Victorian Mosaic tiles in pub...

[skwjoinery]

Hi all,

I am new to this forum and would be needing some advice.
I have been asked to tile the bar area of a pub. The area is 18m long and 1m wide. The tiles they want to use are black and white victorian mosaic tiles with a border around the edge. The tiles are approx 12mm thick porcelain and come in many shapes and sizes to make the pattern they want. I have done several in the past, but always in porches and hallways, where the floor is locked in by four walls.

The surrounding floor in the pub is being laid by a flooring contractor and will be 22mm thick engineered wood floor on a 4mm underlay.

The floor underneath the tiles is a mix between concrete, old quarry tiles and bitumen. It is level.
In order for my tiles to finish at the same level as the wooden floor, I would line my part of the floor with 9mm plywood, sticking it down with everbuild trowel on floor adhesive (solvent free for the bitumen) I would then use a good bonding agent on the ply, and then tile on to this using white flexible floor adhesive with a 5mm notched trowel. (any other ideas welcome)

My concerns are the following:

Will the tiles be trashed by bar stools and dropped pints etc?

There will be a 15mm expansion gap between my tiles and the wooden floor, with a threshold over the top. This will make my border tiles along the edge pretty likely to break or come loose?

Will the tiles last the test of time being stuck to plywood?

Is it the kind of job to smile politly and decline, because it will be a nightmare when tiles start coming lose over time??

Any views appreciated

cheers

Stephan

 

[White Room]

Hi and welcome....would'nt ply, certainly not with 9mm and stuck down with addy.

What ever tile is laid will left distressed near a bar, a good sealer will help with the spillages.

 

[skwjoinery]

Thanks for the reply,

The adhesive that sticks down the plywood is the trowel on polymer solid wood floor adhesive variety designed to stick wood to concrete and bitumen etc. Its the only alternative I can think of. I have always tiled these type of tiles streight onto concrete floors in the past, and have never had the issue of haveing to raise a section to finish flush with another floor arounfd a bar area.

How else could I raise the section around the bar by approx 10mm, and still leave it durable enough?
The other thing I thought of was shuttering off the section to be tiled and filling it with floor self leveler, but that again sounds pretty desperate?

cheers

Stephan

 

[Dontiler]

hello
as above wouldn't use ply, you better of sticking and screwing 6mm hardibacker, and Ditra on top of hardi
good luck

 

[skwjoinery]

Thanks for that, sounds like the best idea. Will sack off the plywood.

cheers
stephan