Advice Needed Please

[markbrown44]

Hi everyone i'm going to be tiling approx 40sqm of floor in my own house with 60x60 porcelain tiles, the area to be tiled is the hall, kitchen/ dining and living room the subfloor is traditional 18-19mm t&g floorboards nailed to timber joists (approx 400mm centres)! So basically im looking some advice on the best way to prepare floor for tiles and what are the best products to use?. Im a kitchen fitter by trade and do quite a bit of tiling for splash-backs and kitchen floors but never had to do anything on this sort of scale!

Regards
Mark

 

[One Day]

The ideal for me (belt & braces) would be 18mm wbp ply overboarded and then Ditra membrane on top. (note the increase in height though)

If (big IF) the floor is already pretty strong and deflection (bounce) free, then 12mm Hardibacker glued to the boards with tile adhesive and plenty of screws would suffice.
In either case, you could use a flexible smoothing compound after overboarding to make sure you've a nice flat floor to start with.

 

[m3fitter]

if the floor is sound, ie: no flex, use ditra only as decoupling, if you're unsure, use a 6mm hardibacker and ditra, all with flex adhesive and grout. I haven't ever had a callback using ditra, or hardibacker and ditra, usually, if i'm fixing stone, i'm more cautious and use hardibacker as well, but 9/10 with porc's, ditra only.

 

[markbrown44]

Thanks for the reply's i like the idea of going over with 18mm wbp and ditra, can you recommend anywhere online i can buy ditra at a decent price as I haven't seen in on sale anywhere in NI? Also could you recommend a good quality adhesive to use? The 60x60 porcs we have chosen are from Topps its their sandwaves tile in charcoal which is exclusive to them, has anyone used this tile and can comment on its quality?

Thanks again
MArk

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Big job for DIY!

 

[m3fitter]

Thanks for the reply's i like the idea of going over with 18mm wbp and ditra, can you recommend anywhere online i can buy ditra at a decent price as I haven't seen in on sale anywhere in NI? Also could you recommend a good quality adhesive to use? The 60x60 porcs we have chosen are from Topps its their sandwaves tile in charcoal which is exclusive to them, has anyone used this tile and can comment on its quality?

Thanks again
MArk

why are you overlaying with 18mm wood ? just asking... thought people were recommending hardibacker of different thicknesses

 

[markbrown44]

I assume the 18mm wbp screwed through to the joists would provide more strength and remove any deflection!

 

[m3fitter]

to be honest with you... only from experience, can you tell if the substrate requires strengthening or its very apparent, as I said if i'm in doubt, I adhere 6mm hardibacker and ditra, that will suffice, even with stone. Unless there is a problem with the joists

 

[Stef]

If it were my job I would check for deflection on the floor & if it's ok then I would overboard with Hardi 250 (6mm) & tile straight to this.

 

[markbrown44]

To be honest there isn't much deflection in the substrate but as you can imagine with a 30+ year old house boards have been ripped up here and are missing either a tongue or a groove! I will be going over existing substrate and screwing all boards to joists and doing any repair work just thought the 18mm wbp sounded a good idea maybe because that was my first thought also :lol:

 

[markbrown44]

Thanks for the advice everyone, after working on the subfloor (screwing all boards and replacing any damages etc) ive decided to overboard with hardie and was just wondering what the best adhesive to use for the whole job, i was going to use mapei keraquick with latex plus but after speaking to a mapei rep he recommended ultraflex s2 quick, whats everyones thoughts on this?

Mark

 

[Andy Allen]

I use bal single part fast flex on all wooden floors..

 

[widler]

If you using mapei use single part (either rapid or standard,depending on you) to lay boards on before screwing then same to tile