DIY Plank Tile Floor Fail

When we moved into the Retro Ranch this was the state of the bathroom. Recently we decided it was finally time to do something about the baby blue walls and peeling linoleum floor.

We started out by demoing and painting everything but the shower enclosure. Then we mortared down a membrane onto the floor for tiling over. Looking back I wish that we would have poured a self-leveler down before putting down the membrane. It would have added a day to our timeline, but I also think it may have saved a huge headache.

Tiling in a small space is a brutal job that required pouring and mixing mortar (twice), then strategically working throughout the room to avoid sitting on my newly laid tiles.

Our strategy involves me staying on the floor while Matt runs back and forth making all of the tile cuts. ​

Here I am laying the last row of our DIY plank tile floor, completely sore and exhausted. The next day I was back at it, mixing and troweling the charcoal colored grout.

I’m so impatient that I hated waiting an entire day to see the finished product. The next day I was anxious to get the grout cleaned and see the finished product.

I was absolutely in love with the way that the tile turned out, until the grout started crumbling! Yes, it was a total DIY fail. In numerous places the grout got super crumbly and was practically falling out of the cracks.

After two days of exhausting work, it ended in a total failure. I’m not sure if I mixed my grout wrong, or if I didn’t push it down into the cracks hard enough. Either way I will be re-mixing and re-grouting again this week.

In case you thought all my DIY’s were simple and stress-free this goes to show that it’s far from the truth! Hopefully next week I’ll be back to show our perfectly grouted gorgeous black plank tile floor!

*12/20/15 Update* If you’re curious how the bathroom turned out you can read about how I fixed the tile floor, and see our modern bathroom reveal! Here’s a little sneak peek of how it turned out!