Designing Kitchens and Bathrooms - I messed up soooooo badly

I am renovating my bathroom. I ripped it down to the studs and have done everything myself - except for taping and mudding the drywall which my wife's uncle did.

I tiled the whole shower (3 walls) yesterday and it looks wonderful. But a few minutes ago I saw something that made my jaw drop. :eek: I saw the bucket of premixed tile adhesive I bought - it was not opened! Then I looked to see what I used to hang my tile - it was joint compound! My wife's uncle must have bought an extra bucket and happened to set it next to all my tile and tools. I used it without even looking at the label - it happens to be almost exactly the same size as the bucket of adhesive I bought.

So now I have to rip down all my hard work and sand the crap out of the cement board. I'm so bummed out right now.:wall:

You will need to remove joint compound from tiles. You may be able to soak them and scrub with a brush. If you used concrete underlayment board, as you should in shower, wetting and scraping may work better than sanding.

If you sand, take proper precautions to protect yourself from dust with eye and breathing protection as drywall sanders do.

For sanding tips: http://www.rd.com/familyhandyman/content/18190/

:eek: Sorry to hear your troubles......I've heard of people installing tile with Liquid Nails, but drywall compound takes the cake. At least you realized it now and not when you went to take a shower. Good luck!

Do not use anything that comes in a bucket. Return your "premixed" thinset and get a 50lb bag of Versabond or other powdered thinset you mix with water.

:eek: Sorry to hear your troubles......I've heard of people installing tile with Liquid Nails, but drywall compound takes the cake.

Funny but true...the local tile union's training program starts with newbies setting a week of tub surrounds each day using joint compound. They set, they get graded and critiqued and timed and then they pull it all down and wash off the tile and cbu for re-use the next day. They do this daily for 5 days.

So cleaning it all off should be a breeze. Do not use mastic use thinset from a bag. There's as much reality to the garbage in your bucket being thinset as there is to Clinton's claim of running from sniper fire in Bosnia. :blah:

I was able to label (so I remembered where it went), remove and clean all the tile in about 1-hour. Fortunately the back of my stone tile was smooth, making the cleaning process much easier. Another hour to scrape the joint compound off the walls. Another hour in the morning lightly sanding the remaining joint compound off the backerboard and vacuuming up the dust. Two hours putting the tile back up - this time I used tile adhesive.:D Not having to cut tile makes the installation so much quicker!

So the whole mess up cost me about half a day and now I have a funny story to tell.

I was able to label (so I remembered where it went), remove and clean all the tile in about 1-hour. Fortunately the back of my stone tile was smooth, making the cleaning process much easier. Another hour to scrape the joint compound off the walls. Another hour in the morning lightly sanding the remaining joint compound off the backerboard and vacuuming up the dust. Two hours putting the tile back up - this time I used tile adhesive.:D Not having to cut tile makes the installation so much quicker!

So the whole mess up cost me about half a day and now I have a funny story to tell.

as stated by someone here, we learn more from our mistakes than our successes. hate to hear about the mistake, but at least you have a good "Sunday Story" as i like to call my wife's childhood tales she tells around the Sunday dinner table.