After a number of rough New England winters, the mosaic pathway at the Aggassiz preschool in Somerville was beginning to come apart. This weekend was beautiful, crisp, and mostly clear, which made it perfect for repairing the damage. We started by pulling up all of the loose tile and cement, then sweeping away any sand and debris that had accumulated. We cemented some key design elements in place, using the same materials that had held up well over the past 4 years. Unfortunately we found the next day that some of them hadn’t stuck because there was still loose sand on the path. After another scrub the cement was clean enough to take new thinset. We filled in the rest of the empty spaces, adding some colorful glass tiles to make the design cheerful and reminiscent of what the preschoolers had originally designed. We let it cure overnight and then grouted the new areas. Thankfully the original grout was variegated, so the new grout colors shouldn’t take away from the overall look of the design.
