Am planning on putting in a new floor in my bathroom using either real stone slate or porcelain tiles. The floorboards are quite eneven so as I understand, I need to put down something else first.
Diydoctor.org recommend using 22mm plywood on 'quarry' tiles. Surely they can't expect someone to raise their floor by 22mm? It says 6mm plywood is fine for vinyl tiles, and a friend also said it was ok to use 6mm.
Can anybody offer any advice? Anything else I should watch out for?
Thanks, Miguel
If you use 6mm there is a chance, some would say a very good chance, that the plywood will flex under foot, which will undermine the adhesive, and the tiles will become loose or crack. If you are planning to move soon then that will not matter. Why do you think 22mm is recommended? If the height increase is an issue then you may need to consider replacing the uneven floorboards with a new floor. Another option is to forget tiles and to lay sheet vinyl on hardboard.
If they are simply a bit warped,m but the underlying joists are sound and reasonably even, I would remove the floorboards and lay down 19mm ply.
With reference to the 22mm plywood, that is what was said at diydoctor.org. Must say, the idea of using 6mm plywood appeals a lot more!
It would be quite a big job lifting the floorboards as it would mean lifting the flooboards in the hall too (these pre 1900's flats :( ). So really my option at the moment seems to be to lay either 6mm or some other size of plywood.
I will probably be in this flat for the next 4-5 years anyway. Am beginning to think i should just use the 6mm plywood and if the worst comes to the worst, in a few years I might have to lift the tiles (not overly expensive anyway) and make a proper base for them to sit on.
Unless anyone has any other recommendations. Thanks to phil and "The natural philosopher" for your advice, much appreciated
miguel
Use 6mm plywood but make sure that it is tacked down every 225mm checkerbard fashion. Even better use backer boards that are sold at tile merchants, ask there advice as there fitters will have lots of experience. Make sure that you use flexible tile adhesive, sold in the purple bags( Dunlop) as opposed to normal tile adhesive, orange bags (again Dunlop brand). You should also use a flexible liquid to mix the grout, but must admit it is a swine to clean excess grout from off the tiles.
Regards Legin
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