Announcement

**LazyPup** · 02-11-2005, 12:53 PM

Ceramic tile is a rigid non-flexible product, therefore backerboard is required when laying tile over a wood subfloor. Concrete on the otherhand is also non-flexible so tile may be laid directly upon the concrete without any additional subfloor materials other than to possible float the concrete with a floor leveler product to insure a level surface. Normally ceranic tile is set with a thin set mastic product which would suffice as the floor leveling material.

**floorman** · 02-11-2005, 08:38 PM

There are few things to consider before you tile on this slab.
1)How old is this slab?
2)Is there any history of water or moisture?
3)Is there slab cracked?Does it have saw cuts (control joints)?
What you want to do is to do a mat test on this slab before you proceed.Take some 6 mil plastic and cut them into 1 x1 foot squares and tape them to the floor using duct tape and seal the edges,laeve for 24 hours and check to see what is under afetr the 24 hours if there is excessive moisture under the plastic then get a calcium chloride test to see how much moisture is present cause you can set tile on wet slabs but there is a limit so you will need to see what that is.
You may also want to consider using a membrane for the floor as well but there are limitations to this too,so again we are back at the moisture test.
How much tile we talkin here?If only a little bathroom or something maybe you would want to roll the dice and see what happens?Get back to us and let us know what we are talkin about tile wise and we can give you a better idea of what to do[8D]

Floorman
floorlayers union local 1310

**henthebird** · 02-18-2005, 12:03 PM

Hi,

I am attempting to do the same thing. I have a concrete base (I have a townhome). And I would like to tile the foyer which is about a 5x5 space. Is there anything I should know before trying to attempt this? Like how do you know if the floor is level, and what do you do if it isn't?

Do I need to remove the border from the space? There is linoleum there at the moment. I am mainly attempting this to make the space nice, more durable and hopefully to improve the resale of my home. Any advice or good sites with pictures and clear cut tips?

Thanks!