Thought I could tile my kitchen backsplash in an afternoon, lol

The spacers kept sliding out of the wet thinset, so every row was crooked. I spent 4 hours just trying to get the first 3 square feet straight, then had to pull it all off. Ended up taking me the whole weekend to finish a job I thought would be done by dinner. Anyone got a trick for keeping those little plastic spacers in place on a vertical surface?

3 comments

3 Comments

samward9d ago

Yeah that sounds about right honestly. I tried the same thing two years ago and it was a nightmare. The spacers just sliding around is the worst part because you think you're making progress and then you step back and see everything is off. I ended up using a little bit of painters tape to hold the spacers in place on the vertical tiles and that helped some. Still took forever though. At least you got it done by Sunday, I had to leave mine half finished for a week because I got so mad.

hayden_martin291mo ago

My cousin tried that same weekend warrior move and ended up with a backsplash that looked like a drunk spiderweb. I saw a guy online use little dabs of hot glue on the back of the spacers to hold them to the tile until the thinset grabs. Honestly, after my own tile disaster, I just pay someone now. That stuff is a special kind of frustrating.

faithf771mo ago

Hot glue on spacers is a genius hack for keeping things straight. It solves the main problem of them sliding around before the mortar sets. More people should try that before giving up and hiring out.