swmbo wants ceramic tiles on our soon-to-be-new en-suite floor. The floor is chipboard flooring, and creaks a little.
Is it possible to put tiles on such a floor without them cracking/breaking up? If so, must any precautions be taken?
Failing that, it will be laminate.
Thanks
I tiled the chipboard floor in our en-suite five years ago and there have been no problems. It is essential that the chipboard is sound and any areas which have been wet and have 'expanded' are replaced. It should all be screwed down securely so that it is absolutely rigid and I ran dilute PVA adhesive into all the joints to be doubly sure that there would be no residual creaking. The surface was then sealed with a PVA sealer.
I used a two-part adhesive specially designed for fixing ceramic floor tiles to chipboard consisting of a cement based powder and liquid latex. The grout was a special type as well and seemed to consist of cement and ground up rubber tyres!
The join between the floor and walls was sealed with an acrylic mastic.
Hope this helps - good luck!
Roger.
Yes ...
First off if boards are in any way affected by water - replace them.
If they are uneven put a loayer of oil impregnated hardboard or wbp ply on top.
If OK - then screw them down tight - and that means screws 10's x 2" or better still gold screws 5 x 50mm and place them at 150mm spacing.
Having got this solid deck - then tile with a flexible adhesive - the dogs bol&*%@# is BAL follow the instructions and it is perfect for the job.
Suggest for your application the choice would be BAL Flex adhesive - 2 part system and BAL Superflex wide joint grout.
It ain't cheap but it does the job perfectly.
Rick
Suggest
OK,
Thanks for the replys so far.
Existing boards are affected by water. The problem is they have been layed before the partition walls have been built - ie they go under the walls.
Given that there is no way I am moving the walls to lift the boards, presumably they need to be cut close to the walls. However, they will also need to be cut above joists, otherwise there would be no support at the ends of the replacement boards.
Any suggestions on how to best achieve this.
Thanks
What about just covering the existing floor with 6mm ply and screwing tight every 6 inches before tiling over, as a previous poster suggested?
- That's what I'd be tempted to do if they were normal floorboards. And if the floor is particularly non-level in places, use thicker ply (9mm/12mm) for its rigidity.
If you really want to replace as much of the chipboard as possible then find the closest joists to each wall, cut out over the joists and replace with similar thickness of ply. However, you would still need to seal around the edge of the room where there is still chipboard.
So, unless there is a very good reason for you wanting rid of the existing floor covering, I'd not bother cutting it out - just cover over it and be done with it as it just ain't worth the effort.
If the extra floor height is going to be a problem with the existing door, just shave the necessary amount off the bottom of the door.
RM
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