New Guy needing help

[krystan]

Hi there,

First of all I'm not a pro tiler I'm a computer programmer My wife noticed that a lot of grout was cracking on our tiled bathroom floor (slate) so i decided I'd drill it all out with a rotary tool then regrout and job done.

I'd never attempted this before but read up on it and as long as you take your time and follow instructions with the right materials its not too hard a job.

Well I drilled out all the grout and then realised one of the tiles in the corner of the room was cracked and so I lifted it (the guy who owned the house before me had left a box of matching slate tile for such purposes).

It was then the true horror struck me... he'd put all the tiles directly down onto the floorboards. after a truley heroic effort (people who do this for a living deserve a medal btw) i got down to the floor boards after chiseling and sanding the remaining adhesive away so now all i see it wood and very very very thin grey deposits that I just can't get out, so it's as flat as flat. I've done a few tests and the floor isn't moving hardly at all its very thick floor board and is screwed down about every 150mm to stop it moving.

So heres my question. Without lifting all of the bathroom tiles (which unfortunately requires removal of the toilet what should I do). I mean do I just go for the quick nasty fix and use unibond floor adhesive then when it all cracks in about a year or so get a man in and just tell him to rip the floorboards up or what?

or is there a correct way to fix this without removing all the other tiles ?

I currently have some mapei flexible grout but am just wondering after all that effort it seems a shame to just slop adhesive (which I notice you guys don't rate at all) onto the surface I just sanded down (with 40 grit so its rough).

I mean do i prime this or what ?

Sorry I'm a bit clueless but I like to do things properly.. i know the real answer is to rip it all up and lay ply down etc but i have neither the time nor money for that at the moment and need to patch this until such time I have the money for a professional to arrive and save me (not to mention buying all the tiles for the job).

I'm cursing the day i started to drill the grout out... but I had no experience and thought it was just because he'd not used flexi grout, now i understand the whole floor is probably moving slightly and know it'll crack again but as i said i need to patch this until later

[Captain Slow]

Hi and welcome to the forum,

You mention floorboards, are these proper tongue and groove, if so you can tile direct as long as you use the correct adhesives, although, it sounds as though everything needs to come up and be fixed correctly - sorry!

Whatever you choose to do, make sure that you use a cement based flexible adhesive and make sure that it is white.

Remember that slate needs sealing, your local tile shop will provide stain stop sealants, Lithofin, HG or Fila are all good brands.

You should prime the floorboards before fixing and depending on the adhesive that you use, a primer will be recommeded - DON'T USE PVA!!!
Mapei flexible grout should be okay.

I hope this helps and good luck.

[Dave]

Krystan..where abouts are you.?....if you are in my area i have some adhesive you can have......

[krystan]

Thanks for the reply, yup they are indeed tongue and groove and are in excellent nick.

As for the grout I've got its Mapei Ultracolor plus (cement grey). I'm certain thats right.

Now before I read anything on adhesives I went out and bought a large tub of unibond stuff .. mainly because it says (floorboards) on it. This is a premix.. now i've broken the seal on it so probably can't take it back to the orange warehouse haha... but I do have a topps tiles at the bottom of my road (2 mins walking distance).

Is it worth the extra 15 quid or so to literally chuck the unibond adhesive (which you all slate so much, pun not indended) and go buy some bal ? or for one tile is that a bit exessive and can I "get away" with the unibond stuff ?

By the way the fact I'm using "get way with" in my question I think answers it... but if thats overkill someone just say

[krystan]

Leeds.

[CJ]

Why white Captain.

Grey is fine...........should be fast flex, but for 1 tile

Re-grout with flexi grout

[krystan]

Originally Posted by CJ again

Why white Captain.

Grey is fine...........should be fast flex, but for 1 tile

Re-grout with flexi grout

I know its a bit of a saga for one tile... but hey i thought i was just floating grout.. if i thought i'd be lifting tile i'd have lived with it for a couple of months and paid to have someone rip it all out and retile to something i like

[Dave]

leeds is a bit far krystan... i have a small bag of bal flexi which would have patched it up for now......don't condone patching" for now" jobs ... ..but it would have done for now.......

[krystan]

Originally Posted by Dave

leeds is a bit far krystan... i have a small bag of bal flexi which would have patched it up for now......don't condone patching" for now" jobs ... ..but it would have done for now.......

I know.. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and wish I had the funds to do it all properly.. but to be honest I got married two months ago and I'm brassic.. so just to get the bathroom in operation will save my neck wife wise

I know it sucks because someones going to come in and tut a lot and I'll have to say it was me (at least that one tile). So to be honest I agree. patching stuff up sucks and is to be honest not that low cost a solution but I decided to register as if I'm gonna bodge it I'm at least gonna ask for the least nasty way to do it

[krystan]

If anyones interested I'm actually blogging the process here: http://lightning-geek.livejournal.com/29049.html

[MICK the Tiler]

LOOK!!! If it were me and I was just married and Skinned for coin I'd just stick the tile down with Unibond (OH!!! I here the cries of You other blokes) But hey you just gotta do what you gotta do to get the job done. Then grout with flexi grout and say a little prayer every night until the whole lot breaks up again. Lets hope It's a long time down the road when your in a better postion finacially and the wife stops putting out. (My wife has stopped putting out) Enjoy!!! It while it lasts.

[krystan]

Yup,

Thanks what i did, I used the unibond gunk (which by the way was horrid to spread.. and now I'm waiting... I have some decent grout and to be honest I've already primed the wife that this'll need redoing at some point in the future.

For me this is kind of a big deal the only thing I've done harder than this was to plaster a wall which turned out alright in the end.

Read this forum pretty intensively before I did this and I used the maxim that quite frankly you can't go too slowly when preparing the surface, the pics don't do it justice I took every last inch of the old adhesive off then sanded down with 40 grit... all looked lovely (pointless but nice to look at for 5 mins ). So I posted here and spoke to unibond and to several other mates and they all pretty much agreed that unibond was rubbish but was what I needed to use for patching this up.

The only thing I kind of wished is it were two tiles not under constant footfall (like in the corner or something) unfortunately that wasn't the case.

Sorry if i'm rambling... oh yeah the wife is more put out than stop putting out if you get my drift