TILING

[kram]

I am about to tile my kitchen floor and have found that the floor has a run in it. Half the kitchen is level and then the other half falls away to a depth of 12mm. Can I still tile the floor in the same way and where the floor falls away just use a lot more adhesive or is the drop to deep ? I was also thinking am I risking the tiles sinking when they are walked on because there is too much adhesive under them which possibly may never set hard ? Is self levelling concrete the answer, although I have heard using this isn't as easy as it sounds ?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Mark

[kram]

Brian

I was going to use ceramic floor tiles, what do you suggest ie:what is best to use and why ?

[Dave Plowman]

The pukka self levelling stuff is a form of mortar rather than concrete and should work ok for this sort of thickness.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I would refute that, by saying 'yes, but its not as easy as it sounds'. It takes a long timne with a level and rather stiff cement, which MUST be rapid setting otherwise the tile will settle and slump a lot.

BUT you can get extremely good results.

Having said that, I would use levellling to get within +-2mm if possible

- simply because it makes the job a LOT simpler, and saves on expensive cement - tho the levelling ain't cheap either.

[Dave Plowman]

Since it's a solid floor and presumably ceramic tiles, you wouldn't use glue anyway but a form of mortar - tile adhesive designed for this purpose. And it can accommodate a fair old amount of unevenness. The Unibond stuff I last used mentioned 12mm when using the 'thick bed' method.

So saying, it's always best to start with a good surface. This sort of adhesive dries so quickly - and is so expensive - that trying to level a floor while laying the tiles would be a PITA.

[SC]

We had to get self levelling concrete on our kitchen when we first moved in. Our self-builder/electrician neighbour got a "mate" in with his left-over stuff from a big job, and it looked fairly easy. If you have a good eye, it self-levels the last few degrees. Took a while to dry. I have no idea what brand he used, but it left a smashing surface. And all for £30.... but then it fell off the back off a lorry from a retail job.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Stuff I used was better at smoothing than levelling and dried rather fast. What you need is a mate who is constantly mixing (using a whisk) another bucket whilst you use a long handled spreader to slosh it all around. You have to be fast or else one bit has dried out before the other is mixed...and you end up with more uneveneness.

I think that industrial applicators are available - you mix up a huge tank and sort of hose it on in one go. That probably works.

In my case with a damn big area to cover and single handed laying, I used the thick bed method and took 6 weeks on and off to do it. People hwo have seen it are always asking me who did it and saying it is the best they have seen. Then I tell them how mch it would cost to get someone to lay it as carefully as that and they lose interest :-)

With hindsight, I'd probably roughly level first, then use medium bed fast setting cement. I think that would be overall cheaper than using a;lthat tile cement, but there is no sbustiture for slow painstaking cehcking of verey salet or tile that goes down for overall marvellous effects. Tiles ae 100% ewasier than slate as well due to constant thickness.