Best practice for tiling on uneven floor

[oli26-7]

Hi,
I have recently started tiling (small jobs) after taking a course.

I know ideally the floor should be perfectly flat but this is rarely the case and I have done a job recently with an experienced tiler on a floor that had variations and he has done it by building a thicker layer of adhesive on the floor.

This week I have done the floors for 2 bathrooms and one hall, all 3 had low and high points slightly over the 3mm tolerance using a 2 meters level (particularly going to corners and doors), I have done them by also using more adhesive and back buttering the tiles. I am happy that my floor ended perfectly flat and with no lips at all (also using self leveling clips) and I got very high coverage under the tiles but it was challenging and time consuming.

I am wondering what is the best practice in this case, should I start by using a self leveling compound?

 

[demi34]

Yes better with self levelling

 

[Steve6690]

Any spots that are especially high I grind down first, and then use slc to make the whole floor flat. 3 hours for Mapei Renovation screed to dry. You'll probably save the time you spend on prep, because the actual tiling will go quicker.

 

[oli26-7]

Any spots that are especially high I grind down first, and then use slc to make the whole floor flat. 3 hours for Mapei Renovation screed to dry. You'll probably save the time you spend on prep, because the actual tiling will go quicker.

Thank you, can you please let me know how you grind down the high spot, angle grounder with a vaccum cleaner?
And where do you draw the line to know if you need SLC, I mean how much of a deviation do you consider too much?

 

[Steve6690]

I use an angle grinder with a grinding cup and a Herzo shroud. I fit my vacuum cleaner to the shroud to remove the dust and always wear a proper mask. This setup is really only suitable for very small high spots tbh. Large areas need better kit really.
You can use the slc on small parts of a floor to bring up any low spots but I think the Mapei can go as thin as 3mm so it's really down to the size of the area that needs doing.

 

[Midlands Mosaics]

BAL level max is quite good. i'm sure it can go as deep as 80mm.....you have some serious floor issues if you have to go that deep tho