Anybody Used 'concept Tiles' Before?

[Colour Republic]

Hi Guys, been a little while as been crazy busy and then been ill for a good few weeks, anyway hope you're all well...

As thread title, has anybody used 'Concept Tiles' based in Northampton before?

Got a kitchen coming up where the client originally wanted a polished concrete floor but costs were too much, so they found a tile from the above people who do a microcement tile 900x900 11mm thick, full bodied porc I believe

Micro Cement - Polished Concrete Style » Concept Tiles | Exclusive collection of Porcelain Tiles and Wood Effect Floor Tiles

They had in fact picked out a 1200x1200 before and of course i'm always a little concerned with bowed tiles at that sort of size, even more so with a rectified edge. I'm less worried with the 900 x 900's but can still be a right pain no matter the size, so wondered if anybody had used them before?

Spoke to a guy there and seems like a nice bloke who knows what he's talking about rather than being just a salesman so kinda trust him but always worth putting the question out there to see if any guys have experience with their tiles?

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Not me Rob - but hope your well now.

 

[Colour Republic]

Also guys whilst we're on the subject what do you reckon on the spec?

Original spec was going to be for 1200x1200's with 200w sqm UFH

Subfloor is 30 year old plus screed (pretty good condition) with some channels cut in to it for central heating and hot/cold feeds for the kitchen which have plywood covers for the channels

Total area 45sqm, main room 35sqm, 10sqm extra going in to utility and small hall and cupboard

So it was going to be...

12.5mm backer boards stuck down with TA Setaflex 6mm trowel
UFH loose cable UFH
SLC over with TA fineflow
TA antifracture stuck down with TA Ultimate 3mm trowel
1200 x 1200's tiles stuck down with TA Ultimate 8mm trowel on floor, tiles back buttered with 6mm trowel
2mm grout lines with TA 3000

Now however it looks like the UFH is going to be lost due to cost, and tiles to be 900x900's

So thinking...
10mm backerboards stuck down with TA setaflex 8mm trowel
900x900's tiles stuck down with TA ultimate 8mm trowel on floor, tiles back buttered with 6mm trowel
2mm grout line with TA 3000

Main points being - still using backerboards to insulate from cold floor, other wise I would just SLC - losing the antifracture.

So question is would you lose the antifracture? My logic is that for starters the tiles are smaller so they are not subjected to the same sort of force per tile, the floor would almost be decoupled to a certain extent with the foam core backer boards, no expansion contraction due to UFH and lastly using an S2 has got to help with flexibility.

The original cost was £8k but want to get it down for them as much as possible, so by losing the UFH it trims off 1.5k and if I lose the antifracture it will take around another £600 off once taking in to account associated addy and labour.

Would you be happy to lose the antifracture or not?

 

[Colour Republic]

Give you some idea of layout if it makes a difference to your answer

 

[Flintstone]

Personally I would slc the whole
Floor to get it as perfectly flat as possible, then tile it. With setaflex.

 

[Colour Republic]

I don't want to lose the backerboards. I'm not using them to level the floor or give me a better base to tile on to. I'm using them because I want to insulate the floor a little. It's a basement room and seeing as they aren't going with UFH now, i still don't want them to be stepping on a freezing cold floor in the winter months.

Although if I did lose the backerboards i'd slc and use a decoupler as the floor has been cut in places and the tiles are neigh on £3k alone so wouldn't risk just going on to the subfloor direct.