I went out on a job today to replace a bathroom floor and this is what I found.
The floor joist are 2x8 full size spanning 11 feet. There are some scabs on each side supporting plywood. The top of the joist are cut to a point. Then there is something that looks like black dirt packed in on top of the plywood to the top of the joist. There is a sandy concrete poured on top of the dirt about an inch to an inch and a half thick. I say sandy because it looks a little brown but it is very strong mix for being thin. The top layer of floor was one foot square vinyl with 3/4 inch mosaic under it on top of the concrete. None of the concrete was cracked and all tile was tight. I had to bust up the concrete to get the mosaics off. My question is would you replace the concrete and install new tile or would you build up the floor with new plywood and hardie then tile. I have seen mud decks over plywood but never anything like this. Could use some advice.
