Good Enough

When I put the checkerboard tile floor down in the kitchen some seven years ago, I kinda knew I was asking for trouble. The floor is decidedly NOT level, and tile is not known for its bendability.

Sure enough, over the years, several tiles have cracked. Three gave way beneath the pressure of moving the fridge around the room, two have multiple fault lines from the pressure of a too-pointy chair leg; I don't know what excuse the others think they have.

I did a little internet research to see if there was anything, short of replacing the tiles, I could do to help hide the cracks, and found several sources who mentioned using an epoxy glue to fill the cracks, then painting the lines to help the glue blend in. It seemed like a not-unreasonable solution, so I ran it past the guys at the tile store when I was there asking about my failed grout. They agreed - and sent me to a small shop specializing in countertop installation supplies to get the good stuff.  

It took some time to convince the guy running the store I could use the epoxy without gluing the cat to the floor (I guess I don't look like a bona-fide countertop installer. Who knew?), but I got the good stuff. When you use the good stuff, you color the epoxy before adding the hardener, thus eliminating the sure-to-be-problematic step of keeping the lines painted to match the tiles. I was happy with my purchase, but once I got home, had a procrastination attack. Regular, hardware-store-grade epoxy has a cure time of 20-30 minutes. You have some time to fix your mistakes before things harden up. The good stuff gives you a 3-4 minute window before beginning to set up and becoming useless. I was afraid of doing a real botch job on the floor, and then having to decide if I want to spend the next x years looking at evidence of my ineptitude or replacing the whole **mn floor.

I tried looking up Google tips and tricks, but Google let me down. The pros out there are NOT creating tutorials on how to do this at home. *sigh* Not one to give up easily, I called the goop manufacturer, and after a couple of dead ends, was connected to a sales guy who helpfully spent a good 30 minutes giving me pointers on mixing and using the stuff.

Feeling much more confident, I procrastinated for another week on general principle, then set out one afternoon to clean and prepare the cracks per the instructions. My first two tries with batches of epoxy were a disaster. The instructions I'd been given would have worked beautifully for straight-line seams, but my floor cracks were anything but neat lines.

Frustrated, I threw up my hands and went to bed.

As I lay there, stewing and reviewing, revising and what-if-ing, some alternatives to the way I'd been told to do it floated to the surface of my mind. I drifted off to sleep somewhat comforted - at least I had new things to try in the morning.

I got up the next day, and ignoring a lot of what I'd been told, started afresh. This time, things went a lot better. I mixed up a super-small batch of goo, and used a razor blade to press the epoxy into the cracks of the first tile. I had paper towels and a cup of acetone at the ready to swipe up the extra glue, and lo and behold, the tile was repaired in short order, with very little mess. (I also had on a good P100 face mask and had a fan set up to exhaust the air from the room, so I didn't destroy my lungs in the process. I AM trainable.)

A couple of hours later, the floor looked as good as it's going to get. The cracks are still there, but are no longer eye-catching - you need to look to see them - which is exactly what I'd. hoped for. No longer are they the first thing I notice about the floor when I walk in the room, and I can now quit worrying about the broken pieces working their way loose to leave gaps in the floor.

Progress, even - or, especially - in the small things, feels good.