www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Hi everyone
It's a while since I was here and it's great to be back. I hope you can help me again.
I have a couple of questions actually but first one is about tiles.

I am thinking of ripping out carpet in my hallway and having it tiled. It is getting too dirty and marked and I'm fed up with constantly trying to remove marks from it.

Problem 1.
Under the carpet is wood flooring we had done years ago. It is an oak floating floor which sadly had to be savaged in areas when we moved the staircase a couple of years ago. This meant it couldn't be patched up with similar flooring so the builder concreted the areas around the stairs. So we need to remove the wood flooring prior to tiles being laid. Unfortunately the flooring goes under the skirting so I am looking for advice with best way to remove it prior to the tiling taking place. Any thoughts as to best way to tackle this job please?

Problem 2.
What sort of tiles. I can't afford to pay for natural stone or porcelain and realistically am looking at matt finish ceramic tiles purely because they seem to be the least pricey. Will this type of tile be suitable for a hall or are there any alternatives.

Problem 3.
Where can I find a good tiler and what sort of rate should I expect to pay. The builder told me the area (which is L shaped) is around 13 sq metres. We live in North West Kent - not too far from Dartford.

Any thoughts or advice much appreciated...............now on to next problem which is getting my kitchen units painted

Skirtings can be taken off and put back or new ones put on after tiling. It all depends how thick the engineered flooring is and how thick the tiles will be and what your sub floor is. concrete, no problem to tile onto. Floorboards, then they will either have to be replaced with ply or a detra matt installed and then tiled onto. If it is a wooden floor, the joists may need strengthening but this depends on how much flex there is to them.

Flexi adhesive and grouts cope with a certain amount of flex but they don't perform miracles. hence why joists may need strenghtening/bracing.

To remove the flooring just cut a section out with a circular saw and the rest will be easy.

As for cost of installing...............depends on who does it, prep work involved, how many doorways etc.

I would never price without surveying first.

You are in the area I cover. At the moment I am currently booking work in for January. depending on how much work is involved, I
may be able to squeeze it in before then.

Missed out the bit about the possibility of keeping the skirtings on. Depending on engineered floor thickness and tile thickness they may just slot under the skirting without leaving too much of a gap.

Underneath is concrete.
Was hoping not to have to remove skirting as this would potentially entail more work (replastering or redecorating to walls, or both).

Appreciate it's hard to quote without seeing area etc but is there a day rate for tiling to give us a rough idea. If it all starts to get too messy/expensive then I may have to live wih the carpet.

Generally - the house is in great order following extensive upgrading and enlarging to it over last few years. We moved the staircase to make hall lighter and more roomy. The builder we used is virtually retired now and his workforce no longer work through him - hence we have no contacts.

A without seeing it estimate would be £520 labour, adhesive and grout.

royaloakcarpentry wrote:A without seeing it estimate would be £520 labour, adhesive and grout.

Thanks that does help. I take it the labour costs are just for the actual tiling ec and does not include removing old flooring?

Just the tiling, although as it is an estimate it may be possible to lift the floor also but wouldn't include disposal of it.

Whatever way you look at it the job is two days work. First day tile and second day grout. So an extra hour on day one to lift the flooring is not a big deal.

You could in theory do the job in one day..............tile and then return 4 hours later and do the grouting. It may mean working till 9pm to finish grouting but that way you are only inconvenienced for that day, as the following morning the floor is fine to be walking on as the grout will have cured enough. It would still get charged at two days.

That is the main reason why it is best to quote on sight rather than on the phone, internet etc.

Looky in the showcase gallery for some examples of Royals work some of it's quite passable (only joking)

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