My brother-in-law told me my tile spacing was 'a real eyesore' and I had to agree

I was putting up subway tile in our kitchen backsplash and thought I could just eyeball the spacing between each piece... you know, keep it casual. I was about halfway done when my brother-in-law, who does this for a living, stopped by. He took one look and said, 'Tess, those grout lines are all over the place. It's a real eyesore.' I stepped back and saw he was right. Some gaps were a fat eighth of an inch, others were practically touching. I spent the next two hours carefully prying off all the tile I'd set. I went to the hardware store and bought a bag of those little plastic spacers for about five bucks. Starting over with them made the whole job slower, but the lines are perfectly even now. It looks a hundred times better. Has anyone else had a simple tool or trick pointed out to them that saved a project?

3 comments

3 Comments

alice2423d ago

Prying off all that tile sounds awful.

alices163d ago

My neighbor's tile removal cost them over two grand in labor alone.

gavin_clark3d ago

Yeah, I read somewhere that those little spacers are basically the only way to get it right unless you're a master tiler. It's wild how such a cheap fix can make or break the whole look. I feel for you having to redo it all, @alice242, that sounds like a huge pain. Did your brother-in-law at least help you take the old tiles down?