Old Georgian Floor and Travertine (I'm Scared!)

[Grace'sDad]

Nothing really scares me - I love working with Travertine and I think I can cope with anything but....
I went to price a job up today, a big old georgian townhouse.
You get the picture - lovely decor, antiques everywhere, people with some cash to spend.

The customer wants approx 18sqm of 40x40 honed and filled Travertine (decent enough stuff) fixing in the long hallway, running through into the larger hallway.

The floor is original painted oak planks and boy are they knackered! She calls it "character" I call it a blinkin' nightmare!

I can of course sort out loose boards, solve excess deflection with 12mm hardiboards, but the real problem is that I'm not sure how to solve the wonkyness of the floor. It's an old building and the floor pitches, leans, rolls and bends like the yorkshire dales - not an ideal substrate for square edged travertine!

She insists that she will live with some lipping - I stressed to her that I could guarantee lipping would be a fact, and that using a lot of time and adhesive there would still be unavoidable lipping. She's keen as mustard to proceed, even to wait 6 weeks - I've got cold feet and don't want the job. I said I'd come away and think it through - how best to tackle it.

Short of ripping up the whole floor and rebuilding it (which I couldn't really do as this is a listed building and they have to seek permission for any structural works), is there any other way to tackle this? Has anyone used latex based levelling compound on top of backer boards? Or is this just a plain stupid idea?

Worst deviation is approx 20mm over 500mm, otherwise it's just pitch problems.

I'm really busy anyway and inclined to walk away, but I'd want to explain in a professional manner exactly why, and give her some alternative options.

 

[sWe]

Backerboards on top of the old floor, latex based SLC, c2/s2 classed adhesive and flex grout might work out just fine, if the floor is stable enough after the boards have been applied. Bear in mind though, that the build height will increase a total of atleast 50mm, probably more, seen from the low spots, depending on how thick the tiles are.

(12mm for the boards, 32mm seen from the low spots for the SLC, as you want atleast 12mm on top of what is needed to level to sturdy up the substrate, and the adhesive and tiles on top of that)

If I wasn't allowed to replace the entire floor, I probably wouldn't do it. Too many risk factors, and lippage is probably the least of them. The build height will likely cause problems as well.

 

[TilingLogistics]

I think you will find you have a "Get Out of Jail Free Card " here. I maybe wrong but I have done three listed properties over the last few months where I have had to restore two lots of quarries over a 100 years old and a yorkstone lozenge floor with marble inserts because the owners had to get the floors restored because they were not allowed to lay new ones.

As I say I may be wrong but I don't think she will be allowed to lay Travertine in a listed building especially over wood as you describe. Check with the local listing people I think you may well find I am right. Good Luck

Kev

 

[Grace'sDad]

Thanks sWe - as I thought.

What she assumed to be an increase of 12+6+12 soon becomes 50mm with a tonne of levelling compound to use.

Anyone else???

 

[sWe]

Aye. 12mm for the bb's, 20mm to level, 12mm to stiffen, 6mm for adhesive, and 12mm for the tiles (I assume); A total of 42mm from the highest, and 62mm from the lowest, now that I think of it. Or somewhere around there. Maths rarely apply in such old houses.

Edit: Lol, you'd need in the region of 11-16 bags of SLC just to do the top stiffening layer, depending on what SLC you use, and if you add aggregate, so aye, in the end it probably comes close to a tonne of SLC :rofl:

 

[bal]

Cant recall if you said if she had bought the trav yet , but she could buy round edged travertine and have a more rustic look and lesson the lippage factor and also compromise on the amount of height you have to bring the floor up, then again if you dont want the job pass it on .

 

[Grace'sDad]

Thanks guys. Good suggestion re round edged travertine.

I'll suggest it and see if the increased price puts her off!

It's about 4 x the cost at Topps from memory.

 

[Fekin]

I guess you wouldn't lay down 6mm backerboards with adhesive and tile on top then :lol:

 

[Grace'sDad]

Not on THAT floor - no way!

The job has gone now. (thankfully)

 

[devonmark]

it's a sin to cover a good oak floor with tiles or anything for that matter, tell her to lift the boards, turn them over and fix, sand them and then wax them, you can hire the machinery to do the job....
oops just read the above post:stupid:

 

[MICK the Tiler]

The job may be gone but you may not be forgotten "LATER"

Reminds me of a job I did some 10 years ago. a cobblestone driveway with some 200,000 individual cobbles to lay. The client had no concerns with money they were "LOADED". My quote came in at $150,000, yet they chose a guy to do it for $50,000 (Go figure).

9 months went passed, then I got a call from the lady of the house the other tilers had left town and there were problems with the drive.

To cut a long story short the whole lot had to be ripped up and started over. This time I got the job but the price had ballooned to $250,000 and took me 9 months to complete.

So now they have a driveway that has been down for 10 years all still perfect has cost them twice as much as my original quote and the referral work that flowed from this one has kept me going ever since.

So my advice is if you fell concerned about a job be honest explain your concerns question everything be polite. And make sure you can live with the outcome that you produce for your clients. Honesty, reputation,quality is what you should strive for "THE PRICE" is just a number.