I am going to be tiling over the old ceramic tiles in our kitchen, the tiles are old (50,s council house) and quite rough from years of bleaching/cleaning. Can anyone recommend an adhesive that is fast setting and available from the likes of B&Q, Wickes etc? Any advice given on doing the job would be appreciated as this is my first time doing tiling, many thanks...........Martin

Welcome to the forums.

Best advice you will get is to take the tiles up and start from scratch, you have no idea what the floor is like beneath the tiles. They may have de-bonded and you could ruin the new tiles. Get an sds drill with a chisel attachment and they will be up in a matter of hours. You can then inspect the floor and remedy it if needed. Get your adhesive from a tile supplier such as Tilegiant.

B and spew, wickes etc sell diy materials at inflated prices.

I wouldnt reccomend tiling over tiles and i certainly wouldnt reccomend buying adhesive from the likes of B&Q and Wickes. Some of the adhesives they sell is good ( Buildfix is Mapei) but you will get cheaper from the likes of TileGiant .

Originally Posted by Sir Ramic

I wouldnt reccomend tiling over tiles and i certainly wouldnt reccomend buying adhesive from the likes of B&Q and Wickes. Some of the adhesives they sell is good ( Buildfix is Mapei) but you will get cheaper from the likes of TileGiant .

Intelligent minds think alike Neale.........................

Just noticed that a lot of guests are viewing this thread, why don't you register guys and join the party, the more the merrier.



If you do register then mention this post, it would be interesting to see the results.

Now, back to the question in hand.

Thanks for the prompt replies, the reason for wanting to leave the old tiles down is that several large areas of the floor are concreted to the level of the tiling, these were the areas where the original sink stood etc, to try and remove that would be a nightmare........Martin

Martin, work out what you have paid for the tiles and adhesive and then add all your time into that figure. It will be a considerable amount and you could end up just throwing it down the drain, any problem can be remedied so once the tiles are up just screed that area to match the concrete, you will have to put an expansion joint in between the old and new floor which is easy. More prep now will result in less problems in the future.

I assume that the areas you mention will be in more than one place so placing expansion joints could look bad.
I would go with what Diamond says but use a decoupling membrane such as Dural Ci.

I meant an expansion joint between the screeds and under the tiles and the membrane is the way forward.

Hey sorry to bring back up an old thread. I am just wondering what you mean by an expansion joint between the tiles and the screed. Isn't it ok to screed over the concrete and then tile over that with floor tile adshive.