Tiling on to chipboard flooring

[richardbell81]

I have a third option for your Richard but it does solve issues over height and concerns over the chipboard. Does mean more work and cost however but not excessive.

Have you considered replacing the chipboard with 18mm or 25mm ply and then laying the hardi backer? It would add a bit more cost to your project. I'd estimate £80 to £100 for your materials and a days labour for a DIYer.
Honestly not trying to give you more work to do but i really would get rid of the chipboard if you can or go bigger than 6mm. The bathroom is looking great so far, i guess i'm just trying to get you to consider life expectancy as well as finish.

It's another option anyway, but looking good so far.

Thanks for your suggestion but at this stage, removing the chipboard flooring just isn't an option... it's not due to laziness or cost but the bath has been secured, plumbed and sealed in place. And add to that that I had to glue and screw the chipboard flooring down in places as it is covering up the old concrete hearth for the fire that was upstairs... so to take it up really would be a major job.

As this room is so small, and the tiled area is even smaller at just 2.2 m2 (and doesn't go across the full width of the room), I am considering just priming the chipboard flooring and fixing the tiles with BAL fast flex and grout with the superflex wide joint.

If I did do this, and i realise this is not going to a popular decision so just humour me, would I be best priming the chipboard with BAL APD, or BAL SBR? I'm not quite sure of the difference between the 2?

 

[TheTiler]

I'd give BAL a call on their technical helpline as adding GT1 with Superflex is what they told me to do. They said Superflex is not as flexible as Fastflex single part adhesive until you add further elastomericity to it in the form of GT1. Only telling you I was told..[FONT=arial, sans-serif]...[/FONT]

 

[kilty55]

add it to non flexi grout also for your grout if your going this route ,gt1 that is

 

[richardbell81]

I'd give BAL a call on their technical helpline as adding GT1 with Superflex is what they told me to do. They said Superflex is not as flexible as Fastflex single part adhesive until you add further elastomericity to it in the form of GT1. Only telling you I was told.....

ok cheers, were you tiling onto a woodchip floor or did you back it first? If you did tile straight on to a floating floor, hows it looking now?

 

[kilty55]

richard,why take the risk? the cost of a failed job does not weight up to simply over boarding and having peice of mind...

also because one floor lasts doesnt mean yours will

 

[TheTiler]

It was over-boarded with plywood - not a floating floor either as it was sat on joists. I did a very similar job for a police officer around 5 years ago. No blue sirens asking for a repair yet. I'd just pick an adhesive manufacturer, phone their technical helpline and follow their rules for prep/expansion joints etc. and mix everything in exact quantities. Then the ball is in their court if anything goes wrong.

 

[richardbell81]

sorry, yeh. I didn't mean floating floor.... I meant just a single skin chipboard on joists. Suppose i'l ring BAL technical line tomorrow and see what they advise...

 

[Muse2k8]

The bath can afford to lose 6mm in height. I would lift the basin to tile under it and for the toilet and waste you don't need to consider a flexible pan connector. I would never use them anyway as waste matter can get caught in them. However you can easily buy offset pan connectors and that is what I would recommend you do. You need a good solid substrate to tile onto and lifting your sanitary ware is easier that repairing your floor. If your basin taps are on copper pipe only then I suggest you take it out and cut down the pipes and attach a flexible tap connector hose. Just remember to seal the olive with 4-6 wraps of ptfe to keep it from leaking as with all compression fittings.

 

[richardbell81]

ok... just looked into durabase/ditra matting.... surely this is the perfect solution? Or am i missing something?

Has anyone used this before and if so, would a layer of this on the chipbaord with fasflex adhesive do the job without adding any more height??

 

[Muse2k8]

Fastflex should hold fine I would think to use ditra as ling as your floor has no bounce. What about backer board to 10mm?

 

[richardbell81]

Fastflex should hold fine I would think to use ditra as ling as your floor has no bounce. What about backer board to 10mm?

As I said previously, i'm just trying to add as little height as possible at this stage. I have considered a 6mm hardi board but from what i can see, the ditra matting seems like a good solution!

 

[richardbell81]

Ok, thanks very much for all your help, it really is appreciated. I appear to have 2 options...


1. Prime the chipboard, buy BAL Fastflex adhesive and BAL super flexible grout. Tile directly onto the current chipboard floor and hopefully this would do the job, although no guarantee but it would not raise the floor any higher.


OR...


2. Prime the chipbaord, overboard with a 6mm tile backing board (hardiebacker or cement board), then buy BAL Fastflex adhesive and BAL super flexible grout. Again, no guarantee, but i'm getting close. One question with this method. Would the Fastflex adhesive be suitable with the hardi/cement backing board or would a cement based adhesive such as 'bal supercover rapid flex' be more suitable? I already have a 15kg bag of the rapid flex which I was prepared to discard if the fastflex would make a better job.


Rich

So am i right in thinking I have a 3rd feasible option?

3. Cover the chipboard flooring with Ditra/Dura Matting which would hopefully give me the flexibility and extra layer I need.

I've looked on the BAL product guide and it says that the 'Supercover rapid flex' is ok to use with uncoupling membrane, so.... I could use this adhesive to bed the matting onto the chipboard and then use it to secure the tiles to the matting???

Has anyone used this system before and would I still need to prime the chipboard before the matting goes down?

 

[Ian]

It is an option but, bear in mind that decoupling membranes are designed to help with lateral movement not vertical, so if your floor has any deflection, a membrane will not help solve this nor will it add any strength to the installation.

 

[Peter]

Just to throw something into the mix, quite a few rubber crumb (liquid and powder 2 part) manufacturers state that their products can go straight to green chipboard providing there's no deflection. Done quite a bit of site work where was 2PF was specced straight onto chipboard and there's never been a single failure with any of the floors. Personally I'd overboard it on a private job though.

 

[Muse2k8]

Bal have a fibre based slc you can use on chipboard but you should still really be overlaying.