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You are here: Home / Renovations / Bath Renovation / Guest Bathroom 7: DIY Hex Tile Floor

Guest Bathroom 7: DIY Hex Tile Floor

August 31, 2015 by SmartGirl 27 Comments

So… I’ve put off writing this post for such a long time because tiling my bathroom floor left a really bad taste in my mouth.  Not literally, but it definitely is not an experience I want to relive, even in writing.  That’s probably why I’ve avoided tiling the shower floor as well.  But enough procrastinating, I have lots of other happy news to share about the bathroom, so I must get past this floor tile post RIGHT NOW!

I used Hex Gloss Moss 1 in. tiles from The Tile Shop, they cost $8.99 a sheet, which is a square foot.  I paid $7.19/sf and my bathroom is 5′ x 6′.   That’s $215.70 for just tile and that does not include the shower floor, which is not covered in this post. Bathroom makeover - hexagon floor tiles with painted grout lines transition to hardwood floor

Here are the 2 take home messages from my experience using hexagon mosaic tiles on the guest bathroom floor:

  1. I will never buy tile from The Tile Shop again
  2. I will never use hex (or penny round) tile on a floor again

It won’t surprise you then, that I returned all the other tile I purchased from The Tile Shop, including another 2 cases of the green hexagon tiles I was going to use in the kids’ bathroom.

My experience at The Tile Shop

I had carefully considered all my options when choosing tile for this project.  I over research, I hemmed and hawed, I drove myself crazy.  In an effort to always find the least expensive way to do things, I had never even stepped foot in a dedicated tile shop.  In my opinion they were always more expensive.  Of course I had heard countless times that tile from Home Depot and Lowe’s were inferior to “real” tile store tiles.  I guess I believed it.  So I decided to do it “right” this time and headed out to The Tile Shop.  This bathroom is pretty small after all, and I was going to save money by doing the work myself, so I rationalized it.

The Tile Shop was running a 20% off sale that weekend and I used it as a deadline to make my decisions.  I spent over an hour looking at tile on Saturday and somehow decided it would be a good idea to buy the tile for the kids’ bathroom at the same time, even though I haven’t even started that project yet.  I went back the next day with hubby to make the final decision.  We were helped by the assistant manager who had worked with me the day before as well.  We picked out tile combinations for both rooms.  I got overwhelming approval from my Facebook followers.  I resisted the urge to cheap-out and instead purchased all the corresponding products as well: thinset, grout, even matching caulk.The Tile Shop tile selection - happy at first, but ended up taking it all back

They don’t keep much of anything in stock at The Tile Shop, so I left $1900 poorer and with nothing to show for it.  I felt physically ill.  I was convinced the chick got my order wrong.  I felt I rushed into a decision I already regretted.  Like hello, the 3 types of tile in the kids bathroom required 3 different colors of grout and I knew from the get go that was a BAD idea.  The assistant manager was pushy.  The sale they were running was a scam.  The one thing that kept me from totally wigging out was that there were signs everywhere boasting about their excellent, no hassle, no restocking fee, return policy.  Thank goodness.

I picked up the tile a week later.

What was the actual tiling process, you ask?

I had to remove the existing tile floor first

When I was tearing out the shower pan I discovered there was a second layer of tile under the existing floor.  Removing two layers of tile with a sledge hammerI could tell the underneath tile was the original because it matched the original 1982 tile in my kids’ bathroom upstairs.  No matter, both layers came out with the help of my trusty sledge hammer in about 30 minutes.  This bathroom is on a concrete slab, just like my family room, which was my previous tiling project.  Luckily the original tile was not attached directly to the concrete, instead it was laid over a bed of sand.  This made it very easy to remove.Demo tile bathroom floor - still using toiled and sink

In case you’re wondering, we left the toilet and vanity in place so we could continue using them.  Neither came out until I was ready to lay the new tile.

Then I had to make sure the concrete floor was the right height (and level)

If you know me at all, you know I am not a huge fan of self leveling compound after using it in my family room.  I actually made a YouTube video about the experience that has been viewed over 50K times.  It kills me that people leave such nasty comments on YouTube, but whatever.  Anyway, I tried self leveler again in the bathroom and was very successful.  And I made another video, yay!

There wasn’t so much a leveling issue, but a height issue going on in the bathroom.  The hexagon tiles are very thin, obviously thinner than two layers of tile and a sand base, but in my perfect world the hex tiles would be absolutely level with the hardwood floor in the hallway.  Sigh.  I also didn’t want to bother with a threshold of any type to serve as a transition piece.  I discuss this more in my post on Installing a Pocket Door.  So what’s a girl to do?  Make the floor higher.Buying LevelQuik Self-leveling concrete underlayment from Home Depot

I mixed up two batches of self-leveling underlayment from Home Depot, one bag at a time. Poured it on the concrete subfloor and did minimal spreading with a cheap plastic putty knife.Applying self-leveling concrete underlaymennt

The second batch wasn’t mixed as well as the first (dude, I get impatient) and there was a few little bumps after it dried, but I ended up sanding them down (by hand, no power sander necessary). That’s life.  It was in no way a big deal, I just tell you so you don’t freak out if you try something like this and it doesn’t go perfectly.  The darker spots in this picture show where I sanded.After the self-lever was dry I sanded a few bumps in the floor

Installing the tile wasn’t so bad… or was it?

I dry fit the tiles first.  Cutting sections of the tile mesh wasn’t difficult, scissors or a utility knife did just fine.  Dry fit the tile before installingSnipping the tiles worked better than using a tile saw, but snipping did produce a bit of waste because 1/3 of my attempts failed.  Using tile snippers to cut mosaic hex tiles into the right shapes

In the end I had the tile laid out in less than an hour.  Or 2 minutes, if you watch the video.

Hmm… This is where The Tile Shop really started letting me down. When I went to mix up the thinset, I realized I didn’t have any thinset.  I had grout, matching caulk, additives, tile, but NO THINSET.  In a panic to actually complete a project while my husband had the kids at the lake, I used the same FlexBond Thin-Set that I used in the family room.   I admit I didn’t take much time making this decision, all I knew was that the FlexBond worked perfectly on my last difficult tile job so I didn’t hesitate to use it again.Mixing FelxBond thinset mortar

Everything seemed fine, even after the thinset mortar dried.  But then the unthinkable happened…. gasp!  Tiles started to come loose!!  Oh crap.  When I tried to lightly scrape away some of the mortar from between the tiles, you know so it wouldn’t show through the grout, the tiles would just come right off.  They also popped out when I tried to clean the floor with the shop vac. Sometimes tapping the tiles with the hose made them come loose and get sucked up the vac.  It made me furious!

To fix the missing tiles, I had to scrape out the mortar left in the hole, then put down a new tile with MORE MORTAR.  Mosaic hex tiles did not want to stay in place and kept popping outOf course this led to more scraping of mortar from between tiles because it’s impossible (at least for me) to add one tile without having any mortar gush out.  Remember I wanted to make sure those suckers actually STUCK this time.  More scraping = more popping tiles = more adding tiles back one-by-one = more scraping.  You see where this is going?  I WAS SO NOT HAPPY!

Here are new tiles waiting to be set.Replacing mosaic tiles that popped out with new tiles

Grouting had to be better, right?

The actual grouting was EASY, way more so than I expected with such small tiles.  After the family went to bed, I mixed up a batch of The Tile Shop Pro Grout (in natural) with their Superior Flexible Grout Admixture. Using a cheap Home Depot grout float, I grouted the bathroom floor while talking on the phone to my friend Amy.  The application was seamless, but of course I have a few gripes.  The directions on The Tile Shop Pro Grout say to mix a small amount of grout to a small amount of admixture.  No actual numbers are given.  What???  And small batches of trial and error mixing is stupid!  You are guaranteed to get inconsistent grout colors!I did not like The Tile Shop Pro Grout in Natural

Speaking of color — I HATED the natural color.  I’m pretty sure it is not what I picked out, but who the heck knows because unlike a “regular” store I couldn’t actually pick the grout up, push it to the register and buy it.  I had to choose off a color chart, order it, hope someone enters the correct color, come back a week later and hope someone else loads the correct color into my car.  Dude, it takes the do-it-yourself right out of a project.  Apparently I need much more control over the purchasing process.

The grout looked great when it was first applied and still WET, but when it dried I hated it.  This is what it looked like wet.Loved the look while the grout was still wet, but it was way too light when it dried

Unlike the writing of this post, there wasn’t any hemming and hawing involved in deciding if I should fix this disgusting grout color, which was blotchy, too light and looked like uncolored cement. I fixed it almost immediately.  How?  I painted that shit.Painting hexagon mosaic floor tile because I hated the grout color

I’m sure the manufacturer never intended for someone to use it on ceramic tile grout lines, but they should be happy to know that it works just fine.  Polyblend GroutRenew saved my life!  Maybe not my life, but quite possibly the life of a certain Tile Shop worker.  Just kidding.  Violence is never the answer.Polyblend GroutRenew - how to change ugly grout color even on ceramic floor tileIronically, the color I used is called Natural Gray.  If you need to change your grout color or make it look new again then use Polyblend Grout Renew found at Home Depot

I plan to use Polyblend grout in natural gray when I tile the shower floor because I it was always my plan to make both the bathroom and shower floors match.  FYI – the colors on the HD website are very misleading.  I used Polyblend to grout my family room floor without any difficulties.  There are actual measurements written on the bag. Go figure.Polyblend sanded grout from Home Depot

It took about 6 episodes of SVU, which I watched on the iPad, for me to paint the grout lines.  About halfway through I perfected my method — paint it on lavishly, not worrying if it gets on the tile, wait maybe 5 minutes for it to dry a little, then wipe it off the tile.  This gives it time to sink into the grout, where it won’t wipe off.   Here’s a video showing me painting the grout lines.  A video on the whole floor process is still in the works.

You can see the original color around the vent opening, the darker color is the GroutRenew.  Added bonus: GroutRenew acts as a sealer, so no need for me to seal the grout again.Mosaic hex tile grout lines painted with Polyblend Grout in natural gray

Painting the grout lines sucked.  Don’t get me wrong.  But it’s done.  It took two evenings of watching TV and wanting to pull my hair out, but ever since then I’ve been thrilled.  I told myself the only way I would ever agree to use small tiles, with an abundance of extra grout to clean, was if I used dark grout.  That was the plan and it didn’t work out initially, but I have dark grout now and I love it!  Of course I wish the grout I purchased had been the correct color to begin with, but at least there was a way to fix it!

Had I tiled the shower floor first and made this discovery I would have been out of luck, because Polyblend GroutRenew cannot be used underwater, so I’m guess it’s a no go on a shower floor.

In the end I love the hex tile floor, but I won’t be doing it again!

Hexagon mosaic floor tile from The Tile Shop (Hex gloss moss)

I am happy with how well the transition between tile and hardwood turned out.Smooth transition between mosaic floor tile and hard wood flooring

Hexagon tile floor = labor of loveClearly I am behind in posts, here is a sneak peek of the current state of the guest bathroom.DIY hexagon tile floor - Smart Girls DIYSneak Peek of guest bathroom renovation - it's still not finished

I’ll never shop at The Tile  Shop Again

Clearly I don’t think The Tile Shop makes a superior product, and I am happy to stick with the big box stores for future tile purchases, but their customer service and professional know-how are terrible as well.

I returned all the other tile I purchased that day along with all the accompanying grouts, etc.  I had a few more bags of the natural grout that I of course returned as well.  I told the two men at the counter what a terrible experience I had trying to correct the terrible grout color.  I also told them about my woes of getting the hexagon tiles to stick to the thinset.  They asked what I used and I told them FlexBond.  Apparently, I was supposed to use a specific mosaic tile thinset mortar.  Makes sense of course, but why are you telling me now?  I ordered everything you told me I needed, yet I got no thinset at all.  Then one of them, the manager I think, checked my original order.  It shows right here that you ordered, and paid for, Pro-Flex Platinum Thinset, which is mosaic tile mortar, but you didn’t pick it up when you picked up your tile.  FOR THE LOVE OF PETE!  I was livid.  As if I had control over what they brought out on the forklift.  It had been weeks and no one at the store realized the error.  I paid for 3 bags!  So they were just going to keep my $75.  I swear The Tile Shop is the kind of store that will make me double and triple check my credit card statements to verify they actually credited my account.

As I sit here and look at 2/3 of a bag of grout that I hated, I am also pissed that the manager never offered to refund me for the opened bag.  Lesson learned.  Today I will be returning what is left of the hex tile because I wouldn’t put it in the kids’ bathroom if they offered to come install it themselves.

So ends the story of my bathroom floor.  

Check out other posts about this bathroom:

Guest room shower doors - Before

Guest Bathroom 1: Bye Bye Shower Doors

Guest Bathroom 3: Shower Demo a One-Woman Job

Guest Bathroom 4: Plumbing and Shower Fixtures

Guest Bathroom 5: Design Decisions and Cost Breakdown

Guest Bathroom 6: How to Install a Pocket Door (Johnson Hardware 1510 Series)

How to Patch a Drywall Hole – Quick Tip Tuesday

How to build a custom shower pan - get supplies, build the wall and curb

DIY Custom Shower 1: Supplies, Walls, Curb

How to build a custom shower pan - Smart Girls DIY

DIY Custom Shower 2: How to Build a Shower Pan

How to build a custom shower with schluter kerdi waterproofing system

DIY Custom Shower 3: Installing Schluter Kerdi

Guest Bathroom 8: Planked Walls

Add Personality with Decoupage

Bathroom Storage Ladder – One Board Challenge

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Filed Under: Bath Renovation, Featured, Product and Reviews, Renovations Tagged With: bathroom, flooring, tile

« Guest Bathroom 6: How to Install a Pocket Door (Johnson Hardware 1510 Series)
How to Patch a Drywall Hole – Quick Tip Tuesday »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Sharon says

    September 3, 2015 at 3:59 pm

    Well, first of all, the floor looks great. Well done! Second, you aren’t selling me on the DIY with this post. I would’ve given up and scrapped the whole thing. You are a tough cookie!

    Reply
    • SmartGirl says

      September 6, 2015 at 11:12 am

      No, you’re right, this is not a DIY project I would recommend. But I know you COULD do it if you put your mind to it. Because you’re awesome!

      Reply
  2. Kat3 says

    September 7, 2015 at 1:21 pm

    Looks good in the end, I grew up in various home/apts with that tile, but I def would not/will not choose such small tile for my or kids, bathroom redo or powder room- had small kitchen tile in last kitchen and it’s a pita to clean- I spent hours on knees cleaning/refreshing grout with toothbrush. Never again! Def bigger, bright tiles for all three redo…. Hopefully this year. But good perseverance!

    Reply
    • SmartGirl says

      September 7, 2015 at 9:23 pm

      Thanks. I’ll definitely be going bigger upstairs as well. Very happy with the 6″ x 24″ tile I used in the family room and will be using again in the kitchen. Hopefully sooner rather than later in the kitchen now that the kids are going back to school.

      Reply
  3. Karen says

    February 8, 2016 at 3:59 pm

    You are both informative and entertaining! I laughed my butt off! But I have dingy hexagon tile in my bath room. White with navy blue flowers!!! It has to go. I’m looking to paint the floor and try that Grout REnew. Wish me luck!

    Reply
    • SmartGirl says

      February 12, 2016 at 3:06 pm

      Thanks Karen! Good luck!!

      Reply
  4. TH says

    February 19, 2016 at 5:58 pm

    I too give a big thumbs up to the Polyblend Grout colorant and sealer. I used it to revive my very dirty 1/4″ grout lines on a tiled kitchen floor. Someday when I want to watch 6 episodes of SUV on my ipad, maybe I’ll try it on my basketweave bathroom floor tile.

    Prior to using the colorant, I first used Tile Lab grout & tile cleaner and sealer (also at Home Depot) which did a great job of cleaning the grout. It works well with a not too stiff brush — and better than anything else I’ve tried.

    Reply
    • SmartGirl says

      February 25, 2016 at 12:20 pm

      Lol. I have to finish grouting my shower wall tile and I haven’t found a show yet that has been enough motivation for me to get it done. One of these days!

      Reply
  5. Diane Stember Richards says

    April 29, 2016 at 5:40 pm

    You are seriously cracking me up. I love your writing style, dude. I’ve just started a blog and hope I can be as authentic as you!

    Reply
    • SmartGirl says

      May 4, 2016 at 2:35 pm

      That’s awesome Diane. Yes, feel free to email me any questions (again).

      Reply
  6. Jen T says

    June 18, 2016 at 10:27 pm

    Love the bathroom and relate to the tile rage. But I do use a great tile shop that has never messed me up, and actually carries much better products than Home Depot at good prices with no scams. I regretted ever going to Home Depot for tile. They have a much wider range of options, excellent advice and have saved my butt more than once. You need a better tile shop! Don’t give up hope 🙂
    I also look like your bottom left picture most of the time.

    Reply
  7. Kchink Flinch says

    July 20, 2016 at 8:56 pm

    I totally agree with your point about the YouTube comments. I have a YouTube channel and think a good way to look at the negative comments, is positively.
    The reason I say that, is Google will see it as someone engaging with the content of your video, which means they are interested enough to actually write a comment. That has a flow on effect of Google sending more people to watch your video and view your ads so you make more income – so you win in the end. Whether comments are positive or negative, you are winning.

    Keep up the good work,
    Kchink Flinch

    Reply
    • SmartGirl says

      July 27, 2016 at 9:39 pm

      Thanks Kchink!

      Reply
  8. beks says

    August 11, 2016 at 1:45 pm

    Looks great!
    I just bought hex tile for a tiny bathroom and will take all your advice to heart. But I would really like to talk to you about that good looking toilet, that brand is it?!

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • SmartGirl says

      August 11, 2016 at 2:01 pm

      It’s a Whitehaus and I bought it at Home Depot online. Love the look of it!!!

      Reply
      • Keleigh says

        April 2, 2017 at 9:59 pm

        It’s looks great! We did th same times:) Did you end up caulking the base of the toilet to the floor? I’ve read yes or no online but don’t want to much up the mosaic tiles if it’s not nessecary.

      • SmartGirl says

        April 16, 2017 at 4:15 pm

        Nope, never caulked it and it seems to be just fine. Thanks for stopping by!

  9. AshM says

    October 1, 2016 at 4:10 pm

    I too LOVE the tile and I think your project turned out fantastically-even if you got a few gray hairs from it! We want to use that tile in our kids’ bathroom because we like it so much but I also do NOT love The Tile Shop. Do you know if that tile can be purchased anywhere else? Thanks!

    Reply
    • SmartGirl says

      October 6, 2016 at 9:39 am

      Yes! Home Depot definitely has similar tiles, you just have to shop online.

      Reply
  10. Brian says

    December 12, 2016 at 4:05 pm

    I love the way these tiles came out! It looks perfect for a bathroom. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  11. Hildie says

    January 27, 2017 at 4:30 pm

    You’re really killing my dreams! I’m about to rip my whole master bath apart and redo the entire thing and I figured hex tile can’t be that hard. Haha, joke’s on me! Also, I haven’t ever tiled anything but I’ve done absolutely everything else DIY so I should be OK, right?

    Reply
    • SmartGirl says

      January 28, 2017 at 6:23 pm

      Lol. You will be fine. It’s just tedious so have some wine ready. And above all else make sure you space the sheets out properly otherwise you will have an extra wide grout line (zig-zag) that looks terrible. That stuff makes me crazy!! Good luck Hildie!

      Reply
  12. games says

    October 3, 2017 at 5:58 pm

    I’m extremely pleased to find this site. I wanted to thank you for your time for this particularly wonderful read!! I definitely liked every little bit of it and I have you saved to fav to see new things in your website.

    Reply
  13. Ben says

    November 11, 2017 at 12:13 pm

    I’m in the process of laying some hex tile. I really appreciate the post!
    Your transition is really nice! How did you get it so straight and square?

    Reply
  14. Travis says

    April 4, 2018 at 3:11 pm

    I know I’m late to the game here, but maybe you still get this?
    Good job persevering through some rough patches! I’m about to start my first tiling experience replacing the ground floor of a new build. The underlayment should be slab on grade, so I am anticipating needing to do some floor leveling. I’m curious why you think your SLC turned out better in the bathroom compared to your first experience in the family room? Did you do something different? I’m a little nervous about that step and interested in any “lessons learned.”

    Reply
    • SmartGirl says

      June 13, 2018 at 9:58 am

      The bathroom was easier because it was sooooo much smaller and the floor was already level, just not high enough. The family room was huge and the leveler dries quickly. Plus it only settles/levels over a small area and wasn’t really designed to do a large room like my family room. Good luck!

      Reply
  15. Lori says

    September 17, 2018 at 1:26 pm

    The Tile Shop in KOP is horrible. I gave my bathroom tile measurements to one of the employees there to quote me for the whole project and she was off…by about $2700 too high. Horrible. I wound up getting my tiles at Floor & Decor and also The Builder Depot.com. Would NEVER recommend The Tile Shop.

    Reply

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