First Attempt at Floor Tiling

[True Tiling]

As a tiler, I had a situation in my own home with regards to the sub-floor. If it's bitumen: it's not going to accept tiles. No adhesive manufacturer/levelling compound will take this floor on as it moves too much. Trust me - called them all! It's like a squishy ball of rubber that reacts to temperature in a huge way....tiling is no-go. I fitted solid oak flooring ;(

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

As a tiler, I had a situation in my own home with regards to the sub-floor. If it's bitumen: it's not going to accept tiles. No adhesive manufacturer/levelling compound will take this floor on as it moves too much. Trust me - called them all! It's like a squishy ball of rubber that reacts to temperature in a huge way....tiling is no-go. I fitted solid oak flooring ;(

So asphalt tile adhesive (ATA) can't be tiled on, wow you learn something every day. Or is it Bitumen that can't be tiled on? as a novice tiler I thought if you prepared the surface correctly ie slurry bond for ATA, or the right slc for Bitumen prior to tiling you would be good to go. Ply is a different animal imo. I have been doing everything wrong for 46yrs, thanks for putting me right.:smilewinkgrin:

 

[andyb]

Andy
Start now, getting the tiles up and cleaned off. as time consuming as it might sound, get one up at a time and soak it in a bucket of water. you should be able to rub the adhesive off by using your fingers or perhaps a scraper. The minute you get a tile up and open the adhesive up to the air, the adhesive will start to set and become more difficult to remove. You might be lucky to be able to save the whole lot of tiles.

Update: managed to recover ALL of the tiles laid so far so thanks for this advice.
Thsi is what it looks like at the mo:



Now the problem is how to get the hammer fixings out of the floor - they are well and truly stuck by the tile adhesive

I've worked out a possible method and that is to use a holesaw in a drill just slightly bigger than the fixing - this will at least allow me to lift the ply.



Hopefully, this will also allow enough purchase to use a claw lever to get the fixing out without the head breaking off.

[update] - fixings successfully pulled out

 

[andyb]

So asphalt tile adhesive (ATA) can't be tiled on, wow you learn something every day. Or is it Bitumen that can't be tiled on? as a novice tiler I thought if you prepared the surface correctly ie slurry bond for ATA, or the right slc for Bitumen prior to tiling you would be good to go. Ply is a different animal imo. I have been doing everything wrong for 46yrs, thanks for putting me right.:smilewinkgrin:

hmm - seems there's a difference of opinion brewing here... in my case it's some kind of bitumen based thermoplastic floortile adhesive. I'll carry on lifting the floor and then post a piccie or too when uncovered and hopefully folk can then tell me what to do next. (politely please...)

 

[DHTiling]

hmm - seems there's a difference of opinion brewing here... in my case it's some kind of bitumen based thermoplastic floortile adhesive. I'll carry on lifting the floor and then post a piccie or too when uncovered and hopefully folk can then tell me what to do next. (politely please...)

It's ok , the other guy is a troll and was just ripping into the thread.. the substrate can be tiled to if prepped right.

 

[The Legend; Phil Hobson RIP]

hmm - seems there's a difference of opinion brewing here... in my case it's some kind of bitumen based thermoplastic floortile adhesive. I'll carry on lifting the floor and then post a piccie or too when uncovered and hopefully folk can then tell me what to do next. (politely please...)

Sorry Andy, I was having a tant, I have a thing about people giving bad advice on TF. Your thermoplastic tiles were fixed in ATA ( Asphalt tile adhesive) if you can remove as much of the ATA as poss, a heat gun and scraper might help.

You can then stabilize the floor using a slurry bond mix of your chosen adhesive and SBR. If you can post some pics it would help.

NB.Some Thermoplastic tiles contain asbestos, so take precautions,

 

[afright]

I've done lots of these floors slurry coat mixed with SBR never had a problem ,tub floor adhesive rubbish 5 mm ply what a joke Builders merchants staff will tell you anything to sell there product but would deny if it goes wrong.

 

[Andy Allen]

down our way we call travis perkins.....dorothy perkins..

just about sums them up considering the advice they give, cant beat coming on a site like this or a good tile shop, for the correct advice, hope it all works out well for you in thr end...

 

[andyb]

..Your thermoplastic tiles were fixed in ATA ( Asphalt tile adhesive) if you can remove as much of the ATA as poss, a heat gun and scraper might help.

You can then stabilize the floor using a slurry bond mix of your chosen adhesive and SBR. If you can post some pics it would help.

NB.Some Thermoplastic tiles contain asbestos, so take precautions,

Hmm - too late for that as the tiles were lifted some time ago

Ok - I have removed the ply and left down the airtec for the moment (yes - I'm not going to tile over it!)

Here's some piccies, which I hope will help y'all confirm what type of black adhesive we're dealing with...



and a close up (not much depth of field I'm afraid but hopefully still helpful)...



btw - you'll have noticed that the next room has a laminate floor covering so there's going to be a junction between where it ends and the tiling begins. The flooring supplier had recommended using an Incizo Quick Step profile to match the flooring. You can cut it a number of ways but bearing in mind that there may be a slight change in level once the tiling is down would it be better to use a bullnose profile on the tile side and then lay the tiles up to it?



as always grateful for advice from the experienced...

 

[andyb]

I've done lots of these floors slurry coat mixed with SBR never had a problem ,tub floor adhesive rubbish 5 mm ply what a joke Builders merchants staff will tell you anything to sell there product but would deny if it goes wrong.

so is the sbr available from Screwfix ok to use in this case?

I see two products available -

No Nonsense SBR Primer White 1kg | Screwfix.com @ £7.99/kg

or

Cementone? SBR Admixture White 5Ltr | Screwfix.com @ £19.99 for 5ltr (do I need 5 litres? total area is around 75 sq feet...)

Assuming it is the right thing to use on this substrate, can you give me the recipe for
the slurry mix?

Cheers

Andy

 

[DHTiling]

so is the sbr available from Screwfix ok to use in this case?

I see two products available -

No Nonsense SBR Primer White 1kg | Screwfix.com @ £7.99/kg

or

Cementone? SBR Admixture White 5Ltr | Screwfix.com @ £19.99 for 5ltr (do I need 5 litres? total area is around 75 sq feet...)

Assuming it is the right thing to use on this substrate, can you give me the recipe for
the slurry mix?

Cheers

Andy

Get the cementone one , you mix it 50/50 with adhesive or neat cement...

But if you want to use a ready to go product , then get some Mapei eco-prim grip primer ... PHG wetrooms ( forum sponsor) can supply that for you , tel him tomorrow for next day delivery , 01388-667211

 

[beanz]

The flooring supplier had recommended using an Incizo Quick Step profile to match the flooring. You can cut it a number of ways but bearing in mind that there may be a slight change in level once the tiling is down would it be better to use a bullnose profile on the tile side and then lay the tiles up to it?

I'd use the profile (might be a case of seeing how different the floor levels are, and if you can make it work). Just tiling up to the profile with give you a bit of a ropey finish imho.

 

[afright]

I've seen your pictures Andy you will not have a problem if you use the SBR mix I always use Bal bond but they are all the same its just that I've used it for years,even my own house floors are the same as yours they have been tiled for ages no problem,just a shame that you went to all that effort and got no where.

 

[Dan]

Just bumping some of the older popular (sometimes not so popular) threads. Probably wont be current discussion these days but I just need to do it. So just ignore the thread if it's not current for you.