tiling over floor grade chipboard

[beanz]

I have recently been asked to repair a floor that another tiler had fixed; ceramic 300 x 300's directly on to green chipboard. The tiles have been down for approx 3 years and a lot of the grout lines are now cracked and approx 2m2 of tiles were cracked, too.

Graham, so far you've been lucky, and yes it is only luck! You seem to completely lack any understanding of the way materials expand and contract!?! Just look at the post i've quoted, it took 3 years for that one to fail^^. And to say that your floor has survived so far because of your superior workmanship, which is obviously far superior to any of the PROFESSIONAL tilers on this forum, frankly astounds me!?!?!?!

And let's face it, after all your posturing, are you really going to admit to us when it does fail? Because you are going to look pretty silly.

Don't take my rant the wrong way... I wish you all the luck in the world, and sincerely hope it doesn't bite you in the ***.

 

[Aztectiler]

Grumpy, I think you will now feel that you banging your head against a very hard concrete wall as every single word of what you say is the absolute truth and sound solid advice for everyone.

If someone takes the time to ask for help and advice then for some bizzare reason totally IGNORE the advice given then not much we can do.

If this wan was to actually take time to look up some of your other posts or even note the amount of times that people have thanked you the maybe, mybe he would take notice and heed your advice and help.

Keep up the good work pal and thankyou.
:hurray::hurray::hurray::hurray::hurray::hurray::hurray::hurray::hurray::hurray::hurray:

 

[sharpfamily]

Out of interest, I've just had a look at some other tiling over 'wood' threads & saw mention of nightmare of tiling over plywood sheeting and other adhesives problems.

Given the on going success of my 50m2 of porcelain tiling over chipboard and some of the comments above, I thought it might be helpful to add a few more comments and trust it's not taken as posturing.

BAL 2 part fastflex costs min. £52.15 per small 7.5kg bag.
BAL single part flexible costs min £27.26 per big! 20kg bag!
Plywood overlay or backing boards cost??
Plus 2 part fastflex is very unpleasant messy use and clean up compared with SPF.
Attractive reasons for using BAL spf on well laid solid floorgrade t&g chipboard.
Plus overlaying with ply raises threshold floor heights.

But I see BAL now have brought out a single part fastflex at £42.61 per 12.5kg bag.
Does this reduce the perceived risk of tiling over chipboard and is it as pleasant to use as BAL single part flexible?
I also notice that also BAL give a 25yr guarantee for their products - I suggest such a long guarantee is in practice meaningless, other than for BAL to claim their products are great (which in my limited experience, they are!).

trust the above adds usefully. I'll report back on my floor in another 6 months time.

best,
lucky graham

 

[andy-p]

graham , bal are not the only company who make 2part or s2 adhesives , i use other makes which are much cheaper and easier to use than fastflex..

 

[sharpfamily]

andy, on chipboard?

 

[andy-p]

andy, on chipboard?

yes !! given the right situations.. but i much prefer to overboard chipboard, ill only tile small areas and even then only on special circumstances..

 

[sharpfamily]

update for info/interest: happily still no signs of cracking or any other problems.

also i've recently tiled another bathroom, again with warm up under tile heating. this time i used single part fastflex again over warm-up boards over chipboard. the single past fastflex was very much easier and cleaner to use than the 2 part fastflex (which i'd used in my other bathroom).

so while the spf has so far worked successfuly on my large tiling job on the chipboard floor, i would probably now choose to use the single part fastflex. (but still no plywood overlay). Single part fast flex is a bit more expensive than spf but it's just as easy to use. Two part fastflex is very messy and...... very dear.

 

[DHTiling]

Hello......

Thanks for updating us and glad it worked out ok..

 

[White Room]

not sure what value the the last 2 responses add to a learning discussion.

surely reporting a success of SPF on chipboard is of interest, even to those who only use expensive 2 part adhesive and plywood overlay......in all situations?

has no one else had success with SPF on chipboard?

Used a soverign porcelflex with sbr added on chipboard, it was in conservatory which had battens laid on a concrete floor then woodchip.

Totaly solid, have been back and forth to do other work over the last few years and theres no cracks whatsoever

 

[thevinnyofoz]

What a great argument made by sharpfamily, that was a good read. Please keep the updates going.

I would like to add that since I started tiling ( although part time ) I do get the feeling that tiling is simply tiling but when that tiling is done by a Pro, the Pro has to cover his backside as a priority on all jobs. Not good business practice when jobs go wrong and Mr Pro is having to re do jobs at his own expence. On the other hand, looking at the tiling world from a home owners DIY perspective, the tiling game does look over enginered and over prepared. I'd even go as far to say that it's paranoid that all will go wrong if you don't use some big worded, super dupa, flex mexi maxi muti something or other to avoid such catastrofic issue.

I totally agree that in the case of a Pro all avenues must be covered and all preperation must be made for realistic future proofing, in the case of the home owner DIY guy I would say take the advice from a Pro or take your luck with your own choice, it's not so hard to pick an adhesive and grout at a decent price and role the dice.

I think this tread has been about the carfully calculated opinion of the Home Owner who understands both movement and substrate verses the over prepared Pro tiler and working out were the two meet.

What a good read, I love this forum :hurray: