That week last summer when my bathroom reno just kept going wrong

I decided to retile my bathroom floor last June and it was supposed to take three days. Day one went fine until I realized the old mortar was way thicker than I expected and my floor height was off. Then on day two I dropped a brand new tile saw blade and it chipped the edge beyond fixing. By day three my wife was asking if we were ever gonna get our shower back. I spent another full day just leveling the subfloor with self-leveling compound and waiting for it to dry. The worst part was the grout drying a weird shade of gray because I mixed a batch wrong. It all worked out in the end but that week cost me an extra $150 and a lot of late nights. Has anyone else had a project snowball like that where you just keep finding new problems?

2 comments

2 Comments

river_scott9d ago

Oh man, "mortar way thicker than I expected" - I feel that pain. I spent three days trying to chip out old thinset from a shower floor and ended up cracking two tiles I had just laid because the buildup threw everything off.

skylercooper9d ago

Totally changed my mind on this too @river_scott. I used to just eyeball mortar thickness thinking close enough was fine, but then I had a whole backsplash go crooked because the buildup was uneven at the bottom row. Had to pop off six tiles and redo them after they dried, what a nightmare. Now I check that notch trowel angle like it's my job.