Planning to put down new tiles on bathroom floor, which is 22mm chipboard. What is the best material to lay on floor as a sound base for the tiles to be fixed to. Dont want something that is too thick, the old tiles were layed onto very thin hard board. Is this the way for the new tiles. Thanks in advance.
as a rule i never tile on chipboard. i dont like it, it warps when wet, adhesive doesent adhere properly and its basically ****. I would either overboard it with (providing its solid with minimum movement) 6 to 12mm wbp ply or i would rip it up compleatly and put 25mm wbp ply straight over the joists.
Thanks for the advice gents. I'll do one or the other of your suggestions. Existing chipboard is warped anyway so ripping it out may be the best idea. Cheers.
Not wanting to start another thread in the same vein I thought I'd jump in on this one. I hope the OP doesn't mind. My house is about 12 years old and I'm just about to rip out the chipboard T&G floor in the ensuite to replace it prior to tiling. The existing floor is nailed down, not screwed and goes beneath the stud walls on all sides. How do I go about removing the existing floor? Can I just use a circular saw set to the correct depth of the existing chipboard, watching out for any nails heads. The lay of the existing boards is such that if I cut them flush with the skirting, then I'll end up with some edges floating 'inbetween' joists. What do I do? Thanks in advance
Unless the chipboard is in a real "state" , I would just overboard it with minimum 12mm ply - and screw the old chipboard down as well as the ply on top of it .
Thanks for the quick response. If I add another 12mm to the height of the existing floor and then tile it with 10mm thick tiles, won't there be a pronounced step in the doorway between bedroom & ensuite? How do I overcome that? 'She that must be obeyed' won't stand for too much of a step and if she stubbed her toe my life wouldn't be worth living.
Excuse my lack of knowledge on terms used in carpet laying , but you can get metal edging strip (the stuff that goes in doorways) which will fit the carpet height on one edge and the other edge is sloped up to fit a higher level such as your situation , tiles etc , (god, reading it back to myself it sounds awful - hope you understand what I'm on about)- got it in our bathroom , don't really notice the difference in the height between the 2 floors .
Again, thanks for the quick response. After a discussion with STMBO, we've decided to go with laminate flooring in the bedroom once the ensuite is done. I understand what you mean about the threshold strip too. If we eventually go with laminate in the bedroom, then the thickness of the underlay/membrane plus thickness of laminate should be near enough to the thickness of 12mm ply plus 10mm tile so as not to cause too much of a step. This should be acceptable and hopefully no stubbed toes. . Once I've sheeted the floor out in 12mm ply, should I seal it with anything? If so, any recommendations? Thanks for your help
Erm, excuse my ignorance, but I've looked on the BAL site and can't work out what I need. Can you post a link for the right stuff please?
i have been reading on here for a while and plan to tile my front room floor. Good advice but jizzer tends to talk alot of tripe and jump on any bandwagon. I mean sbr - we used that in out concrete and render in the late 90s when i did my time as a bricky, dont use it inside as it is carsongenic. PVA inside. Anyone who uses sbr in confined spaces is a true incompetant fool who is a danger to himself and others working around them.
Can someone explain WHY 25mm WBP is better at resisting flex than 22 T&G Chipboard sheets? I'd have thought that WBP, due to it not having any T&G would, despite being 3mm thicker, flex more at thye joints and thus lead to tiles being more prone to cracking etc?
It's not so much that , but chipboard acts like a sponge when it gets wet and then deforms , ie- swells up , forms dips / bumps and loses its shape fairly easily (even the water resitant type), if it gets wet where there is a screw it swells up around the screw and then breaks up around the screw eventually resulting in it breaking away from the screw and becoming "free" , ply is much more durable when it gets hit with water , anything wood based will expand & contract , that is why you use flexible adhesive . The problem is'nt so much with expansion as such , but with the floors ability to deal with water ingress , and ply deals with it better .
It's not so much the flex, no matter what adhesive & grout you use, water will always find its way under the tiles (albeit in small quantities), chipboard + water = swelling = wavy floor = loose tiles.
You beat me to it press, your answer much more comprehensive than mine, but I think sinewave will know the answer now
BTW have you ever tried Butech tile to wood? (made by Porcelanosa) I have never come across anything that sticks so well, always been a Bal man but this stuff is tremendous.