Mistakes

OK, I did a lot of house repairs in my day but I must be getting rusty. We picked out floor tiles at Home Depot for the trailer. They were the type that you just peel off the backer and stick on the floor. I read the info on the box and it recommended that to get the best adhesion, the plywood should be sealed first. So back I go and I picked up some Thompson Deck sealer and treated all the floors in the camper. I snapped a line down the bathroom and kitchen to keep the tiles in line and started lay them. But after doing a few I realized that they weren't sticking at all. Puzzled I read the label on the deck sealer and found out it was silicon based. I had just made all the floors a non-stick fry pan. Well, just roll with the punches, and back to home depot and pick up some tile adhesive and tools to apply. I've used this stuff 10 or 20 years ago so I remembered how to do it. I smeared on a nice coating and set the tiles into it. I did the bathroom and thought I should wait before doing the kitchen just to make sure the adhesive held. After an hour or so I checked them by walking into the bathroom and the tiles slide around like they were on ice and the white adhesive squeezed up around the edges. I then read the directions on the adhesive and discovered that the adhesive had to be completely air dried before the tiles were applied to it. Not to be stymied, I pulled the bathroom tiles up and started the air cure of the adhesive under it. It was getting late by now (4 PM) so I applied adhesive to the rest of the kitchen so it could start curing. Now I figured if I coated the floor how would I get back in to stick the tiles down. The solution - coat myself into a corner right next to the bathroom and when it dries I can lay tiles and work my way out. I thought ahead and brought a glass of wine and some snacks so I would have something to do while I waited. Everything went as planned till I knocked over the glass of wine and had to walk back over the wet floor to get something to wipe it up out of the adhesive. So after that fix and waiting an hour and not seeing anything getting very dry, I walked across it again and got a heater to speed the process up. By now Polly has closed herself into the bedroom because it was getting cold outside and she couldn't stand the smell of the adhesive. By 8 PM it still wasn't dry and the temperature outside was down to freezing. I couldn't turn the gas furnish on since that would bring the adhesive fumes into the bedroom. In the bedroom Polly had donned two layers of cloths, two quilts and the cat and was still freezing. At 10:30 I gave up, set my alarm clock for 4 AM and went to bed to add my warmth. It was dry and I laid the tiles in it. My blurry eyes missed the snapped line mark and I had to recut all the tiles at the edges that I had down the night before.

What an ordeal but it came out OK.

Polly still says she isn't feeling well and the freezing temperatures last night required her to lay out in the sun all day and heat back up.