Rant: 18 months into my own bathroom reno before I realized I was tiling wrong

I was laying 12x24 porcelain tile in my shower and kept getting lippage no matter how much I leveled. A buddy walked in, watched me for 2 minutes, and said why are you back buttering the tile like it's a mosaic, you need to burn in the thinset on the wall first. Has anyone else had that ah-ha moment where one simple trick fixed their whole tiling game?

3 comments

3 Comments

robinp8916d ago

You ever notice how small mistakes in one thing can ruin everything else you do after... I had a similar thing with cooking once, spent years burning garlic because I kept putting it in the pan too early without letting the oil get hot enough first. Same kind of deal, one little step you overlook and the whole project turns into a mess. It's like how people skip reading instructions on a new tool and then wonder why it doesn't work right, or they don't check the weather before painting a fence and it rains the next day. We all just get so focused on the big picture we forget the tiny details that hold it all together, man. Good on your buddy for catching that, probably saved you like a year of pulling your hair out.

charles72016d ago

Is the back buttering step actually in the manufacturer's instructions or just a pro tip?

phoenix_martin4016d ago

Robinp89, I cook too but back buttering isn't that interchangeable with garlic.