Which way and what order - floor tiling.

[jaykay01]

Hi all,

My first post on the forum, however i have used it from time to time to gain valuable knowledge and hints/tips.

I have done various tiling jobs in kitchens and bathrooms as a skilled "DIY'er" for want of a much better term :lol: and have started to find that i am getting more and more work doing it. Anyway my lastest job that i am going to take on is a bit of shambles. The task is to tile a bathroom floor using cermic tiles 150x400mm. It has been stripped out and started by the owner and his plumber.

The scenario...

Bath and shower tray are already fitted in place on to the floor boards. Customer doesnt want to remove the bath and shower tray and allow me to strip floor boards up and put down 25mm ply.... BUT... wants the finished level of the bathroom to remain as low as possible to avoid a large step up from the hall!

The customer has loose wire type (not mat) UFH which he wants me to put down.

What is my best option? Fix the floorboards down as securely as possible, they are mostly free from deflection at the momennt anyway. Adhesive and screw 6mm hardie backer. Fix UFH down to backer board. SLC. Tile. In this order?

I have never used Ditra matting but understand this MIGHT be an option from what i have searched on here. the floor boards are fairly flat and free from gaps? If I used Ditra mat what order would i lay down the UFH and SLC?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Being from an engineering background i cannot stand to cut corners and want it to be right (well as right as the customer will let me do it).

Thanks in advance.

Jez

 

[AMtek]

If the floor is pretty solid I would use 6mm backer boards as you have said but you don't NEED to SLC the wires if you don't want to

 

[Sean SML Tiling]

Marmox do a 4mm board if your looking to reduce the step. But if hes looking to minimise the step tell him to do it properly and dont be si tight 🙂

 

[beanz]

I wouldn't use Ditra straight onto the floorboards, if that's what you were thinking.. Your 1st choice sounds good to me. No idea about the 4mm Marmox, never used it.

 

[jaykay01]

Thanks for the replies guys, appreciated.

If i used Ditra over floorboards i would rather overboard prior to installing it but that would defeat the object of trying to create the lowest finished level possible in this case.

Tangent - Am i right in thinking that when using Ditra mat on an installation with UFH that you would install your elec heat cable/mat in SLC and lay the Ditra over the top?

I am going to look into the Marmox board and remember it for future reference but i shall probably go with the Hardie as its easily available to me.

The UFH in this case states it can go into the adhesive so i might just tile straight on to it. Not ideal from my POV but anything to keep the customer happy.

Thanks again...

 

[beanz]

I've tiled straight onto mats, but not sure I'd fancy going straight onto cable. At least with the mat, you can have the mesh on top, to protect the cable from your trowel. Not worth the risk, in my opinion, just to save 3mm.

 

[Stef]

I would never tile direct to ufh.
Too many voids in the adhesive.
Needs to be encased in slc imho.

 

[gamma38]

I would never tile direct to ufh.
Too many voids in the adhesive.
Needs to be encased in slc imho.

I agree, never tile onto cable at all, too many voids which won't conduct the heat well at all. The biggest one for me is cable damage. Encased in SLC is by far the best job.

 

[steve187]

customers make me smile, they want a floor tiling that should not be tiled as it is, but then they put so many obstacles in the way, i want underfloor heating, i want is to have a low threshold etc etc. my view is do it right, otherwise they will complain to you when it goes wrong
I have walked away from so many upstairs wooden/underfloor heating bathroom floors that require tiling.

 

[stusgsx]

Tell the customer if they want the floor as low as poss then have Lino!