Even if you haven’t completed your floor tiling project and are only halfway through laying your floor tiles in mortar, there is one important task you should undertake at the end of a day’s work. This is simply just to clean your tools. If they are all free of mortar which has a tendency to dry in and stick to your tools, then you will find that they will last longer, and the next time you come to use them they will be free of any troublesome and annoying deformities.
To make this job of cleaning even easier at the end of the day, simply have a basin or bucket of water at hand in which you can soak your tools in during floor tile installation when they are not in use. Be careful though how you soak them though, as tools with wooden, rubber, or foam handles can be more susceptible to water than plastic. Excessive soaking can cause wood to rot and split in due course, whereas rubber and foam can sometimes tend to perish through prolonged soaking.
At the day’s end though, first thing would be to scrape off any excess mortar and mud from your hand tools into your mixing bucket using your 6-in-1 tool or a similar scraper. Once the big clumps have been removed, then scrub your tools down in water with a simple, cheap, hard bristle scrubbing brush that you could find in any dollar store for next to nothing. Dry them off with an old rag to prevent rust corrosion, and that’s them all set for another day’s work.
If you are using a mixing paddle with a drill for mixing mortar, it is advisable to continuously soak this between uses, as there are a lot of awkward grooves in these which can be really difficult to clean. Be sure to give it a good scrub though once you are done with it, as if mortar congeals in those grooves, it will ultimately affect the overall mixing qualities and balance of the paddle.
Once your tools are all clean, then concentrate on you mixing buckets. These can collect mortar just as well as any tool, so scrape out all the excess mud and chunks onto a piece of cardboard and dispose of it in the trash once dried, giving it a good scrub out in the process right into the edges.
Another item you can find reusable is an actual floor tile. If for whatever reason you lay down a tile in mortar and find that you had to remove it, maybe because it was of the incorrect size, then no need to throw it away. You may find that this tile or piece might come in useful at another stage in your tiling project, and it is just as easy to clean as your tools are. With water and your scrubbing brush or an old rag, these can be simply wiped back down to factory finish, topside and underside, ready for reuse.
One final point though, take your time in cleaning, without too much haste. Tools and cut tiles can have sharp edges, and brisk scrubbing can lead to unwanted injuries. Basically though, look after your tools, and they will look after you for a long time to come, as the last thing you want to be doing is throwing them out at an early stage through a simple case of neglect.
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