Tiling

cantwbr1

I am planning to tile the floor of a small upstairs bathroom. It has tongue and groove pine floorboards. Do I need to do anything to the floor before I tile it.

livingthedream

Dunno if it's recommended or not but I was in a similar situation and I placed a sheet of thin plywood over the floorboards (screwed down in a few places) and then tiled over it.

My logic being that if I ever got tired of those tiles and wanted to go back to plain floorboards etc then it would be a lot cleaner to just break away the tiles and lift the gunk encrusted plywood sheet off revealing a largely perfect set of floorboards...

Cheers,

LTD

runawaybishop

Are you taking the floorboards off?

cantwbr1

No. Was hoping to tile directly onto the floorboards.

Citroen2cv

Yes I would recommend putting down a sheet of thin WBP ply on top of the floorboards, as the floorboards can expand contract at differnt rates, which may cause cracks along grout joints. Be careful where your screws go, dont wanna go puncturing pipes. Also when mixing the adhesive, it may be no harm to add a plasticiser to the mix along with the water.

Tom Joad

Marine Plywood over the floorboards being careful not to hit any pipes when you are screwing it down and you have a good waterproof solid base to work on. Use flexible adhesive also if possible.

runawaybishop

cantwbr1 wrote: »

No. Was hoping to tile directly onto the floorboards.

If there is any flex in the floor your tiles may crack, or at least the grout will crack. Screw down some ply and use a flexible adhesive+grout.

homer911

also screw down any creaking floorboards first..

I paid a guy to do this for me via onlinetradesman.com

Did a great job I must say - he removed the sink and toilet, tiled under them and replaced everything - much better than tiling around the sanitary ware..

(He even swept up his sawdust after cutting the ply outdoors!)

cantwbr1

If I lay plywood before tiling it will raise the floor by ~20mm which will knock the toilet outlet out of alignment with the the outlet pipe through the wall (see photo). How do I deal with this?

dodzy

cantwbr1 wrote: »

If I lay plywood before tiling it will raise the floor by ~20mm which will knock the toilet outlet out of alignment with the the outlet pipe through the wall (see photo). How do I deal with this?

Not a problem

http://www.goodwins.ie/p-11835-multiwick-offset-c8642.aspx

Or if you want more flexibility, you could cut 20cm off that soil pipe and attach this:

http://www.goodwins.ie/p-11829-multiwick-flexible-pan-conn-c8646.aspx

Don't forget to plane the bottom of the door.

cantwbr1

Thanks for that

cantwbr1

I did the tiling without problem and refitted the toilet, also without problem. My sink had to be moved up ~20mm and now I have a gap on the waste outlet from the sink. The PVC joints/elbows are fused so I haven't been able to separate them to put in a longer piece. Any suggestions about how to separate them.

maxamillius

cantwbr1 wrote: »

I did the tiling without problem and refitted the toilet, also without problem. My sink had to be moved up ~20mm and now I have a gap on the waste outlet from the sink. The PVC joints/elbows are fused so I haven't been able to separate them to put in a longer piece. Any suggestions about how to separate them.

They are more then likely cemented together,you may have to cut them and remake your joints!

cantwbr1

maxamillius wrote: »

They are more then likely cemented together,you may have to cut them and remake your joints!

Is there any way to dissolve the cement?

sullzz

Would this get you out of trouble http://www.plumbingproducts.ie/product.php?id_product=1414 , once waste fittings are glued you cant get them apart again

red sean

cantwbr1 wrote: »

Is there any way to dissolve the cement?

In a word: no! :mad: