Tling over Duct Work

[Neil1]

Hi All,

New to the forum and first post.

Wondered if anyone could help me?

We have just knocked through from the Diner to create larger Kitchen/Diner and want to tile all the way through from existing wooden floor levels throught the kitchen/diner and out in to the utilty room.

Problem we have is we have Galvanized ducting recessed into the floor that carries Heating, cold and hot water and gas pipes, this is all covered with 12mm ply top strip that flex's a little and im worried might cause problems in the future with movement.

Have thought about relaying all the pipework in plastic speedfit and then filling with concrete but the more i read the more i think this might not be such a good idea.

On top of all this i would ideally like to lay underfloor heating (electric type)

Cauurent screed and top of Ply is 28mm below the existing oak floor in other areas and estimated tile thickness is about 10mm

Would appreciate any thoughts and advice on how best to tackle this.

Will try to post some pics to make it a little clearer.

Best regards

Neil

[whitebeam]

Hi and welcome..

You won't be using push fit for the gas pipes...

[Neil1]

Hi Whitebeam,

No hadnt intended to use pushfit on the Gas, only just discovered the Gas aspect today, hence yet another reason to probabily leave as is and work out another way around it.

Having done more reading of threads here and elswhere wondered if i might be better to make the screed good where needed, put a latex self level compound over it and then use somthing like PCI: http://www.pci.uk.com/en/products/In...stic%20TDS.pdf over that as a base or possibly do the UFLR Heating then go PCI Adhesive Tiles.

What would you recomend?

[Neil1]

IMG_5838.jpgIMG_5837.jpg

[whitebeam]

The tiles in the kitchen area are they going to removed..

[Neil1]

Sorry, should have made it clear the tiles you see in the pics above are a lino covering and yes going to pull it all up so its one levelish surface.

I just cut a strip out for the moment to expose the duct work for access but left some lino in so we werent completely on concrete eveywhere.

[Neil1]

Yes they are.

Should have made it a little more clear those tiles shown are in fact lino that will be pulled up so its all one level, just left a little in place for the time being and to just expose the duct work.

Welcome any advice on how best to tile over this duct work and leave it all in situ

[whitebeam]

Is this a flat or a property you rent, if you tile over the ducting there will be no access to the pipes if there is a problem...I have never tiled over that amount of of ducting covers but it would be your choice at the end of the day.

[Neil1]

Its a 4 bedroom house and yes i own it, its not rented. Totally agree with you i dont like the idea of tiling over it either and rendering it inaccsessable but i dont have a lot of option really this is the way all the pipework has been run over the ground floor. I had to make a similar decission withthe rest of the ground floor when we put down an engineerd oak floor. This was one of my reasons also for originally wanting to bed all the pipework in concrete, so then if there were any problem leaks it would stay local to the leak and not travel around the duct system. If it were ever to leak it would be a complete nightmare, but as there is not the room or ability to sleeve everything and the concrete would react withthe copper i dont have much option.

There is no void under the house, its built on a concrete slab so very little i can do really. Slowly putting in some underfloor electric heating throughout but still need H&C to the Kitchen sink and dowstairs toilet.

I was going to take pictures and record where all the ducting is so i have it on file and should the need arise i know exactly where it is. Was also going to try to keep the ducting under one line of tiles and in the middle if possible to also help.

With 28mm clearance from existing slab to top of installed wood floor and roughly 10mm tile and 1mm UFLR Heating matt what would you recomend?

[whitebeam]

If your going to use ufh then I use thermal boards to avoid your heating warming up the screed, they come on many thicknesses and I reckon on giving these guys a call Underfloor Heating | Electric | Floor Insulation | Frost Protection | Uheat they will advise on what is recommended and they do know there stuff...

[Neil1]

Now thinking probabily not Whitebeam, because if i do and god forbid i ever need to break into the floor to repair the UFH would be in the way and then it all gets very messy and expensive so thinking that for this area might just be best to keep what i have (2 x rads) and tile over.

If i do that would i better off trying to get a flexible screed and some PCI over it all? or is there a better way to do it?

[Neil1]

Whitebeam, just wanted t osay thanks for all the advice, big help.

Have spoken wit Uheat, bought 6mm Marmox board which im going to stick down over the whole area, UFLR heat matt over exposed areas but missing all the ducting in case the need for future access. Levelflex over the whole lot by 3mm and then tile to that.

If im putting large format tiles down 60x60 would you recomend using a 10mm round trowl? and what will that compress down to bed height wise?

Just trying to get my final heights correct so the floor levels run straight through.

[Mike]

a 10mm round notched trowel should be fine for them tiles but back butter the tiles with the smooth edge of the trowel for better adhesion. what length is the longest run on that floor? you may need an expansion joint in there, and are all the rooms the same substrate?

[Neil1]

Hi Mike,

One row of tiles about 6.2m, the others about 5m being the longest most around 3m.

Thanks for tip on back buttering the tile, i had seen that on other posts here and some youtube links from other here.

What will the 10mm beads of adhesive bed down to once the tile is pressed down? Just trying to workk out exactly what height to leave the SLC so the floors run through flat?