Tile flooring Question

[Eisele]

I am going to be putting a ceramic tile floor in my kitchen to replace the 1 by 1 inlaid square tiles that are currently glued to louwan over my subfloor. My question is should I rip up the louwan and put the hardy backer on the subfloor or shuold I put the hardy backer right on the louwan. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

[wallis54806]

I would take it down to the sub-floor and then a good tile backer. This is assuming you have a plywood sub-floor. If it is 1" boards, you may need plywood then tile backer.

 

[Jack Straw]

Home depot has rolls of this stuff that you put down instead of the backer board. It's in the tile isle, but it seems expensive. Today is the 1st day I have ever seen it. You may want to check it out.

 

[mayhem]

I just saw it the other day too. Not sure how well it works or not...but it sure is alot lighter than lugging around 3x5 sheets of cement.

I agree with Guardguy...take it down to the subfloor and put own a good backer. If you're gonna do it, do it right. Helps make the room to room transition more even too.

 

[mjwendorf]

You have to take the leuon up and depending on what your sub floor is will determain what your next step will be. If it is an old house it may have planking for a sub floor, if this is the case you need to put down 1/2 in plywood. Also if it is partical board you have to take it up and replace with ply wood. If there is plywood under the leuon all you need is a 1/4 in backer board. The roll out stuff is called Easy Mat and is a great product easy to cut and light. Is a cheaper if you get it from an actual tile store.

 

[burntime]

I just tiled my bathroom. Went to the plywood, mortar bed with a quarter inch trowel, screwed in durock over that, then thinset and tile. Its like walking on concrete...any movement will crack the grout so it has to be solid.

 

[Eisele]

Thanks for the tips the luewan will definately be coming up.

 

[d.n.f.]

Home depot has rolls of this stuff that you put down instead of the backer board. It's in the tile isle, but it seems expensive. Today is the 1st day I have ever seen it. You may want to check it out.

That orange stuff? Forgot the name. I put in in my kitchen. The previous floor was done over plywood and cracked. You don't install over plywood.
The stuff rules. It is waterproof and you can bring it up the sides if you need to (say in a bathroom).
I paid an installer to help me tile it because I wanted to see it installed. I have seen the video on install (Mike Holmes uses it all the time) and it looks easy but I have never installed tile before.
My installer says more and more people using it. He loves it. The floor acts as a unit and kind of floats (not really).
He says it should never crack again.

Schluter ditra is the name (just thought of it).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6FyWs2WZ1k

 

[Jack Straw]

Home depot has rolls of this stuff that you put down instead of the backer board. It's in the tile isle, but it seems expensive. Today is the 1st day I have ever seen it. You may want to check it out.

That orange stuff? Forgot the name. I put in in my kitchen. The previous floor was done over plywood and cracked. You don't install over plywood.
The stuff rules. It is waterproof and you can bring it up the sides if you need to (say in a bathroom).
I paid an installer to help me tile it because I wanted to see it installed. I have seen the video on install (Mike Holmes uses it all the time) and it looks easy but I have never installed tile before.
My installer says more and more people using it. He loves it. The floor acts as a unit and kind of floats (not really).
He says it should never crack again.

Schluter ditra is the name (just thought of it).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6FyWs2WZ1k

I saw the orange stuff which I believe is for high moisture areas. The other stuff looked like rolled cork and said it was for floors and countertops. I think it was $60 a roll.

 

[d.n.f.]

Not just for high moisture areas.
It stabilizes the whole floor. You should never get cracks even if the house settles (in theory).

It adds about 1.50 per foot though so it can get expensive.

Really easy to install and then install on top of.

I will use it again when I lay tile on my next tile job. Bathroom. They also make a really cool looking shower system. Not sure I am going to tile a shower though as I find an insert easier to keep clean.

 

[Jack Straw]

Not just for high moisture areas.
It stabilizes the whole floor. You should never get cracks even if the house settles (in theory).

It adds about 1.50 per foot though so it can get expensive.

Really easy to install and then install on top of.

I will use it again when I lay tile on my next tile job. Bathroom. They also make a really cool looking shower system. Not sure I am going to tile a shower though as I find an insert easier to keep clean.

That's a big 10-4 on the insert, we have tile now and we wish it was an insert.

 

[dvellone]

what size tiles are you planning to install?

 

[Gooserider]

For real solid tiling advice, I'm partial to the John-Bridge "Tile your World" website (no link handy, but I know it's been mentioned here before, use the search) - the big thing that you have to be certain of is that your floor is sufficiently solid that it won't flex and cause the tile job to fail. The site mentioned has a calculator to help figure that out - and if it doesn't say you are stiff enough, then you need to either improve the floor, or go to a different floor treatment (the second would probably be easier / less expensive)

If the original floor was tile, probably no issue, but if it was something else, I'd want to be really sure before going to tile.

Gooserider