let's say I wanted to put down some floor tiles (ceramic) on the floor in the upstairs bathroom.
the floor itself is wooden floorboards nailed to joists and it is covered by nailed down 4 mm (?) hardboard to even the surface coz at the mo'
there are carpet tiles on top.
will this be ok for putting tiles on top? (after remiving the carptet tiles ofcourse)
i.e. will be firm enough to stop the ceramic tiles from cracking and also stop the grout between cracking as I suspect not having a solid floor will
mean there will be movement between the tiles.
Same as mine...I used flexible adhesive and grout, also waterproof. Been down 5 years no craks even thought I have electric underfloor heating element
under the tiles. Not sure if my board was thicker than 4mm. may have been more like 12mm.
Paul
is it 4mm ply? the recommended surface for floor layer to fit to is 6mm ply,but 4mm should be fine as long as there is loads of nails in it.eg every 4 inches
quote:
Originally posted by daniel mason
is it 4mm ply? the recommended surface for floor layer to fit to is 6mm ply,but 4mm should be fine as long as there is loads of nails in it.eg every 4 inches
for bathrooms use wbp ply only 9mm and shank nails then unibond woodon floor adhesive i pva the floor first 1-10 .
you must use shank nails.
------------------------------------
as chris says regarding the ply. well screwed down every 6".
the 2 part flexible adhesive chris mentions is the best and what i use. it is very expensive though. you can get single part flexible that mixes with
water but i've never used it on a wooden floor.
use a proper flexible grout as well rather than putting an additive in normal grout.
[Edited on 9/1/09 by bigfoot4616]
ok - cheers for that.
so I need to makethe floor firmer by using thicker board - what do people do about the step fromm the landing to the bathroom?
+8 mm for the board plus about 6 mm for the tiles?
Top Tip!!
Fill a glass of water as full as it can without spilling (so it's slightly domed and it's only surface tension holding it) in the middle of
the floor. Now walk around it normally. If it runs down the side of the glass, your floor isn't solid enough.
I replaced my boards with 21mm exterior ply, put stringers underneath the joins and used 3 inch decking screws in predrilled holes every 4 inches. A
tradesman would use less but a tradesman doesn't have to live in your house!
Oh and the other advantage of this method is there's no step - the tiles are at the same level as the carpet.
[Edited on 9/1/09 by jlparsons]
quote:
Originally posted by thunderace
then unibond woodon floor adhesive i pva the floor first 1-10 .
Oh, and another top tip - flexible tile adhesive aditive is just waterproof pva with an extra zero on the price tag.
quote:
Originally posted by jlparsons
flexible tile adhesive aditive is just waterproof pva with an extra zero on the price tag.
quote:
Originally posted by bigfoot4616
quote:
Originally posted by thunderace
then unibond woodon floor adhesive i pva the floor first 1-10 .
you should never use pva before tiling, use a proper primer instead. pva dries leaving a thin layer on the surface so that is all your tiles end up stuck to.
quote:
Originally posted by jlparsons
Unibond specify PVA primer but they state it must be 1:10 dilute and you must never let it dry before you put the adhesive down, otherwise the effect would weaken rther than strengthen the bond.
My old man was a tiler for 30 years or so and this is how he always did bathroom floors and is how I did mine with no probs.
Make sure you know where all your pipes run and then nail the floor down good. Then lay down a layer of expanded mesh and nail that down (if you can
do this without cutting yourself you deserve a medal!!). Then cover it with a screed of rapid set tile adhesive mixed with about 1/5th PVA so that it
almost covers the mesh. You still need to be able to just see it. Then tile on to that.
Sorry to hijjack the thread, but we are about to get our new en-suite in the attic conversion tiled and I'm doing the prep at the minute!
The floor is newly laid 22mm moisture resistant chipboard screwed every 250mm to new joists that are 400mm apart. Do I still need to put down another
layer of ply on top?
The walls are new bare plasterboard at the moment. SWIMBO has her heart set on Travertine for the walls and floors, but I've read on the
internet that the weight limit for bare plasterboard is less than the weight of the travertine and adhesive / grout, and that I should have fitted
tile backer board instead?
Cheers
Mike
We've got travertine in our new bathroom (walls and floors) for the same reason. Bathroom fitter got through 2 diamond wheels in the cutter and
spent hours swearing about how hard to cut it was, but he did a very good job in the end.
He just glued it on to whatever wall was already there, but I didn't actually take any notice of what the original wall was made from. He put
ply down on the floorboards, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't 18mm. We'll have to see how it holds up.
quote:
Originally posted by bigfoot4616
quote:
Originally posted by jlparsons
Unibond specify PVA primer but they state it must be 1:10 dilute and you must never let it dry before you put the adhesive down, otherwise the effect would weaken rther than strengthen the bond.
never used any unibond tiling products. sounds a bit of a pain if you carnt let it dry, especially if your doing large areas
ideal for bathrooms is to remove the floorboards and replace with moisture resistant chipboard flooring. If screwed down regularly then i dont believe ply is necessary. Helps keep the levels right at the door! Nailing down thin ply is pointless, the nails pull loose with time. Screw every time IMHO.
quote:
Originally posted by Guinness
The floor is newly laid 22mm moisture resistant chipboard screwed every 250mm to new joists that are 400mm apart. Do I still need to put down another layer of ply on top?