Striping Terrazzo and Tiling without the Professionals

The romantic notion of renovation got its luster when I was 26 reading a book by Karen Connelly who had recently moved to Greece for the year remodeling a home she was renting. The grand difference being it wasn’t hers, so truly her investment was finite. Mine was infinite with the myriad of phone calls, internet chat time with the better business bureau and locals to find reliable trades people might have been my demise. Yet being persistent I continued.

“Kathryn, why are you so surprised?” said Sean

“I’ve hired people that show up at 10:00 in the morning already drunk. This country in infamous for it. People get paid really well in the trades so after several work sites they blast off to another world that is the reality.”

“I’ve been on the phone for 3 hours trying to get 1 tile tradesman to commit. Two haven’t shown up that were booked. I’m not proficient in this trade you know.”

“Ah Kate you will be.”

Bending over pulling the rug from its roots while Donna, a dear friend who came to help, held the other end as I took a rug hook and sliced pieces feeling my shoulder muscles at work was rewarding. My first inclination was wow….this has an primordial movement, down on all fours man handling large morsels of synthetic material has its place. Using muscles for labor felt good, even though I had to stop numerous times to rest my pathetically weak arms. It brought me back to my grandmother as she beat eggs, butter, and batter for long moments without rest. A German friend Andrea bakes bread weekly and she too has arms that ET would brag about. To this day no amount of push-ups or arm exercises has me past a 15 second grind with a mixing bowl.

The unveiling of brilliant green underlay was rather stimulating, far more cushion than expected and wonderful knee pads as we pain stakingly removed how many staples from this floor. I thought for sure a day later carpel tunnel syndrome was going to creep up. I gained a new appreciation for this craft and the folks that work in it.

The tile craftsmen never did show up, not one of the three, I did it myself after viewing and reviewing numerous YouTube videos. Since there were only 6 tiles to place, I spent the better half of 2 hours trying to shave off the grout from the exiting tiles prior to placing the new ones in. While at Rona the “Professional” told me to forget about the tool for spreading grout. I ventured to do it with a new flip flop…..it didn’t work.

The floor was to be done 2 weeks later, when a friend offered to show up in 3 days the heat was on. I hadn’t found slutter which I was going to have to cut to surround the exiting tiles yet I was becoming resourceful at this point. Learning the lingo of the trade, I asked the same “Professional” at Rona who I was now visited several times a week what to do. He had no solutions. I let my eyes do the walking up and down the aisles and found 2 aluminum bars that would do the trick. Bounding glue fastened the 2 strips into place along with green painters tape to keep the height we desired.   

Mixing the mortar seemed effortless like baking. A little water mix and voila…not so…it took 25 minutes to get the right consistency. Like many of my projects I don’t like wasting food, clothing, or for that matter anything and mortar was no difference I got exactly the amount I needed. Watching the videos and trying to pick out the meticulous methodology was tough. When your good you make it seem natural.  

Nerves can get the better of you even with eclectic music serenating you in the background and pulling the mortar back and forth not too close to the edge and not too deep as to impinge the grout to later go in between had me moving back forth and then diagonally. The tongue and groove appliance that you spread the mortar onto the floor boards didn’t measure height. Eye balling the height using the leveler over and over to make sure they were uniform was trickier than anticipated as the tiles were level yet not necessarily with the existing ones. Discrepancies still turned up. You realize early on that no one but yourself will be as scrupulous as you are so leave it.

The next day the grout was a little more humorous. I had measured exactly the amount and while waiting for it to gel I scurried around the house to find an appliance to spread it with. First I looked for an old credit card, then an old book with a hard binding, my painting equipment turned up nothing, the kitchen didn’t prove helpful either, out to the garage as I knew we had foam to sit on while backpacking, too soft, then into the crawl space catching cobwebs in my hair, and finally into the laundry room where I found a brand new pair of flip flops I had given to Taylor which he hadn’t used. Firm enough to hold the grout and strong enough to spread diagonally. Nothing could have been worse, it wasn’t spreading evenly pockets were seen everywhere. I tried my fingers making matters worse and finally relented into doing it again later. When the professionals at Rona says find a tool in your home, they might be thinking you have all sorts of gadgets to work from, buy it, just buy the darn thing.