Help!: Where to start with relaying porch floor with tiles

[NathanM]

Evening, many things went wrong with this first house of mine, I've managed to put most right but it has literally drained every last penny I had in the last 4 years. The final thing I'm now stuck with in my penniless state is sorting the entrance floor.

It was tiled with Wooliscoft Ironstone tiles, laid on a thick cement bed. Many had cracked, some were just unstuck, and there was efflouresence coming up like fluff in the tile joints. The entrance smells damp and soily and so I got to work on it tonight.

As I took up the top tiles I started to see a Victorian tile base below it and had hopes of reverting back to a lovely Victorian entrance. I was soon bereft of any further hope.
http://www.tilersforums.co.uk/member...-entrance1.jpg
http://www.tilersforums.co.uk/member...-entrance2.jpg
http://www.tilersforums.co.uk/member...-entrance3.jpg

I broke out the cement mix, (60mm deep in places) and picked up the base that was below the orginal tiles, which, for the most part, was stuck to the cement anyway, and got down to the black sintered/slag layer that seems to be everywhere around my house when I dig a few inches. I'm working on the principle that I need to bottom the job before I start putting it right, so here I am, about 60mm all round lower the the surface I started with (which was 25mm higher than the original tiles) and I'm struggling to make sense of what to do next.

http://www.tilersforums.co.uk/member...-entrance4.jpg
http://www.tilersforums.co.uk/member...-entrance5.jpg

To the front of the entrance (as in pic4) there is a big stone step, to both sides there is bare brick, and to the back (pic5) there is both brick, rotten 114 year old ventilation wood panel, and a gap into the floor space.

Do I need to scrape the remaining rubble out? Or just compact it with an earth rammer?
Do I then pour a cement layer in that would fill up to all 4 sides to 50mm deep...ish? OR do I need to somehow engineer gaps at the edges?
Or do I opt for another levelling method?
Do I need to put the replacement tiles down onto the likes of Marmox to keep the damp down?

I'd love to just give someone who knows how the money and leave them to it, but I can't, cos there is no money! At the same time I aboslutely don't want to do a botch job like the one covering the original tiles was. The whole house was botched and it's taken years for me to sort. There was a post I found on here by a guy from Liverpool who had relaid a Victorian hall floor that was damaged and showed loads of pics but I can't find it now, and I'm sure it had some answers in it.

If anyone can help out a stuggling flooring first timer I'd be grateful.
Nathan.

[Bri]

Welcome along to the forum Nathan. Firstly your damp problem needs rectifying, I would lay a membrane before you pour concrete/ cement to bring your floor level back up. Any damp will find it's way back into your tiled floor if you do not eliminate it at stage one. Do you think it could be rising damp? It might be worth getting a specialist to look at it before you go ahead, I understand the cash is tight but a good firm should be able to provide you with some advice for free or a very small cost. It would be more costly to have to do it twice.

[NathanM]

Afternoon Bri,
There is damp, but it's 114 years old so can that ever be sorted? The house has had 2 dpm injections in the past, both useless, and I subsequently read from several people in forums that dpm injections are something of a swindle. The floor exposed in the images is just like any earth and sinter floor I should think, much like what's under the flags in my back yard. I've had some time to ponder on it now and what I'm going to do first is scrape a little more earth/sinters out to get a good level, try to replace the vent board that has rotted, put down a visqueen membrane glued at the joints and wrapping up a few inches at the sides with a level wooden frame at the edges then pour in a concrete mix. Once it's set I'll remove the frame so air can get round the edges and I think I'm going to try to go down a route of putting marine board on the conrete and then match the laminate in the front room so that the stepped level is removed leaving the room and porch on one level.

Does that sound like incoherent rambling or a idea that would work? The cost of Vic tiles is well beyond me, I don't really need tiles and the stepped level there now that the original feature that was so damaged is no longer present, so I figure I may as well make a decent job of raising the level.


Ah, I just noticed thatt I can't do that because the door doesn't open high enough, so I need to have 2 levels anyway. I still need to do the scrape, dpm and level frame though I think. Perhaps I don't need the frame, I can just have the dpm pressed up against the front stone step, the brick either side and held back from the floor joists while the concrete sets.

Hmm. Nothing is ever straight forward, ever, in these old houses it seems.

[NathanM]

When you mention that I should get a specialist in, what exactly should I be looking for? What kind of company, or service? I don't actually know what to look for so don't know whre to start.
Thanks
Nathan.