Wish me luck!

[skeg]

Sort of first proper job tomorrow. It's for a friend of my wifes but i had not met her until the other day when i went round to look at the job. Have done a few jobs at home and one for a friends parents to get my feet wet as it were but feel the pressure is on more for this job to get a great finish.

It's only a splashback in a kitchen but has thrown up a few issues to get round and we all have to start somewhere i suppose.

Roll on tomorrow!

[Sir Ramic]

All the best , take your time.

[Max@ableskills]

Good luck skeg

[devonmark]

you'll be fine, just take your time no need to rush..

[garretridge]

good luck the first one is always the worst take your time and enjoy!

[Mike]

usually the only hard part with a splashback is the window/s and using the corner beads. make sure the walls and tiles near the window are straight. if they've got a slide in cooker be careful that the worktops are level with each other. if not its a bugger to rectify. good luck and have fun, and remember there's always people on here to help out with advice.

[Bri]

All the best mate, remember this is the start of building a top notch reputation, so take all the time you need to make the job spot on.

[skeg]

Thanks fellas.

Its a splashback on two walls going a little way up a window reveal and using square edge trim all around. Undecided as to whether to use the trim flush with the tiles or to leave a 2mm gap to grout in between the tiles and trim. Whats the general consensus on this idea?

[Sir Ramic]

No gap.

[timeless john]

Good Luck

You sound as though you are ready to enjoy yourself
Gap for me - just enough to get a joint of grout in.

[SandyFloor]

Take your time, do a good job or your wife'll murder you Seriously you'll be fine

[neil terry]

good luck

[Michael kiss]

Good luck

[user123]

you don't need luck, you know what you have to do, take it steady adn most of all enjoy the job as your first of many to come!! d

[skeg]

Great support and advice, thanks!

Will try and post on here tomorrow as to how i get on.

[paul78]

remember measure twice and cut once.

oh i always take pics before, during and after to show my work off to potential new customers. get their email addresses and post your work pics.

[skeg]

Well thats day one over. Managed to get all the splashback tiled. Took a bit longer than i would've liked but i guees will speed up a bit with experience. Struggled a little bit with the trim. I was using 10mm trim for 9mm tiles but somehow still managed to get a tiny bit of a lip in places. I did take a photo before i started applying the tiles and will take another one when done. Grouting tomorrow. On that point, the customer has already purchased the grout but it is a floor grout. Is there any reason why this couldn't be used on a wall or is it posssible that it's just a grout made to make grouting floors easier?

Cheers

Skeg

[Mike]

the difference may just be the joint width, some floor grout will do 3 to 20mm whereas wall grout may be 1mm to 6mm. provided the spacer size is in the tolerance of the floor grout size i'd use it but if you're not sure get it changed. it is bagged grout and not tubbed? i've yet to find a half decent ready mixed grout

[skeg]

Yes it was a powdered adhesive but was not any good. Some of it came out in lumps which refused to mix with the water, even after two attempts at trying to mix a batch up. Spoke to customer and they were happy for me to get new grout which obviously added more time to the job but meant the finish was going to be better.

Having now finished the grouting though i can see that i may need to get a bit more practice. No matter how i do it at the moment i always manage to take too much grout out when doing the first wash with a sponge therefore leaving the grout line a tad shallow. I guess i'll only get better the more i do.

Just letting the grout dry today and then all that is left to do is to pop back and silicone between the tiles and worktop and job done!

[Mike]

maybe you're cleaning the grout off too early, you need to let it go off a bit first, and remove as much grout off the tile with the float as you grout will make cleaning easier. practice will make you better. what colour silicon are you using? what colour tiles and worktops are they? i try use clear if possible.

[skeg]

Sorry, meant to say powdered grout in my last post, not adhesive. The worktops are wooden, tiles are a cream colour, although look white in photo's. I have used BAL Manilla coloured grout which is a slightly darker colour than the tiles and was shown a close matching coloured silicone. I think if i used clear it might look a bit odd, especially as there some gaps larger then others as the worktop wasn't perfectly level.

I probably do need to leave the grout a bit longer before washing off but am very aware of leaving it too long. Just fine tuning i guess.

Possibly doing sealant tomorrow, will let you know how it looks.

On another note, i have used trim around the window sill and reveal so have then used it on the rest of the splashback. Can't really decide if it looks odd or not. If you are using trim around the window reveal is it then always the done thing to use it on the rest of the splashback? The tiles are only 1 tile high once you are in the reveal. I thought about not using trim but then thought the non glazed part of the tiles showing would look weird if none was used at all.

What do others think or do?

[Mike]

it's always best imo to use trims for the splashback except where you tile up to the wall units. some tilers rather not use them when using stone, they mitre the tiles round the corner/sill.

[skeg]

I can see why you wouldn't use trim around natural stone tiles as you have the same finish on all visible sides of the tile. The splashback i'm doing at the moment runs from an open ended section of the worktop, along to the window then on to 5 ajoining walls of various sizes only interrupted by a stainless steel splashback for the hob, and none of it reaches high enough to reach any units.