Kitchen Floor Tile

[srinaudo]

Hello, I am getting ready to redo my kitchen floor. The existing tile was done very badly and is now cracked and coming up in places. I would like to do tile again but am afraid it will do the same thing. I will say it appears the previous owner only used some sort of glue and put the tile directly on the wooden subfloor so it may just be bad installation but I hate to do the work and it crack again. So I used the deflecto tool and got a rating of L/549 and said ceramic tile was good. Ideally I want to lay large square tiles maybe 16 X16 or 18X18, was thinking porcelain. Would I be safe with this? The current floor is higher than the adjoining wood floors so I would like to keep the underlayment as thin as possible. I've looked at the easy mat but also saw someone mention Noble CIS in 1/16 inch. Could I use the 1/16 inch? Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Dave Taylor]

and welcome to Tile Your World forums.

Pros here-a-bouts' do not recommend setting tile directly on wood flooring, nor do they advocate the use of a premixed adhesive for affixing floor tiles.

It would help considerably to now determine exactly what you have for a flooring sandwich..... that is....

what material does each flooring layer consist of, how thick and in what order from the joists on up.

I hope this helps.

[srinaudo]

Yeah I knew they did that floor way wrong when I looked at it. So how do I find out what all is in the flooring sandwich?

[bbcamp]

Start digging. Remove everything down to the subfloor. You may have a multi-layer subfloor, such as a layer of diagonal planks and a layer of plywood. Look at the top layer, then find a way to look at the bottom layer (go into the basement and remove some insulation, or the like). If the ceiling is finished below this room, drill a hole with a hole saw and examine the plug you remove.

[srinaudo]

Hello again,
Its been a while since I posted this and I am finally getting this project started. I am taking a new approach this time however.
To recap, I want to retile my kitchen floor. I have a pier and beam house with a deflecto tool rating of L/549. Currently the floor is tiled but laid directly on plywood and old hardwood flooring using some kind of thinset maybe(I bought it this way, even I know better than this ). The current floor is also about 1/4" higher than the abutting hardwood floor. I would like to find a way to do it so the floors are even. I thought the floor should be torn out all the way to the subfloor and just built back up to a height appropriate to make it even. I think its possible because my floor in the bathroom is old tile (probably from when it was built in the 40's) and it is even with the wood and not cracked.

I have had three different people come look at my floor and been given 3 different ways it should be done. One company said I shouldn't do tile because it would crack, they recommended vinyl. One company said it needed all that support and not to tear down to the subfloor. One person did suggest ripping out and building back up but they were not a company specializing in tile floor so I'm a little weary of this.

I am also planning to get new cabinets so tearing out all the floor isn't that big of an incovenience, I just want it done right. I feel like the other companies just don't want to mess with it. So what do ya'll suggest? And if I were to rip it out and build back up, what should I use?

Thank you for all your help!

[bbcamp]

laid directly on plywood and old hardwood flooring

Starting from this plywood, what other materials are between this plywood and the joists? More importantly, what is directly attached to the joists? We need the thickness, whether it is plank or plywood, and if it is tongue and grooved. We can guess, but it's better if we knew for sure.

[srinaudo]

Ok, I cut a small section and it looks like the subfloor directly on top of joists is tongue and groove, laid diagonally, 3/4 inch thick. I'm not sure what type of wood it is, but its not plywood. The floor on top of that is 3/4 inch as well, so with build up and tile, I'd like it to stay about that thickness.

[cx]

Welcome, Stephanie.

Probably the simplest method would be to remove everything except the diagonal board subflooring. Ensure that subflooring is in good condition and well attached to the joists, then add another layer of at least nominal half-inch exterior glue plywood with no face of grade lower than C, in accordance with the recommendation in this article to the extent feasible.

On to of that you would install the tiling substrate of your choice and tile.

If that's still to high to suit you, it'll be necessary to remove the subflooring and start over at the joists.

My opinion; worth price charged.