concrete floor drying times?

[lcjohno]

Hi all,

Im after some advice on concrete floors and drying times. I have a wet room to tile in Travertine with electric UFH and the customer only wants the finished floor to be the same height as the floor leading into the wetroom. This has caused some problems as the floor is concrete in a bungalow. The plumber has dug the floor down so we can build it up to the correct height and has gone down about 3 inch which has hit some polystyrene insulation which is also 3 inch thick, its then concrete again. So basically we have a 3 inch ploystyrene floor at the moment which only needs to be raised about 2 inch to allow for UFH, DITRA, TILES etc.

My questions are

1. Is the required min depth of concrete 3 inch? Thats what we are thinking.

2. Is it ok to tile on concrete over insulation or is this a floating floor?

3. Would it be ok to reduce the insulation to 2 inch (new insulauion) and then build up with 3 inch of concrete?

4. If so how long will it take to dry so i can tile? I understand its 1 day per mm of thickness to dry which is about 75days???

5. Is there anyway of being able to start tiling sooner than *** days as we want to get cracking?

Sorry for all the questions, just so you know my original plan before this was to lay insulation boards, then wires ontop, slc on the wires, de coupling on slc (once dry) then tile.

6. Will i be able to start tiling as soon as i can walk on concrete because of the de coupling/Ditra?

Any advice would be great

Cheers

 

[kilty55]

johno cant you do a 50mm hit of slc instead of waiting on the concrete drying

 

[lcjohno]

johno cant you do a 50mm hit of slc instead of waiting on the concrete drying​

I did think about that but would it adhere to the polystyrene insulation.

 

[Ajax123]

You dont want it to adhere to the insulation. Ther shoulb a slip membrane on top of the insulation.

 

[lcjohno]

You dont want it to adhere to the insulation. Ther shoulb a slip membrane on top of the insulation​

.

Ajax 123, what would your best advice be on this floor to try and avoid waiting for a few weeks for concrete to dry? What kind of slip membrane should be on the insulation, will it come with the new insulation? I notice your a floor screed adviser and would really appreciate your advice as i really need a solution asap , cheers.​

 

[Ajax123]

Simple 500 gauge ploythene slip membrane. If you use cement based screed you should place minimum 65 mm on insulation particularly if it is old polystyrene. Same with concrete. Drying time 1mm per day. Overlay with ditra or dural when it has gone hard and you shod be good to go. Not sure what ou would stickthe ditra with but a call to schluter or dural will sort that.

 

[lcjohno]

Simple 500 gauge ploythene slip membrane. If you use cement based screed you should place minimum 65 mm on insulation particularly if it is old polystyrene. Same with concrete. Drying time 1mm per day. Overlay with ditra or dural when it has gone hard and you shod be good to go. Not sure what ou would stickthe ditra with but a call to schluter or dural will sort that.​

Should i use ditra again ontop of UFH with the tiles being Travertine or will that one on the concrete be ok? can i even use two mats on the one floor? Sorry for all the questions but this floor is doing my head in, thanks for your input so far.