Travertine tiles on wooden floor...to do or not to do?

[Redwing]

Hello Guys

My first post here. My husband and I are doing a big barn conversion project. We laid travertine tiles downstairs on a screed base with underfloor heating and it looks fantastic! We have some left over tiles and want to use them on an upstairs bathroom. The base is chipboard screwed to joists and it has underfloor heating as well. We plan to use flexible adhesive and grout. Will this work? Should we seal the floor first and if so with what? Does it need a membrane under the tiles and if so what should it be?

 

[cncceramics]

I would NEVER tile on chipboard, over board the chip board with Haribacker tile board 6mm. Secure the board using Haribaker screws also one every 100mm, or until the movement in floor has stopped. Scrim tape the joints and seal with the flexible adhesive, the tile using the the flexible adhesive. I always seal the travertine before grouting and after it has dried as well.

 

[Gazzer]

I always use ditra or Dural on wood floors with stone tiles. Belt and braces is my approach.

 

[DHTiling]

Hi , you need to determine if the floor is suitable for tiling. This will be to check in there is any deflection in the floor , this needs sorting if so.

Simply applying Hardibacker will not combat any bounce.

Once that is sorted, then yes over board
If the floor is small then IMO hardibacker will suffice but if over say 8 Mtrs , then as neale , I would hardi and anti-crack membrane.

 

[Rookery]

I too would overboard with Hardie and fix Ditra. How is this floor heated? If you're planning on fitting heating mat or cable onto the floor, you may want to consider insulation boards rather than Hardie for its insulation properties. Bear in mind any 6mm overlay will not suffice in the eyes of some adhesive manufacturers.

 

[Redwing]

Thank you for the replies. The Hardibaker looks like good stuff to use. The area is only about 5 sq metres and there is no bounce, well not that I notice. The underfloor heating is a wet system with plastic piping.

I googled around and Hardibaker looks like it is readily available but where do you get Ditra from?

 

[swanman]

you can get the same stuff as detra at topps tiles

 

[salmonfisher]

Correct me if i am wrong but “The base is chipboard screwed to joists and it has underfloor heating as well” “The underfloor heating is a wet system with plastic piping” I haven’t came across a wet floor heating system with chipboard screwed to joists they are normally floating floors personally I wouldn’t tile it

 

[Topshop]

I would use cement board like durarock instead of hardybacker. Hardybacker is more fibrous and will not pass the heat as well as cement board.

 

[Redwing]

Thanks for all the replies. Having looked into and considered the options this is what we've decided: going to use a 6mm cement board, like Hardibaker (probably the one Topps sells) and use flexible adhesive and grout. We looked at Ditra and decided that it would probably insulate the floor which we don't want to do as the underfloor heating pipes are already under the floor and we don't want to loose heat by then putting on an insulation layer. Does that make sense? Is it really necessary to screw the board down every 100mm?

 

[Rookery]

You have a combination of an over-boarded timber floor that doesn't meet BS, under floor heating and a relatively weak stone. Only you can decide to proceed but its somewhat risky.

 

[Redwing]

You have a combination of an over-boarded timber floor that doesn't meet BS, under floor heating and a relatively weak stone. Only you can decide to proceed but its somewhat risky.

What do you mean the floor doesn't meet BS? The building inspector has passed it.

 

[DHTiling]

Ditra will not insulate the floor.

 

[Rookery]

I mean the over-boarding. BS states, amongst other things, a minimum of 15mm ply overlay over a timber floor. When using a backer board such as Hardie, it should be 10mm thick although I'm not sure if this is specifically covered in BS. However if you phone the Mapei or BAL tech support, neither would warrant their adhesive on a 6mm backer board. I cant speak of other manufacturers cos I dont use others. Thats not to say your spec/method wont work, I'm just saying its risky. The cost of putting right a failure is usually much higher than the initial cost of a better spec.

 

[DHTiling]

10mm thick is for polycore type boards.. hardibacker 250 (6mm) is fine as long as the substrate is virtually deflection free .

 

[Rookery]

I dont disagree and I often use 6mm Hardie on a timber floor that I have judged to be solid enough. It doesnt alter the fact that if there was a failure, BAL for example, would disclaim all responsibility.

 

[steveb]

there are less expensive places than topps imho

 

[DHTiling]

I dont disagree and I often use 6mm Hardie on a timber floor that I have judged to be solid enough. It doesnt alter the fact that if there was a failure, BAL for example, would disclaim all responsibility.

Now that i agree with.. :lol:

But so would any adhesive comp really... when it comes down to it.. fixer error will always get the blame.. so best to do what you know works.. simples..

 

[Lodger]

Ditra doesn't always work well if there is a slight bounce on subfloor. It will however insulate the floor slightly IMHO. 6mm Cement board, laid with flexi adhesive and fine notched trowel, then screwed down 200mm apart, use scrim tape on joints and tile as normal with flex tile adhesive making sure you skim the back of the tile with flexi adhesive to archive a good fix.