall and figuring out how to start and in your run you really don't want to be left with a bunch of tiny slivers to install as it'll not only be difficult to install it'll look weird too anyway of course the first piece of tile to lay intersected with an outlet so I needed to notch out a few of the subway tiles to fit around the other and this was actually a pretty easy process on this particular piece as I could just make the rip cut with the wet saw and use a pair of glass tile nippers to crosscut the piece wait this did get a little more tricky later on when the outlets fell in the middle of the mosaic but we'll get to that with the first piece dry-fit I could drive fit the piece for the second row which is just one of these mosaic pieces cut in half horizontally I just cut through the mesh with a utility knife and this is when I realized these tiles were actually a little short for a standard 18 inch wall area between the countertop and cabinet and that's even with me using 3/16 inch spacers below the tiles after dry fitting I cut down that vertical Schluter strip repositioned the horizontal strip and after confirming that everything was spaced evenly I could continue dry fitting more tile once I had the first few pieces for the first and second rows dry fit I moved on to actually applying the tile to the wall and I used a pre-mixed tile adhesive here which I picked up from my local Lowe's and it was definitely nice to avoid having to mix the adhesive myself I applied the adhesive to the wall with a notched trowel using a notch size recommended by the tile manufacturer and I just tried to get the adhesive onto the wall as evenly as I could [Music] this is only my second tile project ever and my first tile backsplash so using a trowel still feels really awkward to me but I think I managed to do a decent job I did have a lot of issues with excess adhesive squeezing out between the tiles and I really should have focused more on cleaning up this excess as I was applying the tiles and if you've got any tips on avoiding the squeeze out I'd love to hear them in the comments below so in this shot you can see how the Schlueter strip I used was too tall for the tile as it kind of sticks up above the surface of the finished tile I'm not really sure how I got this wrong as I check this with this exact tile in store but just know that these trips are available in shorter depths if you're using thinner tile like I am again I use 3/16 inch spacers below the tiles and this left room for me to add a color matched caulk after grouting later and you don't want your tile to be installed right on top of your countertop as otherwise there won't be room for seasonal movement and it would cause the grout there to crack later on also I installed my cabinets and countertops myself with a line laser so I knew they were perfectly flat and level but you might need to account for inconsistencies in your countertop by their adding more spacers or actually scribing your tile to fit anyway I just kept working my way down the wall adding spacers between the sections of mosaic pieces and also anywhere the mesh backing wasn't keeping the tiles aligned in retrospect I should have bought another bag of spacers and used them in way more places as I did end up with a few uneven joints in the finished backsplash and that was just because the mesh backing didn't actually do as good of a job keeping the spacing consistent as I'd hoped and more spacers definitely would have helped with this also you'll notice a sanding block sitting on the counter and one thing I forgot to show on camera was scuff sanding the wall prior to starting applying tile and this just helps to remove any grease and grime that's built up over the years and will help the tile adhere more consistently to the drywall I also added another Schluter strip to the top edge of the tile on the left side of the sink just to match the strip on the right side I called it quits for day one after finishing this first wall since I didn't start till about midday and before getting started on the second wall the following day I needed to remove the spacers and I found that a pair of needle nose pliers work great for this and you can see some of that squeezed out I was mentioning here I'm still not sure how to go about adding the spacers and removing the squeeze out without making a huge mess but again any tips would be appreciated so the second wall was really just more the same for the most part except that I had to run tile a little higher in the area above the cooktop I also really struggled with the Outland locations on this wall as they all seem to fall right in the middle of one of my mosaic sheets and I ended up trying to cut around them which was extremely difficult and I ended up breaking some of the pieces with the tile nippers and I'd recommend you just cut up the sheets by cutting the mesh backing in areas like this to save yourself some hassle also I mentioned that I think a snap cutter might have been better than a wet saw and some of these situations and I'm specifically talking about anywhere where you need to cross cut an entire mosaic section like where the tile met the walls or cabinets the glass tile really had a tendency to chip out right at the end of a cut when using the wet saw which you can see in a few spots in the final in Seoul and I think a snap cutter would have worked better in this scenario and snap cutters are also much cheaper than wet saws which is a bonus anyway with that the tile was up so I'd let the adhesive dry overnight and then I could get to grouting the next day first though I needed to deal with all of that squeeze out that I mentioned and unfortunately since this adhesive is white and the grout I used was gray any remaining adhesive would be super obvious in the finished backsplash so I spent a lot of time and used a lot of elbow grease trying to remove the excess adhesive here I used a five and one tool to scrape out any large chunks and then came back with the grout pad to remove any of the adhesive on the surface of the tiles I actually waited a few days between installing the tile and doing this and I really should have done it the next day as this adhesive was much harder to remove after curing this long and this was quite the workout and I was totally shot by the time I got the grout added by the end of this day with the joints as clean as they were gonna get I could get to grouting and I used a pre-mixed grout here which I also picked up at Lowe's now I'm not sure how it could really be avoided but I felt like I made an unbelievable mess during this process and I think more grout ended up on the counters then in between the tile thankfully I put down trash bags and painters tape before starting this process and they made cleanup pretty easy but I guess I just need some more grouting practice so the basic process when grouting is to pack the grout into the joints using a rubber grout float pushing the grout in from multiple sides just to make sure there aren't any voids left in the joints after filling the joints I scraped off most of the excess grout with the float and then just continued working down the wall so this particular grout which I also used in our laundry room dries really quickly so I made sure to come back with a sponge and remove the excess grout before too long and when doing this it's important not to use too much pressure as you don't want to remove too much grout from the joints and the sponge should also just be damp not dripping wet and as otherwise it can actually lift the color from the grout I just continued working my way around the kitchen doing my best to avoid filling the gap between the counter and tile with grout until all the joints were filled and then I could clean up the huge mess I made and I should mention that while I really loved the look of this contrasting grout it also definitely highlight any uneven spaces between my tiles so you might want to take that into consideration if you're new at tile work like I am after about an hour the grout had dried enough to come back and wipe away any haze left on the surface of the tile of which there was plenty in my case one thing I found out after grouting is that the manufacturer of this particular grout recommends changing out the water for your sponge frequently when applying the grout which is something I didn't do and I think this would have really helped cut down on the haze drastically but it wasn't too hard to removed with a little bit of elbow grease and a damp sponge what the haze removed I let the grout finish drying and then I could come back and add the color matched caulk I mentioned earlier and this caulk is made by ma PHA the manufacturer of the grout and also the tile adhesive and it's perfect for any spots where the tile meets another surface like a counter top cabinet etc I had a little trouble getting the caulk to look at it first since the gray kaufe gainst the white tile and black countertop made any excess really obvious but after a little frustration I dug around in my shop and found one of these caulk tools which I actually picked up from Lowe's awhile back and this thing was a lifesaver I was able to get a super consistent caulk line and the tool left me with a perfectly clean backsplash and countertop and I definitely recommend picking one of these up before caulking with that the backsplash install was complete and so I could add the outlet covers back and I was able to use these awesome screwless plates on this first section which i think looks super clean also depending on the thickness of your tile you might need to get some longer screws for your outlets and I also found a rubber spacer kit that I use to are needed just to keep the outlets a little bit more secure unfortunately I did have to use some jumbo plates on the wall behind the cooktop since I didn't cut in around the tiles tight enough and these look fine but they'll just serve as a lesson to be more careful in future tile projects with the backsplash complete I still had a few odds and ends left to finish up the kitchen the first of which was installing this samsung range hood so the first step was to cut a hole in the cabinet above the range hood and then get the range hood temporarily hung on a few screws which was pretty tricky by myself after getting the hood in place temporarily I could start laying out where I was going to run this six inch ducting to vintner rangehood unfortunately the microwave range hood that was in this area when I started the kitchen remodel wasn't vented so I had the fun task of drilling a six inch hole through the side of our house during this process so obviously I wanted to get this right so I spend a good bit of time laying out where the ducting would run making sure I wasn't gonna run into any studs in that outside wall I used a six and three-eighths inch hole saw to drill a series of holes through the very top of the cabinets so the ductwork would be hidden and then out the side of our house and we have 42 inch tall upper cabinets and those very top shelves are pretty much impossible to get to anyway so I thought this was a pretty good solution our house has hardiplank siding which I did try to muscle through with my hole saw consequently ruining it and I had to switch over to a carbide tipped oscillating tool blade to finish the cut and since the hole saw was completely dull after its scuffle with the hardiplank I switched over to my jig saw to finish the cut through the OSB and then I could fit the vent back inside I wired an outlet for the rangehood and under cabinet lighting to plug into and also added a whip to the rangehood so that I could plug it in finally I could run the ducting through the holes which did prove to be a little bit tricky as the outside hole going through the house was just a little bit out of square but I managed to persuade it into place with a 2x4 and Hammer I added a bunch of exterior rated caulk to the vent outside to really seal it up attached it to the house with a few screws and then connected the ductwork inside taping the seams with aluminum tape and the finished ductwork isn't the prettiest but it seems to be well sealed and let me tell you how this hood moves some air I am amazed at how much air pressure there is coming through this vent outside I think this is gonna really make a huge difference when we're cooking smoky stinky or steamy foods one other nice bonus is since I also have a Samsung induction cooktop I can link the two through Bluetooth and this means that when I turn on a burner on the cooktop the rangehood will automatically turn on as well it's pretty knit the next item on the final checklist was some under cabinet lighting and I used some lights I picked up at Lowe's from there and bright and light in here I really liked how easy these were to install since there linkable and just plug into the wall and I just needed to drill a few holes through the cabinet's to run the cables I used one 12-inch fixture on this left cabinet and then an 18 inch followed by two 12 inch fixtures on the right section of cabinets and you can add an on/off button inline to control all these lights but I plan to use a smart lamp dimmer to control these lights using my smart home system the last little detail in this kitchen was to add that filler strip next to the wall oven cabinet which got delayed from the original order adding a filler strip here was a little tricky as the face frame on the wall oven cabinet was too wide to run a screw so instead I decided to add some blocking in the form of a few pieces of 2x2 flush with the back edge of the face frame and then the filler strip could just butt up against the block I got lucky and didn't actually need to scribe the filler strip to my wall since it was reasonably straight so I could just rip it to width on the table saw I did set my blade to a slight angle so that the edge of the filler strip that met the wall would have a much smaller contact area and this just made it easier to fit the filler strip later speaking of which after test fitting I could get the filler strip permanently installed and I added a few beads of construction adhesive on the 2x2 blocking as well as the edge of the filler strip that met up with the cabinet and then I could add the strip now as you can see having that slightly beveled edge allowed me to roll the strip into place making it easier to fit the fairly snug piece and with that I could officially call this kitchen project done at least for now and before showing you the entire finished kitchen let's rewind and see how this kitchen started [Music] all right hopefully you guys enjoyed this video and hopefully this entire series so if you missed any of the other videos in this kitchen remodel series I will link to the playlist in case you want to check that out also of course all of the tools and materials I used all of which were from Lowe's will be linked down in the video description below in case you want to try to tackle something like this for yourself and last if it's your first time here why not go ahead and get subscribed bring that little notification bell and check out this other video that YouTube thinks you'll enjoy alright thanks for watching everybody thanks for sticking around for this whole kitchen remodel series and until next week patek building

Channel: Crafted Workshop

Views: 293,738

Rating: 4.8715692 out of 5

Keywords: glass tile, glass tile backsplash, tile backsplash installation, how to tile a backsplash, mosaic backsplash, glass tile installation, subway tile backsplash, subway tile, how to install subway tile, kitchen tile, wall tile installation, how to install a backsplash, backsplash installation, how to tile, subway tile kitchen backsplash, tile installation, crafted workshop, how to lay tile, diy, kitchen backsplash, glass mosaic tile, home improvement, Kitchen remodel

Id: q7_VDe1vYwk

Length: 15min 29sec (929 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 26 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/ZXsaurus]

Lookin' good Johnny! I've been watching your videos for awhile now and hope to use some of them as inspiration when we finally buy our house. I'm pretty jealous of your workshop setup and tool collection.