DIY Related: tiling a kitchen for a friend. advise needed please

[bigclive]

Hi, my names clive, and i am tiling a friends kitchen. (first time floor tiling)

Details of the job are:

The flooring is green chipboad t&g.
Tiles I believe are porcelain (but mabe ceramic) I cant remember off the top of my head lol.
I am going to be using flexi adhesive and grout, probably bal as ive read this is the best stuff to use (as this is what ive read in all the forums ive searched)

*There is virtually no movement in the chipboard flooring.
*The kitchen is very narrow (only 130cm wide) by 519cm long. The kitchen is wider than 130cm but the rest is covered by side units on each side of the kitchen so under the units will NOT be tiled or covered by wbp ply. I am going to overboard with 12mm wbp plywood.

apart from using pva to seal the back and sides of the ply is there anything else that i should be aware of before starting to lay the tiles? do i really need to use some kind of backbaord (as i have read) as well or should it be ok on just the ply?
I am trying to keep my friends costs down. but also want to make sure the tiles stick like sh** to a shovel lol.

any advice on this will be greatly appreciated.
regards
clive

[whitebeam]

Don't pva, my preference would be 6mm hardie backer board, layed on to the floor with single part flexible adhesive then screw the boards boards down..

[bigclive]

The cost of the backer boards on top of the ply would be to high for my friend. how about instead of using the ply boards, i just used no more ply 6mm and tiled straight onto that?

[whitebeam]

Thats what I would do and use 25mm turbo screws from screwfix but make sure there no bounce on the floor...

Use a 6mm notched trowel on the floor for the addy.

[bigclive]

thanks for the help, no more ply is on order. start the job weds. if anyone has any other tips to add i would love to hear them.

[grumpygrouter]

Yes....forget the PVA, it has no place in tiling. Also check out other adhesives like Mapei or Weber. Just as good as BAL but usually a bit cheaper. (Nothing wrong woith BAL but it is quite expensive). Also as it is your first time tiling, I would use a standard setting adhesive, not quick setting....especially as it is starting to get warmer!!

[bigclive]

thanks for the advice, I will take that on board when buying the addy. im going to lay directly onto the no more ply boards now, (there being delivered weds) ive scrapped the overlay ply boards (as my friend cant afford both lol). the current chipboard t&g flooring is quite solid so i think i will get away with out overlaying with ply. (fingers crossed) lol

[bigclive]

Yes....forget the PVA, it has no place in tiling. Also check out other adhesives like Mapei or Weber. Just as good as BAL but usually a bit cheaper. (Nothing wrong woith BAL but it is quite expensive). Also as it is your first time tiling, I would use a standard setting adhesive, not quick setting....especially as it is starting to get warmer!!

Hi is this the stuff your recomending?

Mapei Keraflex Grey 5kg

(forgot to ask, what size should i do the joints at? some sites ive read say 2mm and others say 4mm lol.)

[grumpygrouter]

Hi is this the stuff your recomending?

Mapei Keraflex Grey 5kg

(forgot to ask, what size should i do the joints at? some sites ive read say 2mm and others say 4mm lol.)

Yes that will be fine for adhseive though you need bigger bags!! As for the grout joint, it is personal preference of the client but please bear in mind that British Standards for joints on the floor are min 3mm and personally with a flexible substrate such as yours i would be looking at 4mm. Indeed, I am soon to be doing a very small WC floor and I will be using a 4mm joint. You need to have very well made, accurate tiles to accommodate a 2mm joint on the floor.

[bigclive]

thanks for the tips, 4mm it will be.
as for the bigger bags, yer i knew i would need more, screwfix is the only place i can find it in milton keynes at the moment and thats the only size bags they seem to do lol, will keep searching google to try and find a stockist with bigger bags lol. ive got roughly 7-8 square meters in all to cover, how many kg's do you think i will need to cover this area?

(thanks for all your advice so far, it is very appreceiated).

[grumpygrouter]

I would get 2 20kg bags, look to use a 10mm half round trowel and you must get a solid adhesive bed.

Try Tile Giant or CTD for the adhesive if you have one near. Failing that, Buildfix flexible from B&Q is made by Mapei!!

[bigclive]

cheers for that tip, we do have a tile giant in MK :¬)

[bigclive]

sorry to keep posting questions lol,
i have noticed that the white addy is a lot more expensive than the grey addy, the tiles im laying are white, would i get away with using the grey addy and then using white grout?
I know this may seem like a stupid question lol.

[Bri]

Unless you can work very cleanly and ensure no grey adhesive is left in the grout joints, use white, or you may end up with spots of grey showing through in the grout. As a rule of thumb, dark grout use grey adhesive, light grout use white adhesive.

[bigclive]

kk, thanks very much for that, i shall get the white as i want this job to be perfect.
one last final question lol, ive just been loking for 10mm half round trowel but none of the sites ive been looking at state half round lol.

I have found this in b&q, though im not 100% this is the type your recommending lol

Ragni Notched Tiler's Trowel 10mm

[diamondtiling]

That trowel will be fine, just check for 100% coverage by lifting a tile and having a look, you dont want to have any voids when you have finished.

[bigclive]

cool, thanks everyone for all your help. this is a great forum with great members. if i have any problems i shall be back to pick your brains lol.
once again many many thanks to everyone who has helped me on this project.

[diamondtiling]

No problem at all Clive, just pass the forum details onto your friends, if we can help them to avoid problems or a dodgy cowboy tiler then we have done our job.

[whitebeam]

kk, thanks very much for that, i shall get the white as i want this job to be perfect.
one last final question lol, ive just been loking for 10mm half round trowel but none of the sites ive been looking at state half round lol.

I have found this in b&q, though im not 100% this is the type your recommending lol

Ragni Notched Tiler's Trowel 10mm

I bought one from B&Q and find I use it for bigger wall tiles rather than the floor.