DIY Tile Repair with Gorilla Glue Mounting Tape

Murphy’s Law is real. I should have become a professor, and my dissertation would be proving the existence of Murphy’s Law. Because I could have proven that this PITA law of the universe catches up with me almost daily. I would have become tenured in a heartbeat.

Latest case in point that Murphy and his darn law exist? Our master bathroom tiling project.

This renovation has taken us months. And months on top of months. We finally got to the point where it was time to mount the showerheads and get the opportunity to shower in our own bathroom for the first time in 2018 and guess what we discover?

We put the little escutcheon plate over the gooseneck pipe flange, and GUESS WHAT? Flipping Murphy’s Law, THAT’S what.

Check out our mistake. We thought we had covered enough area around the pipe with tile that the little escutcheon plate (fancy for that little circular cover plate thingy) would cover all of the area around the hole for the piping. Reality? Nope.

Soooo, we had a little problem on our hands. We cut a small piece of tile to fit in the space. But we didn’t want to have to mix up a big batch of thinset for one teensy tiny little tile screw-up. Instead, we opted for a different solution.

Clear Double-Sided Mounting Tape

Gorilla Glue makes a product called Clear Double-Sided Mounting Tape. This stuff is weatherproof, so it’s good for both interior and exterior projects.

Gorilla Glue’s Mounting Tape permanently bonds to a bunch of different materials including plastic, metal, wood, glass, brick, ceramic, stone, and even more. They like to call it an “all surface, all-purpose” industrial-strength adhesive product.

We figured we’d give it a try, and worst-case scenario, it wouldn’t work, and we’d suck it up and mix up the thinset.

How to use Mounting Tape to Repair a Tiling Mishap

1. Prep area.

Before using Gorilla Glue Mounting Tape, the area you’ll be using it in needs to be clean and free of dust and debris.

In our case, we were adhering the mounting tape to the back of a piece of our marble bathroom tile, and to the shower cement backer board.

We vacuumed inside the space where we’d be placing the tile and gave the tile and backer board both a quick wipe down.

2. Apply Mounting Tape (to the marble tile, in our scenario). 

We were using the mounting tape on a very small item. If you’re planning to adhere it to something larger, Gorilla Glue recommends using 4″ of mounting tape per pound of weight.

Our item was only about 1″ x .5″, so we didn’t need hardly any of the mounting tape for our task.

Apply the mounting tape to the back of the item. Without handling the sticky part of the tape, use scissors to cut the mounting tape to size.

With the mounting tape cut to size, it’s time to remove the clear liner…

3. Adhere item to the desired surface (in our case, cement backer board).

and adhere your item to the desired surface.

*Because we needed the piece of tile to sit flush to the adjacent tiles, we stacked two pieces of the tape on top of each other to get the tile to sit at the proper depth. This wasn’t something recommended or discussed as being an option in the instructions, but it worked well for us.

Press and hold the object against the mounting surface to create a permanent bond. It held immediately. In the product directions, it says it bonds in 30 seconds.

Note: the surface you’re adhering to must be flat for the mounting tape to create a strong bond.

After adhering the tile to the backer board, and making sure the tile was sitting at the proper depth, it was time for grout. We mixed a small batch and grouted in our little sliver of tile, just like we grouted the rest of the tile. After allowing it to cure, we tried out the escutcheon plate again, and…

Ta-da! Tile repair project is complete! The tile is holding strong, and it looks like we never made a mistake.

This fix was SO quick and easy! I’m so glad I got familiar with this product. I know it’s one we’ll find all kinds of uses for both inside, and out.

Tomorrow I’m sure we’ll have another Murphy’s Law issue to deal with, but for now, I’ll enjoy my shower and our perfect (wink, wink) tile job.

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