digest
All right, Tom, here's the child that needs repairing. Oh yeah, look at that, a broken tile. Well, you know, people love tile in the kitchen because it's easy to clean, but it can be fragile. So if you drop something, you can do one or two things: you're either going to break the dish that you drop, or you're going to break the tile. In some cases you're going to break both, and that's exactly what happened here. We dropped a jar, the jar broke, and the tile broke. Ah, not good.
All right, so one of the biggest hurdles with this job is trying to match this tile. We don't know where it came from, we don't know how long it's been there, and there are hundreds of tile stores and home centers around here, so we're going to have to do our homework to try to find it and match it. Well, actually, in this instance that's one hurdle we have already overcome, because the previous owners left some tiles in the basement for us. That's fantastic. Okay, so that hurdle is crossed. All right, so why don't I get some tools and we'll get that out and see if we get your new tile in. Fantastic.
All right, okay. Now the first thing we need to do is try to remove the grout from around the perimeter of the tile. The grout is old and it could be pretty soft, so I want to try cutting it out with a utility knife, because the utility knife blade is nice and thin. Now, keep the knife tight to this one so it doesn't wander. I'll go back and do it again, just keep going over that. Yeah, see there? Oh, it's kind of, yeah, that's good. All right, so that's pretty good there. Now let's try dragging it on this side. Okay, again, stay close to the broken piece. Okay, this one's easier. All right, so what we've created is a thin gap right here on this grout line, and this tile was loose.
So what I want to try, before we get too carried away with cutting, is to take a small chisel or a nail set, or even a small bar, and try to fracture this and pull it up. But when we pull it up, I want to watch the grout lines to see if we're stressing the tile on the other side of the grout. Okay, all right. So the first thing I'm going to do is take the chisel and try to pop it in under this broken piece. Awesome. The bottom of the chisel is hitting the floor underneath, so it's going to slowly come in, but I have to watch this side of the chisel right here, making sure I don't damage this tile. Now I'll tap it, pry it up gently, and I don't want too much stress on it. Work it back and forth. See how it's coming up? Okay, and we're looking around, I don't see any cracking. Look at how that grout is lifting right now. Yeah, fantastic. So that's giving us room for the tile to move, which is a good thing. Okay, so I'm going to lift it up just a little. Now this piece is nice and loose, pop that right away. Now I'm going to go for this big one. I'm just going to slowly pull it up, don't want to rush it. As I said, mm-hmm. Okay, good, it's loose. Put that away.
Okay, now what we're going to do is remove all this old loose adhesive and get it all cleaned up. I'm going to wipe the area with a damp sponge to clean up all the dust and dampen the wood just a little bit, so the adhesive doesn't set up too fast. All right, good. Now, I'm not going to use a traditional thin-set to set the tile, because this is such a small area and we're going over plywood. I want to use an acrylic base that's really meant for small areas like this. All right, and now I'm going to use the straight or flat edge of the trowel and just spread it around onto the plywood. Now I want to use the notched side of the trowel, and I want to try to stand the trowel up as straight as I can to get the maximum out of the notch. I'll do the same thing this way, only on the edge of the trowel. Again, stand it up and drag it across over here. All right, so why don't you hand me the tile. All right, here you go. Okay, good. Now I'm just going to set the tile on top. All right, so I just want to force this in and make sure I have a good, solid connection between the underside of the tile and the top of the floor. I also want to make sure I check the level of the tile against the ones beside it. It's good, it's good there, that's good there. I want to clean it off, get rid of all the excess acrylic, and let it dry.
All right, Kate, it's been a few hours and our tile is set and ready to grout. Great, and we're going to put the grout on with this float. Do you want to try it? I'd love to. All right, here's the float and here's the grout. Okay, so you're going to take it out of there, put a little bit on the tip of the trowel, and take it out. That's just like that. Yeah, okay. So what I want you to do is force it right into this joint. I don't want you to push down really hard, go diagonal to your joint. We're never going to be able to match this grout exactly, because it's been down for maybe 15 years. Over time the grime in the air, and if you spill things on it, everything gets a little bit of a stain in it. So I picked a color of premix grout so we don't have to mix it. It's close to the color that exists right now. Okay, now you get the hang of it. That was quick. I'm going to take something round, like the handle of the trowel we're using, and drag it right across. See how that just guides it right in there and cleans it up? Cleans it right up like that. Now I'm going to take our float and lightly drag it across the joint again at a slight diagonal, because I don't want to pull any out of those joints. Okay, pull it off. Now we've got it cleaned off pretty well, so I'm going to take a wet sponge and wring it out. I'm going to apply some pressure, but I don't want to push down too hard, because I don't want to make a divot.
All right, Kate, we broke out the broken tile and replaced it with a new one, or should I say a new old one. Yep, and grouted it all in there. It looks fantastic. Okay, so now this grout is going to take about, I would really like it if you could put a chair over here for tonight or something, just to keep somebody from walking on it. Okay, all right. Keep the two little kids off it. Now, if you notice, there's a little bit of a haze on the floor, so sometime tomorrow just take a coarse cloth, like a towel or something like that, wet it just a little bit, wipe the floor, and then use a dry one and buff it away. Sounds good. All right, so you're all set. Fantastic. Thank you so much for coming over and showing me how to do this, and really making it look fantastic. Well, it was my pleasure, and thanks for your help. Thank you. Nice fix, Tommy. And not to suggest that it was an easy job, but the hardest part of that is sometimes just finding the right tile. I mean, you guys got lucky. Absolutely, that's why I was so happy when she said she had tile, because we would have had to take a piece of tile out and take it to a reputable tile store where they know tile. Yeah, and lots of times the owner there, or the salesman, would be able to tell by looking at the back of the tile. This one very faintly says "Made in Italy," and it has a distinctive pattern, so you might get lucky again. Yeah, and if he doesn't have it, he may have suggested a store that does. Okay. So if you were laying a new tile floor, you would never put it right on plywood, a plywood subfloor. I don't like to lay tile on plywood. I like to lay it on a subbase made for tile. Now, there are a few different kinds out there. This just happens to be a cement board that we have right here, and it comes in different thicknesses. I would glue this entire system down to the plywood, set it with a notched trowel, and screw it down, probably every eight inches on center. Let it set, and then put the tile on top of that. For a patch in this case, that doesn't make sense, and certainly it would give you too much thickness. Absolutely. Were you surprised that her grout was as soft as it was, that she could go after it with just a utility knife? Well, when I first walked into the kitchen, I could actually see a couple of spots where the grout was missing, so I knew it was old and I knew it was dried out. That's why I suggested, just before I left, that she should get herself a grout knife like this. It's a carbide knife, and go in and drag out all the old grout. Great trick. Go in there and drag out all the grout, vacuum it, damp-sponge it, let it dry, and then grout it. All right, I love the fact that you told her as you were leaving. Yeah.