Hello and how do i fix this? - Tile Advice

[Roobert mcgowan]

Hi all

Fairly new to tiling game and appears to be lots to learn. Came across my first "unusual" substrate today - ceramic tiles attached directly to a floor made up of non-marine 18mm mdf , no ply or backer board used. Lifted existing tiles and Floor also has a concrete section where i guess a fireplace used to be and also a section with what looks like bitumen tiles underneath. What do i use to make this "good" for tiling?

Bob

 

[Flintstone]

What have you got now? Have you taken up the tiles and mdf ?

 

[Roobert mcgowan]

I still have the mdf with the old adhesive. To rip up the floor would need the kitchen removed and is beyond my pay grade. Been looking at arditex na but not sure if i need sbr slurry to key it first?

 

[Bond]

MDF as far as l know , isn't strong enough to be used as a flooring material. ( not designed for that purpose).

Also standard MDF can swell if it comes into contact with moisture. So all round a poor choice.

 

[Dumbo]

Is it possible to cut the mdf next to the kitchen legs . If have done this before with water damaged chipboard .

 

[Roobert mcgowan]

Hi all

Thanks for the replies. So as it turns out there is 18mm marine chipboard under the 18mm ply. I think some bright spark has mistaken mdf for ply and used it as backer for the tiles. I spoke to a tiler in topps and he recommended sealing the mdf part of the floor with 3:1 sbr primer and the concrete with an sbr sand slurry then using adrditex na slc if i was insistent that the mdf was not coming up. He said there would be no manufacturer who woild guarantee this setup though. On top off the slc is 3:1 sbr primer then 10mm marmox applied with s1 adhesive. Tiles are going on with s1 too. The floor is pretty ridgid and hardly deflects at all when jumping on it. i'm hoping this will be good enough

 

[Bond]

Unconventional, however , it should be sound enough.

 

[Dumbo]

Hi all

Thanks for the replies. So as it turns out there is 18mm marine chipboard under the 18mm ply. I think some bright spark has mistaken mdf for ply and used it as backer for the tiles. I spoke to a tiler in topps and he recommended sealing the mdf part of the floor with 3:1 sbr primer and the concrete with an sbr sand slurry then using adrditex na slc if i was insistent that the mdf was not coming up. He said there would be no manufacturer who woild guarantee this setup though. On top off the slc is 3:1 sbr primer then 10mm marmox applied with s1 adhesive. Tiles are going on with s1 too. The floor is pretty ridgid and hardly deflects at all when jumping on it. i'm hoping this will be good enough

Rather than sbr sand slurry mix it might be easier to use something like Mapei ecoprim which is a textured primer ..