Morning all! As most of you know im not full time and still in the starting up phase of mostly family and friends... I've just been to my Nanna's house as she wants the bathroom and hall way floor tiling as the lino has been chewed by the dog! lol.

Now my Nanna lives on her own as my Grandad passed away last year and just before so he had to replace the toilet and in doing so he had trouble with the concrete drain underneith. Im not quite sure what, but for this reason my Nanna is very funny about me pulling it out, plus its the only toilet she has.

However if it was to stay in, i'd have to work/cut around a toilet, a sink and a bedet.

Now the second problem, its T&G board suspended floor, its a ground floor, but a bungalow, its sturdy as hell, im 13stone, and jumping on it its not flexing. So i was thinking I could overboard with 6mm cement board and tile that, or use a decoupling membrain for the first time. Do either of these routes sound ok? overboarding with ply will make a large transition that she doesnt want.

And in doing this would you say that cutting around all the obstacles is ok, or would you recommend taking them up, i know ill get a better finish if i take everything up.

Chris

I have a photo of the floorboards if this helps, but i cant upload it on mt GF laptop because of the stupid firewall, so ill do it when im home

decoupling mat wont make any difference but if your sure there is absolutly no movement whatsover in the floor you could get away with overboarding with cement board, being a bungalow theres a good chance that there are brick dwarf walls supporting the floor and this will prevent deflection, you could pop a board and have a looksee to confirm this

Hi Chris,

I would advise that the floorboards be taken up and replaced with min 18mm plywood screwed at 200mm centres and primed on the underside and edges, because, floorboards are too volatile a surface due to absorbing moisture from underneath and they will always be expanding and contracting, which would crack the cement board. Once you have fitted the ply, you can tile onto that directly. Whether it needs priming on the surface, is down to the adhesive manufacturers' requirements. Unfortunately that does mean that all the pedestals have to come out, but you could always do the area around the toilet first so that the toilet can be put straight back in. I would always try and get the sanitaryware on top of the tiles if possible, but you need to make sure that the pipework can cope with the extra height. If you are fixing stone tiles, you will need ditra or dural (or equivalent)matting over the ply too.

Where floorboards are concerned, It's never an easy option.

my first thought was to replace the boards but if Nanna is insistant she doesnt want her pan removed what option do you have

With you on that Mike You typed that a lot quicker too, it takes me ages to get my messages up, that's why I only do it when the forums quiet, 'cos I can never beat you forum hardened typers

bloody customers/family hey!! haha. I think i will give her a couple of options and let her decide, but im going to advice that cost wise, replacing the lino is the easiest option. I have recently done a simular job, removed everything and replaced with 18mm WBP and then cement board to tile too. but money wasnt a problem on that job, where to a single pensioner it is. Here is the substraite anyway guys



I think she will turn her nose up at pulling up the floor, especially as theres not exactly anything up with it either lol. Sometimes the perfect methord and real world clash, I found this on a previous job that I quoted, they decided that I was to expensive because I wanted to do the job properly.

Chris

its a difficult one to call and being family makes it worse,I know what you mean , im losing a lot more than im winning but what do you do when you know how it should be done and how long it will take then some monkey seriously undercuts you, you cant win you can only keep trying

I agree, however the customer needs to think, what shortcuts are they making to get to a lower price. The customer only have them selves to blame if they accept an undercut quote and things go wrong. IMHO anyways.

Screw the floorboards down (mind any pipe work) and use the cement boards. It will be tricky cutting round that pan though with the boards and tiles

Thats what im thinking scottley. not ideal i agree but i shall give the options and see what happens.

You could always send her out to bingo for the day and whip the pan out while she isnt looking

Chris 6mm cement board is fine. I recommend hardiebacker. Put it down with flex adhesive instead of screwing. Alternativly take a look at a product called durabase excellent stuff.

Cheers Colli, on a previous job ive used it, but only screwed it down as its what i was told. seemed solid enough but worryed now haha.