Anti Cracking Mat for Floor Tiles

ECO_Mental

Hi,

Building a house and now doing the tiling and the builder is recommending that we put down an Anti Cracking Mat for the tiles. We have big 1200x600 porcelain tiles in our kitchen with underfloor heating. Thing is the price of it around €2400 for the kitchen and all the bathrooms....

Is this necessary???hopefully not

Thanks

10-10-20

That sounds like a decoupling membrane. Is it really that price? How many m2?

https://www.schluter.co.uk/uncoupling-membranes.aspx

It will prevent cracks from within the concrete floor slab from projecting into the tiles. It's insurance for your large-format tiles.

Required? No, but how else can he guarantee that the tiles don't crack from shrinkage and expansion as the floor moves?

joebloggs123

We have it throughout the house. Kitchen/hall tiles haven't cracked with it but one of the ensuites has.

We used ditra matt and it has been in for approximately 3 years now. Also noticing a clicking noise when we walk on certain sections of the tiles.

We spent the money so we wouldn't have unsighlty looking cracks in our floors. Not sure I'm convinced based on the above

ECO_Mental

Called my engineer and mentioned it them and when they are building new houses they never really put it down. My floor is a reinforced concrete floor with lots of steel in it and has been down for nearly a year at this stage so I'm going to take the risk which I think is VERY small. Also called my tile supplier and they said that they don't normally put it down and if they do its only between floor surfaces that have been poured at different times say around front doors. But he did mention to prime the concrete floor first and to use flexible adhesive and grout, so thats what Im going to do...

Lumen

The main reason I would use a membrane is to make taking the tiles up easier.

Removing tiles bonded to a concrete floor must rank as one of the worst jobs in the world.