Make life easy, search the forum.

Discuss Tiling my kitchen floor - slate tiles in the Tiling Advice | Tile Forum area at TilersForums. USA and UK Tiling Forum

F

Futuregrout

Please checkout the following advertisement.
Good evening all.

I need to tile the kitchen floor over the bank holiday weekend. We are having slate tiles. The existing floor is sand an cement screed, laid a few months ago. There is UFH under the screed. My wife wants a brick bond pattern, which I think means 600 x 400 tiles (which sound huge to me). I will be doing this myself. I simply cannot afford a tiler this time, and I have to get it done quickly as we are due to have our first child soon so I need to get everything finished off. And to be honest I get real satisfaction from doing a job like this to a passable standard, acknowledging that it will take me a lot longer than a real tiler and I will not end up with the same quality of finish.

I set out my plan for the work below - any questions or comments would be much appreciated. In the interests of full disclosure I have also posted on diynot and have had some good advice, but thought that I would come back to this board for specialist input.

I have also added a section on layout, because I cannot quite get my head around how best to do it. I will gather my thoughts and put my questions in a separate post.

Wednesday night.
1. Clear out room, hoover and clean floor, mop it to get as much dust up as possible and leave to dry.

Thursday night.
2. Prime with Mapei primer G.
- Not sure about how much to dilute - think it is 1:1?

Friday night
3. Put down ditra mat, with rapid set flexible https://www.tilersforums.com/forums/tile-adhesive/, with 3mm or 4mm square-notch trowel.
- Are there any cheaper alternatives to ditra mat? I find it a bit of a pain to fill in all of the holes and it costs a bomb, but there are some small cracks in the screed and I don't want to risk it.
- https://www.tilersforums.com/forums/tile-adhesive/: I assume I don't need latex?

Saturday
5. Fix tiles to ditra mat using standard set flexible https://www.tilersforums.com/forums/tile-adhesive/. Need to push https://www.tilersforums.com/forums/tile-adhesive/ right in to all of the little squares. Use 10mm square notch trowel. Leave 4mm grout lines, using spacers. Also levelling clips/wedges (system to be decided) to make tiles completely level. All tiles to be back buttered in addition to bed of https://www.tilersforums.com/forums/tile-adhesive/. Small gap to be left between tiles and the wall (to be covered with skirting board later)

- Cutting: I have a cheap wet tile saw. Is it worth me hiring a better one for the weekend?
- https://www.tilersforums.com/forums/tile-adhesive/: I assume I don't need latex?

Sunday
6. Finish fixing tiles as above.
- Any special tips on how to finish off on the Saturday, to allow me to re-start on the Sunday? When I have done floors before I have done them in a day (even if it meant working until midnight) so not had to consider it before.

Monday
7. remove spacers and clean the tiles with LTP grimex. Seal with LTP Mattstone.
8. A few hours later, grout tiles with Mapei Ultracolour Plus (grey). Clean with a sponge, a lot.
9. Seal again with LTP Mattstone.

I have added some pictures, although there is so much rubbish in the kitchen at the moment you will do well to actually see the floor!

View attachment 90637 View attachment 90638 View attachment 90639

Screenshot_20170517-123110.png
Screenshot_20170517-123114.png
Screenshot_20170517-123117.png
 
Last edited by a moderator:
OP
B

Bill

Instead of Ditra use this.........
Kerakoll Idrobuild Tex Anti Fracture Crack Mat | Decoupling Membrane | Fixing Materials | Tilers World - https://www.tilers-world.com/a~tw-1019-kerakoll-idrobuild-tex-per-lm.html

Get the primer G from Screwfix....it is cheap there. You could do two coats of 2:1 as this will have less chance of creating a 'film' on top of the screed.

Is the slate the same thickness?

Depending on the slate edge finish...I wouldn't bother with spacers or clips.

Work clean and you shouldn't need grimex.

Again, depending on the slate and joint width, consider using silver sand and portland cement as a grout with slate, it will be cheaper and may get a 'fuller' finish.
 
OP
F

Flintstone

How long has the screed actually been down ?
As tom said, you could save money using a thin anti fracture mat like the one above, or bal make one, or tilemaster and others
 
OP
F

Futuregrout

So, I am also thinking about layout. My wife doesn't want square tiles set out in the normal pattern. She wants brick bond, because she assumes that is the only alternative. And I don't really want to do anything too fancy or mixing sizes - this is going to be hard enough as it is.

The problem I have is that brick bond means, as far as I can tell, 600 x 400 tiles. Not only do they sound technically difficult to work with, but they are also very wide. As you can see from the photos, there is an island in the middle of the kitchen. The floor space between the island and the L-shaped kitchen worktops is about 110cm. So I won't even get two full-size tiles to fit along one of the sides of the island, if you see what I mean.

I attach an approximate layout. If I am going with brick bond, which way around should it run? I assume that the best way to do it would be to have the long side of the tile parallel to the bifolds, such that it runs "across" the room as you enter from the hall, rather than "into" the room as you enter from the hall. The problem with this is that there is a second entrance from the lounge, and I think it would look odd to have the tiles running "into" the room from that entrance.

These two problems make me wonder if a herringbone layout would be better. I think that would mitigate the impact of having the area around the island looking narrow (which I think is a risk if I cannot get two full tiles in there), as well as there being no "direction" to the way the tiles run. But this is adding yet another technical complexity - I am assuming that a herringbone pattern is harder than a brick bond pattern.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Thanks

Screenshot_20170517-122451.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
OP
D

Dumbo

I suggest you phone up Ltp to see how long they want between sealing and grouting and grouting and second seal .
Also there are easier grouts to clean up than mapping ucp . For any thing over 3mm joints I like ball wide joint flexible .
 
OP
B

Bill

You are worried about technical skills of laying brickbond so you counter that with Herringbone............

I shudder to think what you do when you are choosing which colour socks to wear each day.......
 
OP
F

Futuregrout

Thanks all. In response to the questions: the tiles are calibrated so should be the same thickness. The screed went down around Christmas, possibly soon after. There was a crack - you can see the repair in the pics - because the plumber was a bit too enthusiastic when turning on the UFH. But it really should be dry by now. You can see that I have put down sheeting and carpet to try to protect the surface from wearing away.

I will check the times for sealing again -thanks.
 
OP
F

Futuregrout

You are worried about technical skills of laying brickbond so you counter that with Herringbone............

I shudder to think what you do when you are choosing which colour socks to wear each day.......
Apologies if I was not clear. I think that herringbone may be a better layout for the shape of the room, but I am assuming that it is more difficult to get right than brick bond. (I am not even contemplating 45 degree herringbone, I am considering 90 degree).

The technical difficulty I foresee with the brick bond is more the size of the tile really. At 600 x 400 they are twice as big as anything I have used before.
 
OP
F

Flintstone

I think you need a tile that size to look right on the area you have there. Herringbone is a different kettle of fish especially with the island, I wouldn't advise taking that on, it will take you twice as long maybe more
 
OP
O

One Day

Your best option for fast sealing is Universeal Rapid All-in-one. You can apply it to wet slate after you've washed it (properly) and grout after 20 mins.

(Nesting instinct is a real problem - I feel your pain my friend!!!)
 
OP
F

Futuregrout

Thanks all - it is so helpful to get responses so quickly!

There is one other problem I am struggling with. We have an american fridge freezer, and I will have to tile under it. It sits between two tall units currently. I don't know how to do this. It is too big to fit through the doors so it has to stay in the room. And moving it about on the tiles would almost certainly scratch them.

Option 1: move fridge to corner of room, and tile under it before doing anything else. But that will take ages by the time I have put down the anti fracture mat, tiles, grout and sealed. And it would also determine the layout for the rest of the room.

Option 2: move fridge to corner of room, tile under it on day 1 of tile; push it back in to place at start of day 2 over newly laid tiles. Problem here is that it will likely scratch the (visible) tiles I will have to push it over to get it back in to place, and will have to bring it out again to grout etc.

Any other, better options?!
 
OP
F

Futuregrout

Hi. Screed went down before Christmas. The UFH is working and was on almost permanently through mid-Jan to the end of march.
 

Reply to Tiling my kitchen floor - slate tiles in the Tiling Advice | Tile Forum area at TilersForums.com

Or checkout our tile training advice or the Tile Standards

This website is hosted and managed by www.untoldmedia.co.uk. Creating content since 2001.

UK Tiling Forum Stats

Threads
66,599
Messages
866,698
Members
9,508
Latest member
sj1709
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock