tile on tile ???

[bearwithme]

evening guys, have to tile a small kitchen floor and need a bit of advice please. floor is tiled already with 30x30 ceramic tiles. tried telling him why not to , but customer will not pay to have them lifted or get them up himself. keeps saying he accepts what ive told him. Any must do's for prepping,am i right in thinking that i need to use flexible adh and grout? is single part ok? dont like to do this type of job, but had two weeks off with baby so need to take any and all jobs at the min. thanks for the advice. Dave.

[Fekin]

If the exsisting tiles are solid then I'd use a flexi rapid set with flexi grout making sure the old floor tiles have been scrubbed down with sugar soap first to get them clean.

Also if the new tiles are similar sized to the old ones then don't go full tile onto old full tile... stagger the new tile over 2 of the old ones to get a better grip incase any old tiles come loose.

[bearwithme]

cheers fekin, hadnt thought about sugar soap.

[Dave]

Also if the tiles are a Glassy glazed type ( shiny ) then use a highly flexible adhesive to get a better hold..........

[Varley]

Keying the old tiles will also help with adhesion, after cleaning with sugar soap scrub the floor with a half brick or something very coarse to create a key on the old tiles.

[frogeye]

Something to bear in mind with sugar soap is it can leave a residue which can react with whatever is put on the wall/floor next.

How do I know? Cos I painted a wall with emulsion after using sugar soap and the one wall I didn't go over with a clean cloth after sugar soaping it, had the paint peeling off within an hour. It was the only difference I could see between the other 3 walls.

I had to remove that coat, clean wall and repaint - problem solved.

I may have been unlucky with the solution I made up or that batch of paint, but bear it in mind.

frogeye

[Fekin]

Yes, like anything you use to clean a surface prior to tiling, always rinse well before the adhesive goes on.

[Turkish]

That`s interesting! I did a job recently where i tiled onto existing vinyl fllor tiles, cleaned them with sugarsoap first then SBR over the top. Came in next day and the SBR had formed a skin that was peeling more than me in the summer! Could it have been that i didn`t rinse the floor enough after sugarsoaping (Is that a word??!)

Turkish

[Fekin]

Don't think I'd ever dare tile onto vinly floor tiles anyway.