Adhesive for Terracotta floor tiles - advice please

[harrietp]

Hi. I have an old (approx 300yrs) house with a part concrete, part old lime "crete" floor (ie concrete in the bits where the old lime had presumably broken away) in the sitting room. No DPC. It was sopping wet when we removed the carpet (with thick rubber underlay and hardboard under that). Room has been gutted and now has new lime render/plaster on walls - I can almost feel it breathing a sigh of relief! Floor is now dry, but rather than put carpet down again, I've bought new, machine made, terracotta floor tiles and LTP mattstone for sealing them (breathable). Having researched use of of lime mortar as adhesive and grout, which means soaking the tiles first, I'm not sure I can realistically go for 3 months waiting for it all to dry out thoroughly before being able to seal/protect, and therefore not being able to use the room, not least of all because it cuts off the kitchen from the rest of the house (so we'd have to spend all winter going round the outside) and my log burner is in the sitting room, and we'd freeze without it!
Your considered and experienced advice on suitable (pref breathable) alternatives for adhesive and grout would be much appreciated.
Many thanks.

 

[doug boardley]

so I'm assuming that you have done no remedial work to the floor substrate Harriet?

 

[harrietp]

Hi Doug, Thanks for the interest. Re prep of floor - it's now dry and clean, and all the rough bits have been smoothed down with an angle grinder - apparently the lime part of the floor was extremely hard work!

 

[doug boardley]

what was the cause of the original water ingress, apart from no dpm?, do you intend to install some kind of water penetration barrier?

 

[dagger]

sounds like you need a polythene sheeted DPM and a sand and cement screed installed to me!

 

[harrietp]

Flooding, condensation, old house "fixed" with gypsum plaster and concrete render, thick rubber underlay preventing natural evaporation. (Previous owners/builders should be shot - there was rising damp to the roof at one end of the house as a result of all these impervious materials being used!) This has now been sorted, ie gutted and lime render and lime plaster applied, so the house can breathe. Also the drainage has been improved externally, so fingers crossed that the next deluge remains outdoors. The difference internally is tangible. I'm not going to have a dpm put in - it should all just do what it quite happily did in the old days before impermeable materials started to be used, ie breathe.....
Lime mortar will breathe, but I was just wondering if there was anything out there that will do the same job without having to soak all the tiles first.

 

[Spud]

have you thought of using slate flagstones ?

 

[harrietp]

not now - I've got 408 20mm sq terracotta tiles sitting in my porch waiting to be laid!

 

[Daz]

I think I would install something like Ditra or Durabase prior to any tiling, just to be sure.

 

[dagger]

i would also like to point out that the tiles you have purchased will act like a sponge and suck moisture from the floor, being the most pourous tiles known to man....Terracotta.

without installing a DPM, or studding the floors and installing "air bricks"
i cant see how your house will "breathe", in the old days houses were colder at a constant, today we pump up the heating.

the flagstones was a good idea.

 

[mosizely]

Harriet.. did you ever establish what to use? i have a similar issue, but have chosen limestone.
Installing a DPC is out of the question before anyone suggests it.. its an OLD house.

 

[robnisbet]

without installing a DPM, or studding the floors and installing "air bricks"
i cant see how your house will "breathe", in the old days houses were colder at a constant, today we pump up the heating.

dagger, you obviously have NO IDEA how breathability works. Suggesting DPM / concrete which will drive water up the walls and CAUSE damp problems in an old house is just dumb.
Suggest you have a look at how old buildings work before you suggest things like this.
The naturally breathable flagstones/teracotta tiles will allow moisture evaporation whcih is what is required. This will happen in a cold or hot house.
Sorry Harriet I have no idea what tile adhesive you could use, just had to ranty at ridiculous comments ...

 

[White Room]

The original post is over a year old:smilewinkgrin:

 

[Ajax123]

oops!!