[Boomer]

Thank you to all. I knew I would find helpful, experienced advice here.

The tile is glazed porcelain. Last night I got up in the middle of the night, wondering about sealing, so I got a couple of tiles from the box, and sprinkled water on them. The water beaded up. I went back to bed. This morning the water had totally evaporated, leaving no spots behind. (Seems like a good sign. Am I right?)

We have had lots of houses. We learned to do tile (well, Mr. Boomer did) in our second house when the shower wall caved in. (Don’t ask.) That was when we saw that greenboard had been used. We were young and on a really, tight budget. But we bought cement board, started over, and were so happy we could use the old tile again. It was so long ago that tile was gold and the other bathroom’s tile was blue. That caved-in tile was the same color as all the bathroom fixtures so not only did we save money when we salvaged it, we still had a perfect match.

Next house we gutted a bathroom and did the tile ourselves. (I am pretending I did the tile work, but actually I am just the go-fer.)

We built house #4 and had a tile guy do that work. It was in the days of tile countertops and I think we had them use that epoxy grout l2ridehd mentioned. I remember it was what kept stuff from permeating the grout which was what was needed for those kitchen counters of white 4X4 tile.

Well, enough about the History of Tile in the Boomer Houses. I sound like Cliff Clavin. Actually, I am stalling by sitting here writing to you when I have to get back to my go-fer job. I almost got fired yesterday, but that’s another story.

It has been a lot of years since we have done a tile job ourselves. But the kitchen backsplash is a small job and we decided it would be less aggravation to just do it — so here we are — reliving our youth as DIYers.

Thank you and any other hints are most welcome.