Backsplash Crash

Our kitchen was nearly finished but we still had not put in our back splash. Jer wanted it to reach the bottom of the cabinets. I wasn’t opposed but we had never had this in the past.

The tile needed to be white but not blank white. With our busy granite countertop, it required a more subtle off coloring. Jer and I decided on tile that came in groups and had a sticky backing. I was concerned after realizing it was the same sticky backing we use on our vinyl in the bathroom, which turned our great, looking like distressed wood.

There was one big problem. The sticky didn’t always stay stuck. Weekend after weekend we came back to the house to find the vinyl tiles had fallen to the floor in groups. Even in areas where I had cut them apart, they fell or were loose. I took a small hammer and lightly tapped on each piece but still, some would not stay. Jer ended up finish nailing some, especially those on the top row.

So, you can imagine my dismay to see the same sticky backing on the marble tile. Obviously, we couldn’t tap them with a hammer or nail them up. We cut them in rows which seemed to work fairly well. Jer did a great job of cutting around all the outlets and cupboards. Honestly, we were very pleased with how it looked.

Sure enough, the next weekend tiles had fallen and if they fell in on themselves, there was no unsticking them. Others fell and cracked. Marble is very fragile. Sometimes while in bed we’d hear a loud crash and knew right away that tiles had fallen, some to the floor behind the frig.

It was a good thing we bought extra tile to replace those that broke. Jer began gluing any area that fell. We waited months and months to make sure we had gotten them all, even picking at them to see if any were loose.

Just recently we finally grouted, hoping that we had glued all that need it. So far, so good. No more crashing. We recommend if you get these tiles, you just buy some kind of adhesive to put on them rather than depending on the sticky backing.