Yolanda in Utah needs some help with a tiling project. What can we do for you?
YOLANDA: [How do you do] (ph), Leslie and Tom? My husband and I enjoy The Money Pit but I have this problem. I’m trying to put some marafil (ph) tile on my old countertop and it has like an – it was built in 1979, so it has that old Formica that is just kind of glued on there.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
TOM: OK.
YOLANDA: And I’m wondering what would be the best way to prepare that so that I can install the tile?
TOM: I think you can probably go right on the Formica. Leslie, have you ever glued right to that with an adhesive?
LESLIE: I actually have and then one key thing is that you really want to scuff up the Formica before you go ahead and put the tile mastic or the tile adhesive onto the Formica, because you need to sort of grit it up and scratch it up so that it has some area for the adhesive to really stick to it and grip into it rather than just sort of sitting on top where it could kind of crack away.
TOM: That’s not that hard to do, Yolanda. You just get some 80-grit sandpaper and go at it when you’re ready to do the tile project; just rough it up and then you can put the adhesive right on that.
YOLANDA: Well, that’s great. That sounds like an inexpensive solution for us.
LESLIE: It truly is and once you’ve got your mastic set and the tiles are glued down properly, go ahead and grout your countertop and then make sure once that’s dry, you seal the grout so you don’t have to worry about cleaning it and mold and mildew and all that yuck.
YOLANDA: Oh, that sounds great. Thank you very much for your help.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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