We just had a 1.5 sq. m area of floor tiled professionally in our ensuite.
The base floor is 18 mm chipboard and is screwed down hard to the joists, but dips down by a max. of around 4 to 5 mm in places.
When laying the tiles, the tiler followed the floor precisely, and hence the finished tiling also dipped down, leaving a gap of 6 mm beneath the vanity unit. The tiler said that was unavoidable and was acceptable in his opinion. But, as a consequence, the furniture installers were reluctant to install the units due to the unevenness of the floor.
My first question is, would a competent tiler not be able to check the floor prior to starting the tiling, and compensate for such unevenness to a degree when laying the tiles? Or is it simply not feasible to expect to get a flat tiled floor unless what you're tiling onto isn't perfectly flat to begin with?
A different tiler who quoted for the work said he would simply level each tile as he laid the floor, building up any low spots with additional cement, to guarantee a perfectly flat finish despite the unevenness of the base floor, but the guy that did the job said that's not possible.
So who's right?
My second question relates to the tiler's overall approach. He first screwed down 6 mm marine ply onto the chipboard, and then cemented Ditra matting all over as a decoupling membrane. Tiles then went on top. That sounds sensible to me, given the 18 mm chipboard + 6 mm ply in a small, potentially humid shower room. However, the other tiler who quoted for the work said he felt that the use of Ditra matting was 'over the top', and suggested that cement board screwed directly onto the chipboard before tiling would be better, despite not providing any decoupling from the subfloor.
So who's got the best approach, or are they both right?
It's interesting that the second tiler has offered to redo the work and get it flat, but I don't know who to believe and am getting very worried about the cost of getting this right.
All thoughts greatly appreciated!
Thanks and regards.
The base floor is 18 mm chipboard and is screwed down hard to the joists, but dips down by a max. of around 4 to 5 mm in places.
When laying the tiles, the tiler followed the floor precisely, and hence the finished tiling also dipped down, leaving a gap of 6 mm beneath the vanity unit. The tiler said that was unavoidable and was acceptable in his opinion. But, as a consequence, the furniture installers were reluctant to install the units due to the unevenness of the floor.
My first question is, would a competent tiler not be able to check the floor prior to starting the tiling, and compensate for such unevenness to a degree when laying the tiles? Or is it simply not feasible to expect to get a flat tiled floor unless what you're tiling onto isn't perfectly flat to begin with?
A different tiler who quoted for the work said he would simply level each tile as he laid the floor, building up any low spots with additional cement, to guarantee a perfectly flat finish despite the unevenness of the base floor, but the guy that did the job said that's not possible.
So who's right?
My second question relates to the tiler's overall approach. He first screwed down 6 mm marine ply onto the chipboard, and then cemented Ditra matting all over as a decoupling membrane. Tiles then went on top. That sounds sensible to me, given the 18 mm chipboard + 6 mm ply in a small, potentially humid shower room. However, the other tiler who quoted for the work said he felt that the use of Ditra matting was 'over the top', and suggested that cement board screwed directly onto the chipboard before tiling would be better, despite not providing any decoupling from the subfloor.
So who's got the best approach, or are they both right?
It's interesting that the second tiler has offered to redo the work and get it flat, but I don't know who to believe and am getting very worried about the cost of getting this right.
All thoughts greatly appreciated!
Thanks and regards.
