Formica Under the Tile

[F8th-N-Jesus]

My house seemed to have been recently updated (carpet. new tile)when we bought it two years ago. . Home inspection panned out except for the grout at the kithchen sink faucet. We caulked it. A couple of tiles have fallen off the edge of the counter tops in kitchen counter top all caused by the kids and I thought nothing of it until we went to put a new stove in and saw that there was formica counters under the tile l. There is no hardibacker or anything under it. Isn't that wrong? If so can I peel the plastic topping of and put hardibacker and go over with new tile?

[bbcamp]

Tile over formica is OK, if there is no partical board underneath the formica, and they used a high quality modified thinset.

[F8th-N-Jesus]

There is tile in the bathroom the kids have been using and I noticed tiles that were cracked. The toilet needed to be replaced anyways (for the fourth time), and so I pulled up the tile to find out that in some places, caulking was used instead of grout, and there is just subfloor under the tile. Some tiles seemed to not have any thinset under them at all. The floor is black in a lot of places. It has lightened up some, but I was wondering if there is a full proof way to figure out whether or not the floor is rotted. My husband looked at it and said it was treated wood and it just needed to be dried and cleaned before we put hardibacker over it. It is firm to stand on and doesn't bounce at all. I heard of an icepick test just not quite sure how to go about it. The other thing is I don't have a wet saw, but I do have a diamond blade for my circular saw, and was wondering if that would work to cut the 12x12 tile. As long as I am not sure how to go about it, my husband will have a reason not to do it. How long do i need to let it dry, and is there a good solution to use to clean the mold in the wood?

[Tool Guy - Kg]

Take a flathead screwdriver to that subfloor to see if it's rotted. Jam it in the plywood...she sinks in and you know it's rotting....she bounces off with little damage and its sound. If you are still unsure, go to an area that is obviously sound and take a few test pokes to see how firm the wood "should be". One thing that would be un-likely is that your plywood is treated plywood. More likely that the weird color is from the mold.

You wanna formula to get rid of the mold, look here at this article in our Whurl Famous Liberry.

Seems obvious that those cracking tiles are due to movement under them. Tile can't tolerate much movement before it cracks. Glad you are planning to re-do this properly with a proper backerboard.

Might be a good place to start you from the beginning, eh? First question we usually ask around here is about the floor structure itself. What size joists do you have and how long do they span between supports? This tells us if your floor joists are stiff enough to keep the brittle tiles from cracking once installed. Then we ask is what you have for a subfloor and any subsequent layers.

[F8th-N-Jesus]

I took the screwdriver and found that I can dig up the wood to a certain point. I cant do that in the restof the floor so now I know that it is rotten, I need to what? Cut just that part out,or all of it?I will get back to you with the floor joist lengths when I have all of the kids occupied . Yeah right I will have to wait till hubby gets home! I was wondering then since this is such a mess in the floor, then do I need to check the tile wall sourounding the bath tub? all the tiles are intact, and no crack, but I would hate to know the wall behind it is rotting. Is there any way I can check without having to remove all of the tile?

[Tool Guy - Kg]

You only need to cut out the area that's rotted. Typically you cut out the smallest square or rectangularly-shaped hole and replace it with new ply. But if the rot confined to a small area around the toilet flange and you have access from below, you may be able to add blocking between the joists and repair a small amount of plywood rather easily.

If this is just a single layer of ply and you need to cut a square out, cut the hole so 2 sides will be centered directly over joists. Then add blocking between the joists (perpendicular or joists) to support the 2 remaining sides. This ensures your patch isn't a weak spot in the floor.

As for the wall that you are concerned about, if you can't see any signs of damage, you're probably good to go. Floor rot doesn't make it up a wall unless it's really bad. I'd get down on my knees for a close examination and press on the tiles looking for movement that may clue you in on a rotted or mushy substrate.