I watched countless videos after deciding I wanted to install my own subway tile backsplash and I was ecstatic when I saw JB had created a video as he's one of my "go-to" YT creators. If you're watching because you're thinking of tackling this project, know this is one of the most realistic tutorials out there. You will experience all the same hiccups that JB had to work through and then some. Your project will easily take 10 times longer than you think it will, it will be surprisingly exhausting and it will be a VERY messy job. Just because something is simple, doesn't mean it is easy and this is a perfect example. My backsplash turned out great! (I still have to grout) There are at least three significant mistakes that only I know about so I am content. I wanted professional results with first-timer experience and I knew that was unrealistic going in. However, I based my expectations on the outcome of previous first-time DIY projects like LVP-ing my entire house so I understood my capabilities. All this is to say, take your time, be confident in your abilities and fill your head with as much info as you can going in. You've got this!

Pro Tip! - A little distilled white vinegar on a sponge will remove tile haze. Dilute it with a little warm water.

Hey there so I was a flooring specialist for awhile in my career with Home Depot and I did demos on backsplash installations and one product that was phenomenal was called simple mat. It's a double sided adhesive mat specifically for backsplash and has an extremely tough hold. And turns a backsplash job into a one day project. Little more spendy but saves a ton of time. But you have to grout the same day otherwise too much air gets to the adhesive and dries it out. Kitchen looks great thanks for the video.

Good thing you do voice over in post... your frustration was pretty evident at times, and I can totally relate. The kitchen looks stellar my man. Well done.

To avoid the squeeze out, set the tile directly on top of the other tile and "slide" into its space away from the adjacent tile. This "smears" the adhesive / mortar in the opposite direction of the grout line. Hope that makes sense

i always use painters tape when i caulk, makes a nice line on the tile and counter top when you peel it off.

I've been researching a lot and mastic should only be used for porcelain or ceramic tile in non wet area. The mastic is pretty much like a glue. You shouldn't use it on glass because it turns yellow and can be seen through the translucent glass tiles. Mapei has the type 1 adhesive mastic, but for glass tiles they have a bag specially for glass tiles you have to mix.

I so prefer videos like this that walk you through trouble shooting and hiccups along the way! Thank you for taking us along the processes in a concise and easy to follow instructional video!!! It looks great!

Key to perfect caulk joints...don’t apply too much, in both bead size and bead length. Get a solo cup with water, and a roll of paper towels. Then after laying it down, use a wet index finger with light pressure. Keep wiping off your finger and re wetting it. Makes it perfect every time. If you are getting ugly joints, use less caulk and use less pressure from finger. Works great for me for several decades now. An old timer at Home Depot taught me that, 😂.

I also have also only done one tile job but when I was doing that I found that when using the tile trowel with the forked edge to spread the adhesive or quick set you want to make sure to spread it hard enough to get lines of adhesive and line with no adhesive otherwise the bed of adhesive is too thick and you will get squeeze out when you set the tile if that makes sense and to make sure you don’t have a line of adhesive right up in between the tiles. Hope you can visualize that. Kitchen looks great

The mastic pre-mixed adhesive you used is NOT recommended for glass tile. Since glass is not porous, the mastic on the edges of the tile can dry and seal in undried mastic underneath the tile. The trapped moisture can lead to bonding issues and molding. Literally any glass tile manufacturer will tell you not to use mastic, and the Mapei label also says not to use it on glass tile!

if your ever boiling water for a long time like home canning. that duct inside your cabinet can get really hot . like melt that plug cord you have sitting right on it! melt the sheathing and short the plug. insulate that duct in the first cabinet! and staple the plug to the wall to get it as much away from the duct as you can

“Persuade it into place” lol, sounds like everyone of my projects. Awesome video.

Easy tip for Schluter sizes is to look at the sku: A125 = 1/2” A100 = 3/8” (most common thickness of tile) A80 = 5/16” A60 = 1/4” For small tiles like this 3x6 subway or most backsplash mosaics you can just match the thickness of the tile to your schluter. Larger format tile you’ll want to go a wee bit thicker on the trim as you’ll be using thicker layers of thinset to adhere your tile.

Nice. A very clean look. Not busy, very easy on the eyes, bright to see what you are doing. Have been in the electrical trade for almost 40 years, but have dabbled in other types ot construction. When i tiled my house, had a friend who did tile heiped me alot. Won of the things he taugt me that when you put your grout in, make sure it is filling the space, no fan on, don't do to much at a time. When you go over it with your sponge to recess n smooth the grout, take aclean sponge, clean water, 5 gal bucket, pull your spongeto clean, turn it over to other side, do the same, then clean sponge in your bucket. Use your sponge twice, rinse, ring out, repeate. In the end, that haze is very light. Grout is hard, fresh water all the time, wipe down with sponge n a clean white towl to dry. Your kithen came out very nice.

You can use the painter's tape as a mask for the caulking bead. The trick is pulling the tape sooner than later so it doesn't "rip" the caulking.

Butt the tiles together tile to tile and then shift them to adjust your grout lines. This will help avoid some of the squeeze out but it's hard with large pre-made tile sections

Wet sponge and plastic razor blade worked well for me on the squeeze out. Was able to scrape the tile without out damaging

Enjoyed the videos on your kitchen remodel. You did a wonderful job and it is beautiful. You would never know you hadn't tiled before if you hadn't told us. Y'all stay well and God bless.

Don't press small tiles to the wall with your hands, but use a grout float. If you use a float you won't press too hard and there won't be so much squeeze-out. You'll also align all the tiles into one plane.

As I have said before in previous videos, you make everything seem so simple. Good job.

I have found that if your getting that much squeeze out that the glue was put on heavy. Keep going over it with the trowel until you basically come away with no glue. And the trowel should be held at about a 45 degree angle. Great job kitchen looks awesome

Great job! The tile is amazing! I am just watching plenty of videos and trying to build up courage to attempt it myself. I also need a range fan but that is just way too much for me. I bet it keeps the kitchen so much cleaner though.

I did a project for a friend where I had a similar run of duct through some cabinets. I made some false face panels to cover the cavities where the duct passed through... Turned out pretty nice, and hid the duct when the cabinet was open. Kitchen looks great, man!

wow..i was here to watch the tiles installed ended up watching the whole thing..you got a great voice and well done!!

Which trowel did you use? I use a 3/16th V shape will help you avoid the squeeze out vs using a 1/4 inch U trowel. As well as the tip to put the tile on and slide it up into position.

10:05 Another trick thats helped me was to use painters tape to cover the parts of the tile/countertop that you don't want caulk on prior to using a caulk tool.

Pro tip- install the venting for the stove vent in between the ceiling floor joists so they don't use up cabinet space. I have the same kitchen configuration.

I like to run my fingers along the borders of the tile to take some of the adhesive out. It won’t get all of the squeeze out but it’ll minimize the clean up. Also after laying tile I like to run the painters tool between the tile to free up more adhesive and follow it up with a shop vac. It’s a tedious same day job but the effort pays off in the finish process.

Everything came together nicely, and as much as my wife would complain about the bluetooth range and hood I LOVE THAT FEATURE. Good call on the grout color that really took the blackspash up a notch.

Tips on excess adhesive and mosaic fabric backed tile...you hit it, you have to clean out as much of the squeeze out from the gaps asap. Way too much effort to scrape it out after it dries, and if you don't you can't properly grout it after. That being said, why for the love of God are you using that for an even subway tile? Laying subway tile is so incredible easy, you don't need it on the fabric backer. And I found it is really easy to butter the wall in a small section very thinly, then back butter every individual tile with a notched trowel and stick it on...less mess, easier to position and accommodate imperfections in the wall. I just did my kitchen backsplash last November in porcelain subway tile and a glass mosaic insert. Also, about using the fabric backed tile sheets is yes you still have to use spacers between each and every single tile on that sheet or else the grout lines will be askew and off. That's why I prefer subway tile with a smaller grout spacing, and it's just as easy to use individual subway tiles not on a mesh backer, including cutting them with YES a snap cutter, which makes much cleaner cuts. My last point is that rather than using a Schluter edge, which is very 1970s, use bull nose tiles. Grout: always get matching caulk and grout together, as the colors change month to month it seems. Cleaning the grout I don't wait so long. Go in smaller sections and use the two bucket method for cleaning and dampening your sponge. The faster you clean the less haze to deal with. Also it's very common to find pinholes when sponging the grout, and now is the time to fix that before the grout dries. And with the caulking...a wet finger has always worked perfectly for me, no tool required.

My toxic trait is thinking I could do this, LOL. Looks absolutely incredible!!!!!

I am about to install mosaic subway tile for the first time and learned so much from this. Thank you! I'm a little less intimidated.

keeps talking about all the imperfections while making it amazing

I too have a microwave (installed by my friend) that was never vented. This was very helpful. Thanks.

Really thorough and helpful video. Thanks for sharing!

I use a thin flat head screw driver between the tile to scrape out excessive adhesive as I go. It's fast and easy.

when cutting glass on a tile saw: if you score the glass a little bit more than 3/4 way through then snap it, works very well. there are many different tricks that you may learn down the road. looks pretty good though

My best solution to reduce squeeze out. Lay the tiles flat on a cardboard or somthing flat. Fill the joints with grout (idk if it’s right) and then stick them to your wall. It’s all over flat and minimize the squeeze out (wet sponge and go) Greetings from Germany ✌🏼

I've tiled my whole house and I tend to think about placements way too much; you did great!! WE always will see any imperfections... no one else but a tiler will notice 😊. Glass tile..LOVE IT but now i see it's a bit daunting. High contrast tile/grout colors? that's gutsy 🤣 good job.

My parents had their hood over the range installed the same way. The air vent running inside the cupboard took some usable space and looks so ugly every time you open up the cupboard. Their downstairs neighbor did their kitchen differently by running the pipes above the cupboard and added wood panels and crown molding to conceal the pipes. The result was much better. Since you have so much space above and you are quite handy with your tools, I would suggest to build additional top cupboards with glass door s and light to hide the pipes, add crown molding. Stain or repaint your cabinetry the same color so the top part would blend in. The end result will be a much-upscaled kitchen.

Thank you, nice job.

I literally look forward to theses videos

Yes I'm watching because I just did behind the new butcher block countertop and range upgrade. And didn't take my time with the tile work because I don't know what I'm doing. The kitchen sink wall is next 🤞

Don't know if you have seen HomerenovisionDIY channel. Very informative on those things like tiling etc. Kitchen looks stunning and seems to have more space.

Doing a good job, I’m a professional tile installer and own my own business. Little trick for the squeeze out we do for Mosics is trowel it out then come back over it very lightly knocking down the ridges with the flat side of the trowel making sure not to actually remove the thinset. Again awesome job and you are always very good at explaining your process! Keep up the awesome work!

I use a smaller v knotch towel, for minimal mess, from smearing.

Kitchen looks great. I used a product called “SimpleMat”. It makes the first step virtually mess free. You don’t need to use any bagged or premixed mastic or mortar. I’ve done 3-4 backsplashes and will not go back to the mess of mastic.

I wonder what it would look like if you recessed some lights under the floating shelf for counter light there. Seems like such a big slice without and their so nice to have.

I think it looks great I’ll be starting my backsplash today

You can knock down the ridges in the thinset with your trow. It will help prevent squeeze out between your tiles. Just make sure you push your tiles in with a rubber float. Always pull off you first couple of sheets and check for good adhesion.

It was super satisfying watching the kitchen come together over these last few videos. I can't wait to see the next project you tackle!

Don’t use mastic under glass tile. It never dries because glass isn’t porous.

Tips to avoid "squeeze out." 1) Use an old toothbrush. Don't use the QEP/Marshalltown stiff brushes you find at Home Depot/Lowes. The stiff bristles will move tiles easily. An old soft toothbrush works best. 2) Really clean & uniform trowel lines. Look for big globs, chunks and do your best to go over them with a trowel to make it uniform. Pay special care against grout joints. 3) After a sheet/row of tile is installed, lay the next row of tile onto the existing tile and then roll it onto the thinset. (Hard to explain) If you place the tile directly onto the thinset, and then you have to move it closer to the previous tile row, you'll push the thinset up into the grout joint. So you want to place the new tile tight to the existing tile and then create the spacer joint. 4) Mosaic sheets rarely hold up after you cut them. They become very floppy. I hate them. 5) Cut the sponge up into smaller pieces to manipulate around joints. 6) Go back over grout joints with bad "squeeze out" after the tile has set up for a bit. Pull the spacer (tile won't move), scrape out excess with utility knife, then clean with toothbrush/small sponge, and then reinstall spacer. Don't beat yourself up. It looks good. The cleaner you are the easier it is in the future. We just installed two tile floors today (we do this for a living) and still had to scrape thinset out of grout joints.

My wife and I have also talked about a subway tile back splash, so thanks for the inspiration. Also, I used that same exterior vent when I installed my garage system to extract cigar smoke, and I love how solid it is. Well done!

Good job, it looks awesome. Thanks for the tips.

great video. Helpful hint to making your backsplash stand out even more. tile above the shelves as well, as that area looks sparse compared to the rest of the wall in your kitchen :)

Hey man you could’ve added spacers in between each sheet to lift them a little more and as far as the mortar seeping through just add less the glass sheets don’t need much I would’ve recommended have the tile reach the end off the wall to make it look a little more sleek

Wow the final result is pretty nice

The angle you holed the trawol will stop the squeeze out your and or not using the right tooth size for that tile

Good video if the grout lines bother you just take a diamond blade and cut a bit of tile and re groute it. Also would have looked super awesome to tile behind all your shelving. More work of course lol. But looks like you did a good job

It looks super!!! You did well!!!

This video has been out for a min, but just wanted to let you know that your Caulk and Grout links in the description both go to the Grout. Good video, about to start on my first backsplash tiling project too! Can't get enough research in! lol

With my experience, I would never attempt such a project but you made it look doable as well as beautiful. I do have a question though. I noticed in the final filming shots that the counter did not have any edge covering. Why did you go this route? I really enjoyed this series and feel that I even learned a few things. God Bless my friend.

Called it on the subway tile! Looks great!

Well done

Loved this reno. Great job man. Always enjoy a video showing mistakes as well.

Great work. Maybe add a cover to the cabinets so the vent isn't seen?

Great job. I followed your style but used an $89 wet saw. Thanks for the tips.

Very good job!!! Thanks for sharing!

This is dope, dude. Tile work can be intimidating

Nice job on the tiles Johnny, the kitchen looks awesome! 😃👌🏻👍🏻👊🏻

Your kitchen came out really nice Bud👍

What saw blade is that on the Dewalt for the edging.

Nice job Johnny, turned out great!

Great Job! Are you in NY state

Did you by any chance get any tools/materials from lowes?

I think it turned out great! Nice work✌🏻!

To avoid the squeeze out is don't put to much mastic on the walls especially with mosaic tiles.

What kind of grout did you use sanded or unsanded?

Great video my friend ! I need to do a backsplash that's going to be 2 foot high by 6 foot long. My question is, can I use that double sided sticky membrane instead of thin set or adhesive ?? I'm also opened to using small tiles that come in a sheet or subway type tiles. Thank you in advance for your answer.

If you are using the trowel properly there should be almost no squeeze out. You need to press hard enough to completely form the lines. There should only be lines, no piles of adhesive!

Hey Johnny, just got around to watching this video. Fantastic work on the entire kitchen!!!! There's a youtuber who does contract work and I've found that his videos are very educational on how to do tile as well as many other things. His channel is Winni Designs LLC.

Cool color i. Is that white or a light green ? What os the spacer size ?

just a question, wouldnt it have been better to remove those wood panels first on top of the tile before applying tilework?

What is that countertop? I see wood edge but black top??

when i tile i use a flat head screwdriver to clean out the grout

I think you did a great job.

What size spacers are generally used for backsplash 1/16th or 1/8th in the kitchen. Thanks Mate...

Great work !!!

I love it all, super beautiful. Well done !

Nice work johnny hope your staying safe in these tough times and keep up the great content

Awesome build!

Is the tile spacer 1/16 or 3/16?

Turn out great

what did you do about the little gap between the cabinet and the top tiles?

Johnny, Kitchen came out Stupid Dope Fresh Bud!! Maybe to satisfy all the freakin critics below possibly rename video "How I Install Subway Tile". Maybe just maybe then they'll sleep better at night🤦‍♂️😂. A few small tips for next time. Use the shorter end of the trowel. Also I always tape off my outlets too. A little mastic goes a long way. It's not a wet area & those tiles are lite as can be. This will reduce the squeeze out in the joints. This is just my 2 cents but if you had ran the tile to the ceiling behind the floating shelves that would of been one more Fantastic feature. But, again Kitchen is great, great video as always, Hoping all is well & Dirty Jersey out!!

I just installed my countertops without the built-in backsplash, I am also installed Subway tile. Do I need to caulk where the countertop meets the wall first or will that be handled when I install the 3x6 tiles?

Nice job!! Kinda hard to tell but did you use a Schluter strip Along the entire bottom of all the cabinets and around the Range hood I can’t quite tell

Turned out great!!!