Floor tiling on suspended chipboard floor - do I do same again...........

[marshian]

Background

 

Back in 1991 when we moved in the utility room, kitchen and conservatory had hard vinyl tiles on the floors - they were stuck down with some bitumen type adhesive - took me a good week to get them all up (they chipped and cracked and only came up in little bits) and then getting what was left of the floor involved some fairly aggressive solvents.

 

Mrs Alien wanted ceramic tiles for all of them (so I bought enough grey square ceramic floor tiles to do all of them) so after making good the floor I over boarded with 3.5 mm ply nailed to the chipboard and then tile adhesive and tiles. My reason for the over-boarding was if she ever wanted to change the tiles I could lift both tile and ply up in sections and not have to scrape/chip/grind tile adhesive off the chipboard.

 

Now my one big error was not doing wall to wall tiling in both rooms - I did in the conservatory but I did that one first (Hindsight is wonderful) and I only did the floor area in the kitchen up to the kick board and the same in the utility. The downside is it creates a weir if you have any water leaks under the cupboards and you don't notice the leak until it's been happening for a while. (water softener I'm looking at you now)

 

So right now I'm embarking on re-doing the utility (kitchen is next as I'm transferring some of the wall and floor units to the utility before the new kitchen arrives in Nov/Dec) it's a 2m x 2m room that is now empty and I'm replacing most of the floor because it wasn't great last time I tiled it (think floor areas under units that looked like dried out wheatabix) 

 

I spent Saturday lifting the tiles and over-boarding - once I'd got a start point a decent pry bar, claw hammer and bolster meant it lifted fairly easily in small sections. I could then take outside and with tile face down fold the ply to break it on the grout lines and I ended up with a half full wheelie bin 

 

So the current plan is new chipboard floor - 3.5mm ply over-boarding (stapled) and then wall to wall tiled and grouted before units are moved in.

 

Am I missing an alternative method - neither kitchen or Utility are a wet room but both have wet services!!

 

 

 

 

[Andeh]

Tiling on a chipboard floor i think needs more then that 3.5mm for over boarding, closely to 10mm screwed every 150 I think is best practise.

 

Most modern homes with tiles installed, it's not long before you spot the cracks along the joint lines where they haven't removed the flex in the subfloor.

[marshian]

1 minute ago, Andeh said:

Tiling on a chipboard floor i think needs more then that 3.5mm for over boarding, closely to 10mm screwed every 150 I think is best practise.

 

Most modern homes with tiles installed, it's not long before you spot the cracks along the joint lines where they haven't removed the flex in the subfloor.

interesting point thanks for that - current tiles have been down since 1994 - never re-grouted in that time and none was missing till I started lifting sections - floor joists are less than 400 mm centres with 18mm T&G chipboard. I'm a bit hesitant to increase over-boarding thickness because it will create a step at the threshold between rooms and adjoining hallway

[Gus Potter]

1 hour ago, marshian said:

Back in 1991 when we moved in the utility room, kitchen and conservatory had hard vinyl tiles on the floors

Consider a decoupling mat, even if to rule out. 

[marshian]

9 minutes ago, Gus Potter said:

Consider a decoupling mat, even if to rule out. 

What is that or should I google?

[crispy_wafer]

If you are putting a new floor deck down, would ply be a better option than chip?

[marshian]

24 minutes ago, crispy_wafer said:

If you are putting a new floor deck down, would ply be a better option than chip?

 

Possibly - not sure on what advantage that would give me?

[Super_Paulie]

I took the advice of big Nicky and put 6mm ply over the chipboard, notched PVA comb and then an unholy amount of screws.

 

 

[marshian]

5 minutes ago, Super_Paulie said:

I took the advice of big Nicky and put 6mm ply over the chipboard, notched PVA comb and then an unholy amount of screws.

 

 

 

I'm not counting the screws............................... (It's a lot!!!)