SLC or Thinset over heating cables?

[mobujen]

Hello All,

I appreciate any advice I could get for my kitchen floor installation. Sorry for the long post but I wanted to give as much detail as possible. Here are the details of my plan.

Our kitchen/homework/office room is 16' by 21' and the subfloor is a concrete slab. The slab is in good condition-no open cracks and is surprisingly flat. We removed a glued down hardwood floor and I hand scraped the entire floor to remove the soft glue residue (2 days).

All the cabinets are installed including a 6' by 5' island in the center of the room leaving me with approximately 275 square ft of finished flooring area.

We are installing a french patteren chiseled edge travertine over an electrical floor cable heating system. We are planing for 1/16" grout lines and I'm thinking of using some type of leveling system for the tile install like the Tuscan Leveling system to minimize any lippage issues.

We are putting cerazorb down under the heating cables for insulation using Cerazorbs T-1000 floor adhesive.

My original plan was to pour SLC over the heating cables but now I'm concerned that I wont be able to get a very level pour due to the size of the room ( I would need six or seven 5 gallon buckets of SLC ready to go within 15 minutes of each other?) and the fact that I have an island right in the middle.

I don't have the experience or skill to attempt a "one-step" tile installation over the cables.

Questions:
Is it possible to do a quality SLC pour all the way around the island?

Would I be better off using the flat side of the trowel and a screed to incase the heating cables in a thin layer of mortar?

Can I break the room up into sections using a long 2x4 and pour SLC to the same level in each section? Seems like that would be hard to get exactly the same.

In hindsight, I maybe should have mapped out the room before the cabinet install, installed the cables in the exposed flooring areas and poured SLC on the entire room.

Thanks for your help!

Mike

[mobujen]

I like that idea using the screws as a height guide.

Thank you!

Mike

[pgc555]

Hey Mike,
What brand floor heating system do you plan to use?

[tilejoe]

Staging the area for slc Is crucial. Get 6 buckets and measure the water for each and then set your bag of slc next to each bucket. Open all the bags. Then one by one, dump the bag, mix and move down the line. I do two or four buckets, then pour, repeat.

[Andrew21]

Originally Posted by tilejoe

Staging the area for slc Is crucial. Get 6 buckets and measure the water for each and then set your bag of slc next to each bucket. Open all the bags. Then one by one, dump the bag, mix and move down the line. I do two or four buckets, then pour, repeat.

It would be helpful to get a helper as well

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

[cheakamus]

A trick I learned from doing my floor: figure out what height you need the slc and find something that matches that height to set the screws against (I used a metal nut). Drive the screws just a little deeper than the height you need using an electric screwdriver, then ease the screws back out with a hand-held driver to exactly the height you need. (If you try to use the electric driver to get the exact height, you'll find it's almost impossible to get it consistent.)

[mobujen]

Hey Mike,
What brand floor heating system do you plan to use?

Hi Phil,

I'm using Warmwire heating cables. Two zones on 120v/20 amp circuits each. The electrician wasn't able to add a 240v circuit without changing our primary sub-panel.

I spoke to you via email last week about your edge strips. I like your product a lot.

Mike

[pgc555]

Hi Mike,
This is the product you selected, yes?
http://www.suntouch.com/warmwire/

I know the folks at Suntouch and you will be very happy with the product!

[mobujen]

Phil,

Yes, that's the exact product sitting in my kitchen waiting to be installed.

My only experience so far is the inspection of all the material prior to installation and I'm very happy with how well everything is made.

Thanks for passing on the endorsement. Its makes me feel better about my purchase.

Mike

[mobujen]

Thanks guys for all the information and tips.

I have several extra buckets, 1/2" slow speed drill, mixing paddle and two helpers all ready to go.

My plan is to isolate differrent areas around the island to simplfy the pour. I'm going to use screws in the middle of some of the larger areas to keep an eye on the depth of my pour.

Mike

[mobujen]

One other question.

Ive looked all over the Level Quick ES Data Sheet and I can't find the coverage for a 50 LB bag. My pour will be about 3/8".

Does anybody have expereince with Level Quick coverages? Would a 50 lb bag at about 3/8' give me close to 25-30 sq ft?

Thanks!

Mike

[pgc555]

Mike,
Bob was thinking you only have 30-45 sq.ft. Your original post says 275 sq.ft
I would say you will get closer to 20sq.ft per bag @ 5/16" depth. That makes closer to 14-15 bags on hand. If you plan to section the pour ( I think you are ) then make it 4 quarters and then pour one at a time. That way you will be SURE to have enough on site.
Nothing worse than being short in the middle of a pour. Un-opened bags can be brought back of course. Be sure to take and post picture of the job, we love pictures.

[mobujen]

15 bags.. Wow!! At $27 a bag, I am once again over budget on this project.

Mike

[mobujen]

Bob,

Thank you. I just learned that I need to keep scrooling down the pages even if I'm looking at a partially blank page. Who would have thought that the coverages has its own page at the end.

Mike