Hi all,

i live in a modern style house and having problems with cracking grout on the kitchen floor.

The house has a concrete floor, with a visquine membrane followed by 50mm poly insulation with 22mm chipboard floating on top.

On this is 6mm blue underfloor heating boards(a polystryne type!) with warm-up heating wires, then tiles, using a flexible grout.

The problem is the grout is cracking which would indicate the tiles are moving, any help to solve this without removing the tiles ie some other form of grout, if not what would the boards adhesive etc would be best to use on a new install

Many Thanks
John

...OH!!!! John.....Floating floors..NOoooooooo.....


Welcome to tilers forums...

What adhesive was used,,?

not sure, he did ring his supplier and was told what to use ?

John....IMO Floating floors are a no no to tile without UFH never mind with UFH...

You have a floating substrate with no attempted overlay to strenghten it.....

Honestly john...I think you have probs....

Did your tiler know it was a floating floor and did he not mention any overlaying of ply etc...? I doubt the insulation boards are gunna give strength..

so basically i should rip up and start again, what would you advise ? i am limited to height so not to be higher than the karndean flooring in the house,

how about if i strip down to the chipboard flooring, then over board in a thin marine ply maybe about 6mm ??? then re-lay heating wires.

what adhesive should be used, and grout ?

thanks for this its very much appreaciated

John.....In my opinion mate...Floating floors should not be tiled....never...too much deflection for long term tile installation..

ok, when we bought the house the floor was tiled and the rest on the estate are, ours was ok until they were changed so just a bit unsure what to do now

Was it a tiler who did it or yourself..?

Hi John welcome to the forums,

You will not be able to lift up the ufh and re-lay it, You will have to buy new.
if you opt for the reinforced insulation boards rather than just the insulation (blue), these will give a little more strength to the floor. Please have a look at Underfloor Heating | Floor Insulation | Uheat and Underfloor Heating 160W | Electric | Uheat

As for the best adhesive etc to use the most flexible type is using a normal rapidset and use it with an additive. I am sure the guys on here will recommend a good one.

If you have any further questions about the ufh then please give me a call.

was a tiler who laid it, will chop his fingers off if i see him !!!!

just getting worried about using backing boards and the tiles cost £3k and i will have to get new underfloor heating and tiles so need to be 200% right this time from the start,

John

John,

How long ago was the install done? You need to find out if the tiler was aware that the kitchen floor was floating and used the correct materials to suit it.

You said that the previously installed flooring in your kitchen was fine with no problems. Did the tiler do an assessment of what was already down before he started to figure out what was needed?

I'm not a tiler and the best I can offer at the moment is that the pro tilers on here will give the best advice they can, based on the information you can give them.

Have you called the tiler back in to show him what's happened to the grout?

GRR

Originally Posted by johnhargate

was a tiler who laid it, will chop his fingers off if i see him !!!!

just getting worried about using backing boards and the tiles cost £3k and i will have to get new underfloor heating and tiles so need to be 200% right this time from the start,

John

John,

When you are ready for it, give me a call and i will sort you out a good deal. Will be a lot cheaper than you paid for Warmup and our products come with a lifetime gaurantee.

where abouts are you?

tiler wont return calls, the floor was tiled from new prior to our purchase. so i am left with starting again, so can anyone give me the best way to start

Originally Posted by johnhargate

tiler wont return calls, the floor was tiled from new prior to our purchase. so i am left with starting again, so can anyone give me the best way to start

If the tiles are not loose, carefully remove the grout without damaging the wire, then with Bal GT1 and Bal Super flex grout, use almost neat mixture with very little water added to the flexible grout.
Worth a try?
Gary.