TIL my bathroom tile job needed 17 more bags of thin-set than the box said

I was tiling a small shower in my 1950s house and just went by the coverage chart on the bag, you know, like you do. After mixing the third bag for the first wall I did the math and realized the old, uneven plaster walls were eating way more material than a flat backer board would. Has anyone else had a simple tile job turn into a huge material cost because of an old wall surface?

3 comments

3 Comments

kim_nelson4d ago

My uncle's 1970s kitchen backsplash used almost double the grout because the wall was like a topographical map. Old houses just have their own rules.

tyler_hunt723d ago

Ever try to hang a picture in a place like that? I put up a shelf in my old apartment and wound up using so many shims it looked like a Jenga tower. The wall had a curve you could roll a marble down. I felt like I needed a geology degree just to find a flat spot.

jana_hernandez14h ago

Oh man, that coverage chart is basically a work of fiction for old houses. They should print a warning: "For flat, perfect walls only, which you definitely don't have." You weren't just tiling a shower, you were performing structural filler archaeology. At least you figured it out after three bags and not when you were completely out of mortar and sanity.