Tile be back

[j4]

There have been loose tiles around the bath for months. I've fixed a couple; not too hard, apart from sticking a screwdriver in my hand while trying to use it to scrape old tile-glue off the back of a tile.

This time six tiles in a row were coming loose. I thought it would be a simple matter of letting the tiles fall off gracefully, scraping off the old sticky, applying some new sticky, and repositioning the tiles. Same as last time but a bit more comprehensive (and hopefully without sticking screwdrivers in my hands -- never let it be said that I don't learn from my stupid mistakes).

All seemed to be going fine until the last tile in the row, behind which lurked Screaming Horrors. I mean, seriously, what on earth is going on behind that last tile? There's a sort of open box (the white bit) at the back of the space; the two dark struts appear to be made of wood, and when poked slightly with a screwdriver the left one wobbles like a loose tooth. Why would you have that behind some bathroom tiles? Is our house actually made of bits of cardboard held together with duct tape?

Should I hide something interesting in there so that the next person who does this gets a more pleasant surprise?

[ETA: don't know why the flickr tags link isn't working for anybody except me, but this should give the idea...]

Comments

[keirf.livejournal.com]

Perhaps there was one of those indented soap dish tiles, which was replaced with a normal tile when the bathroom was retiled. And they didn't have cement to fill it with, so they just grabbed some spare bits of wood to prop up the tile while the grout set.

Put in a note and a twenty pence coin before retiling, is my suggestion.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Good idea. :-)

Is it okay to just stick it back on, though? I mean, the wood is kind of looking a bit mouldy. Should I find some new bits of wood?

I mean, I strongly suspect it'd be okay, but part of me thinks "no! don't botch! do it properly!" :-}