Affordable Tile Work

I now have 75 sq ft of salvaged tile ready for installation. There is another 31 sq ft that has either been bleach cleaned or is soaking in bleach at this very moment. That makes up the tile that was in uniformly sized boxes. There are another 5 boxes that have any where from 15 to 25 sq ft of tile in them.

When I first started prying up the tile from the floor of The Oberon Saloon I used just about any box I found laying around in the saloon building. I then found a supply of boxes that were all the same size, so I started using those so I could get some idea of how much I was pulling up, as I was pulling it up. While I didn’t count or stack the tile neatly in the boxes, I did fill them all to about the same level. I could then count one or two boxes and sort of take an average. There was no sense in pulling up the tile without knowing when I might have enough.

As I clean the tile I use the same boxes, but I count and stack the tile neatly so I can get an accurate count of cleaned tile. The variable is still what is a good tile and what is chipped or damaged tile. There are also still some tiles that don’t exactly come out of the bleach bath all pearly white. The original plan was to sort as I cleaned the grout off, but that didn’t happen.

The last box I did was the worst. I let the tile soak for three weeks and they still came out less than white. Not all of them, but enough that I’m going to try something else to get them clean. I can use some of them under the toilet and the built-in cabinets, so it’s not like they all must be cleaned for this to work.

At any rate, it looks like I’m going to have around 120 sq ft of tile when all is said and done. The bathroom and the little mudroom are 90 sq ft, so it would seem I’m in pretty good shape. I now kick myself for not getting more chipped tiles. Because these are hex tiles, I will need a lot of partial tiles at the edges to fill in the gap made by the outer edge tiles. When I was pulling up the tile I passed over a lot of tiles because they had major chips on one side, but these would be perfect for trimming down and using on the edges. Oh well, what are you gunna do.

The best thing about cleaning all of the Oberon Saloon tile is that it doesn’t cost anything. After months of spending every spare cent, and some not so spare cents, it’s nice to go a week without spending money on the bathroom. Tomorrow I’m going to go ahead and grout the subway tile. It’s probably going to suck, but I’m looking forward to it.