INDOOR REMODELING 490 FURNITURE MAKING AND CABINET WORK Bathroom Walls. In modernizing a bathroom, a common question is what to do about the walls. If the old wall is ceramic tile, no treatment may be necessary. On the other hand, many old ceramic walls are unattractive either because the tile was unattractive in the first place or because it has deteriorated in one way or another. One form of deterioration, graying of the mortar between the tiles, can be fixed. If a brisk brushing with water and a laundry detergent does not correct the dirty appearance, the stained mortar can be dug out of the cracks to a depth of about % inch, then replaced with a grout made of white portland cement, mixed with water to form a thin paste. The crack should be thoroughly cleaned of loose mortar and dust, then wet with water before the grout is put in. The grout should be moderately stiff when applied and the joints should be filled full. After the joints are all filled and before the grout has hardened much, the walls should be sponged carefully with water to remove grout stains from the face of the tile and to wash a little of the grout out of the joints, thus depressing them slightly. There is no satisfactory way to refurbish a ceramic tile wall in which the color is bad or in which the glazing of the tiles has deteriorated. Nor can such a wall be satisfactorily painted. Since most ceramic tile walls are backed by a layer of concrete mortar placed on a wire mesh, removal is difficult. A more practical scheme is to cover the wall with one of the thin, laminated plastic materials manufactured for counter and wall finishing. The material should be applied in sheet form and held in place with clips or metal channels which can be attached to the tile wall with screws. Holes for screws can be made in a ceramic tile wall by using a carborundum tipped drill and the screws can be held in the wall by small masonry anchors obtainable in most hardware stores. Thin metal moldings (Figure 9.28) are used to finish the edges of the panels where they meet the door and window trim. Plaster walls in bathrooms can be renovated with paint or wallpaper, as in other rooms of the house; but in bathroom modernizing they are usually covered, or at least partly covered, with materials which are more impervious to water and easier to keep sparkling clean, such materials as tileboard, ceramic tile, metal tile and plastic tile. Tileboard is a hard wallboard, made of compressed wood or other fiber, with a hard, glossy surface, and marked, or scored, in rectangles to resemble tile. To heighten the illusion, there are simulated mortar lines between the rectangles. Tileboard is available in a range of colors. It is an easy material to work and is less expensive than some of the other materials, but less durable. Ceramic tile is a very durable and costly wall material. Setting it in mortar in the traditional way requires both patience and skill.