Help!: Chipboard

[spen185]

Hello, would love some advice from some experienced tilers, i have 15m2 floor with standard chipboard down as the base, tiler has come round and said that he can fix straight to it with a PVA primer down first, then he will use a single part S1 cement based adhesive, the tiles are 12" x 12" ceramic. Someone else informed me that this is not OK as the chipboard will suck the water from the adhesive and make the adhesive brittle, please help!!

[Sir Ramic]

PVA ??? Oh gawd not again. PVA is a no no with tiling.
Tiling onto chipboard is also a no no in my book. Always over ply with tile backer boards. While this does not add strength it does give a perfect surface to tile to. The original chipboard floor must be free of deflection 1st though....i hope its not a floating floor ?

[cowgomoo]

Hiyo Spen, tiling onto chipboard is a no no for lots of reasons - same goes for the use of pva - AVOID. You can use a decoupling membrane called Watec which is designed for just such a substrate then you can Duke your tiles on top of that. Lose the tiler who said it was ok as I think it a safe bet that he will not think it ok to come back and fix you floor gratis when it inevitably fails. If you cant find Watec get back to me and I will give you details. Cow.

[andy allen]

is it a floating floor (insulation with chipboard over the top) devo no nto the pva or tiling on to chip board

[spen185]

No not floating floor, but tiler claims he has used this rated adhesive on floating floor jobs before!

[andy allen]

i would get another tiler if it were me theres plenty on the forum

[Sir Ramic]

We can only offer our advice. Its up to you which way you go from here. Spend some time on the forum researching chipboard floors and then decide. Good luck.

[spen185]

Thanks very much for the quick responses, i think i get the message!!

[spen185]

One last question, should the tiler know this, is this standard across the industry that you do not tile to chipboard?

[Stewart]

If he's a tiler, he should know this......

[david campbell]

i've never tiled onto chipboard,i have heard of it done in small areas like an en-suite(1/2m2) and being fine but i wouldn't recommend it

[Dave]

Hello, would love some advice from some experienced tilers, i have 15m2 floor with standard chipboard down as the base, tiler has come round and said that he can fix straight to it with a PVA primer down first, then he will use a single part S1 cement based adhesive, the tiles are 12" x 12" ceramic. Someone else informed me that this is not OK as the chipboard will suck the water from the adhesive and make the adhesive brittle, please help!!

Tiler 1

said that he can fix straight to it with a PVA primer down first, then he will use a single part S1 cement based adhesive,

He is wrong..

Tiler 2

Said that this is not OK as the chipboard will suck the water from the adhesive and make the adhesive brittle,

He is wrong as well..


Over boarding is the option here..

[cornish_crofter]

Only a few months ago I had to remove tiles from a chipboard floor. The floor had flexed and the tiles simply lifted off without any effort.

The customer was NOT happy. The tiler had done a wonderful job on the floor. He got everything right apart from the preperation

The customer didn't want to pay the cost of strengthening the floor etc, so she opted for that bathroom laminate after we looked at all the wood floor options and none were suitable apart from bamboo, and she didn't like the colours it came in.

[diamondtiling]

This guy is not even remotely a tiler.

Please follow the advice above.

[tfs]

There are many tilers who have served their time who do not yet know that chipboard is not an ideal surface to tile to. As a result tilers still do it. Manufacturers also produce adhesives (usualy with admix) that are said to be suitable for over chipboard but, the honest truth is that it is risky due to the characteristics of this type of substrate.

There are some tilers who still think PVA is a great idea, untill a fe wyears ago people on this forum didnt even know that it was unwise to use PVA!

Tell your tiler to have a look on this forum to see whay it is no longer the choice of an 'informed' professional tiler to use PVA anymore.

In my experience it is those who do not take the time to research up to date industry standards and regulations who continue to work to older and dated standards in tiling. They may not use the internet much or may be a small one man band who never take on work that has been specified by an architect etc.

With this in mind I wouldnt be too harsh on him, it may be purely down to him working this wy for so long and he doesnt know any better. I am very confiedent that many good tilers used pva at some point in the past.

AS for my opinion, I would choose to oversheet with ply or cement backer board prior to tiling. If a primer is required 9 times out of 10 I choose to use primer G from Mapie unless it is a specific surface.

[cornish_crofter]

What a great post!

That is all so true.