chicken wire mesh in screed??

[Moonraker]

I’ve decided to use Ardex A35 to fill the channels, topped up with 2mm of NA smoothing compound. The Ardex technical people were very helpful, ringing me within 30 minutes of getting my email to discuss the situation, and a tile store within a mile of me had everything I needed.


Once the channels have been filled, I should have a kitchen floor with a quarter of the vinyl tiles removed above the pipe runs and leaving some pock-marked bitumen about 1mm thick. I shall be using Ardex P82 epoxy primer on it.


How acceptable is for me to use the levelling compound on the non-tiled areas and then lay new self-adhesive vinyl tiles over all the floor, including the existing tiles? (Do I hear yells of derision?)


If I do remove all the tiles, how essential is that I remove the bitumen residue before priming with P82? I’ve scraped a small area and most of it comes off easily enough.


What I can see of the original floor looks level, and I doubt my ability to spread compound over 10 sq metres. Were I to leave the patchy bitumen and prime the whole floor, with all tiles removed, with P82, would self-adhesive tiles fix happily to the surface, or would it help to apply mastic to those very shallow patches of the floor where there’s no bitumen, to fill in them ?


As before, your advice is appreciated.

Moonraker

 

[thompsonbrown]

years ago we used to fill pipe trenches with a layer of Mica for insulation layer of sand then back fill with concrete, as for the leveling of the whole floor without removing the tiles, it should be find, as long as you remove the bitumen, scratch the glazed surface then prime and self level. you might even save yourself a lot of hassel especally if these pipes have been leaking for years and the slab under the tiles is damp it could be months before you would be able to lay self level. just throwing a lot of what if's about really. hope it all works out.

 

[thompsonbrown]

just 1 more thing this trench is about 5mts long upto 150mm wide and to be fenced of with chicken mesh it sounds like your friend was more intrested in making a chicken coupe than laying a floor. but just to be on the safe side i would use normal wire mesh less chance of ending up with egg on your face.....:joker:sorry coudnt resist ..

 

[Time's Ran Out]

Just to add a shilling to the mix - before the introduction of flexible fast set adhesives or any other tile adhesive for that matter, the only way we laid tiles onto wooden floors was to cover the floor with bituman paper, fix the chicken wire to the paper and cover using a semi dry sand/cement mix. Then with a slurry to the back of the tile ( usually only quarries available) tamp them into place. A particularily bouncy floor of a gents toilet in an Indian restaurant I did in the early 70's was still in great (if not smelly) condition when I went back years later to build a Tandoori oven.
Ah the good old days - when half a days work then took 3 days!

 

[Moonraker]

Thanks guys. A bloke from a specialist drying company came on Tuesday and reckoned that the floor was now drier than average and took away a dehumidifier. As a precaution I removed the screed from around some pipework that hadn't been replaced and found most of the lagging had rotted, so replaced it with Denso tape laid along the pipes - there was no space to wrap it around. I also uncovered a small section of gas pipe that appeared to be completely unprotected. I'm definitly not going to dig down it, and in any case it disappears under the hall, a cupboard with a heavy safe in it and into a garage, so I'm going to have it blocked off - it would serve only a gas cooker that I don't have.

Odd that the original plumbers (who did little to inspire confidence back in 1976) used some yellow-sheathed piping for the hot-water supply under the kitchen floor; I understand that this is gas piping, yet they used ordinary pipes for the gas supply.

I'm told that Ardex P82 remains sticky for four days or so, during which tiles have to be laid, otherwise one has to prime all over again. I suppose there's no problem kneeling on vinyl tiles one has just put down to lay the next lot - perhaps kneeling on a board would be advisable?

Moonraker