Tiling our Backsplash: Part 2

We're done! We finished the backsplash this weekend. It was another busy day on Saturday getting everything done, but it was so worth it! Here's where we left off last weekend.

The first step was sealing the marble. We chose 511 Impregnator Sealer by Miracle Sealants from Home Depot. It was really simple to apply, you simply wipe it on with a rag, wait 3-5 minutes, then wipe/buff it off with a clean cotton rag. In the second picture, you can see that the stone is a little shiny from the sealer before we wiped it off. 

I sealed the marble 2 days before we wanted to grout to make sure it would have plenty of time to dry.  We picked our grout supplies from The Tile Shop because they had the best selection of grout and caulk colors available.  Here are the supplies we used for the grouting step.

We chose a light gray colored (Whisper Gray) unsanded grout. This unsanded grout is important for marble so that you don't scratch your tile with other typical cement like grout.  Their grout system is pretty easy, all you do is add the amount of grount powder you want to a bucket and mix in the appropriate amount of flexible grout admixture and stir. You need to wait a couple minutes to use it, but we used that time to make sure we had all of the bubbles and pockets of powder completely mixed. We chose a slightly thick consistency, it almost looked like batter, for using on the walls. 

Once your grout is mixed, spread it onto the wall using a grout float at a 45 degree angle. When we first started grouting, I was trying really hard not to drip any grout anywhere and keep it very clean, but it doesn't matter. You can see by the end, it's fine to make a mess with the grout. All that matters is that you get all of the joints full of grout. You will be wiping down everything, including the countertops, very soon after, so don't worry about drips!

The next step is to use a wet sponge to clean off the tile and granite countertops. While I was doing the grouting, Kevin worked behind me to clean the tile with the sponges.  He waited a couple of minutes for the grout to set up within the joints, but before it was very hard on the surface of the tiles.  Keep wiping until all of the grout and haze is gone from the tile. Make sure to clean your sponge often! After that is done, you are almost done! 

So, next we waited for it to dry overnight and caulked around the edges, like the bottom where the tile meets the countertop and the top where it meets the cabinets. The caulk takes a little while to dry as well, but soon after, you're almost ready to use! The only thing left to do is seal everything again, you want to make sure that the grout gets sealed, so that you won't have any stains or moisture issues! That needs to wait at least 2-3 days after grouting, so we'll do that sometime this week! Here are some pictures I took last night of the almost-finished project, I'll update with some better ones later!