Help!: balcony tiling !

[caliperkid]

hi i've got a 48m balcony/terrace to price for on to ashfelt, one half is a concrete roof the other half is timber roof. the customer wants frost proof porcelian tiles with a 120mm upstand in the same tile. id like some advise on how to perpare the ahsfelt, was thinking of using 20mm backer boards with flex adhesive and boarding the upstand tapeing the joints then tiling straight onto that but done some research on this forum witch says that ditra matting is the way to go, this is a product witch i've never used (but have seen the video on you tube) my problem is it's quite a ruff serface and rounded in the corners were the roof meets the house. any advise would be welcome.cheers. kev

[doug boardley]

the problem isn't the fact that it's a balcony, it's to do with two different substrates, wood and asphalt, the ditra is an uncoupling membrane that negates the different shear expansions that'll happen. So I'd recommend ditra for this job.
ps, doing a balcony myself at the mo!

[caliperkid]

nice one doug your right thats the way togo do you think its a good idea to use backer boards on the upstand to get away with the curve and have a straight wall to tile the upstand on. ps when i've tiled the upstand the builder is having some lead flashing lapping over it to stop water running down the back. cheers .kev

[doug boardley]

I'd try and persuade customer to have smaller tiles, maybe slither cuts of the main tiles, and follow the curve. That'd be my own preference