Backing for floor tiles

[louisbean]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of redoing our bathroom. One important thing would be to replace the floor tiles which we don't like that much.

I've never done this before and trying to get a sense of how tricky this is going to be.

Luckily (sort of) one of the tiles is broken so I can see what's underneath it. It seems to be a cement topping on top of a plywood base (which is ontop of an original wooden floor).

It looks like the tiles will come away fairly cleanly from the cement - although oddly the bit that has come off already doesn't seem to have any adhesive on it.

Should it be fairly straightforward to get these tiles up and put new ones down? Also there's one part of the bathroom where there's no backing board - I'm assuming it should be fairly straightforward to put backing board in this area and carry on tiling so it's all on one level?

Bit of a novice so I may be making some big incorrect assumptions here!

Pictures
From the side - so you can see the varying levels

Tile 1.jpg (66.08 KiB) Viewed 1612 times

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zbq25bvtgj6bl ... 6.jpg?dl=0

From the top - this is what's underneath the tile

Tile 2.jpg (111.26 KiB) Viewed 1612 times

Pics attached. Mod 2.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xaw3ifljcwnjc ... 8.jpg?dl=0

Thanks,

Louis

[jape]

Tile adhesive cement which is what it looks like in the pic to me can fix a lot of things when trowelled on and deep bedded like that. But only if you are lucky! Mortar onto wood can also cause plenty of problems e.g. in flexing and not bonding.

I am not a professional so may get shouted down but in such an area my choice would be a more flexible waterproof combed-on adhesive to suit the tile type. Did slate like that fifteen years ago with no faults or problems showing up since.

Adding a waterproof ply sheet to make up a level additional area shouldn"t be a problem. There are modern methods of waterproofing and tanking and fixing that may be superior but can also be damned expensive.

If it has worked apart from one loose tile over years, should be ok to redo as you hope.

[wine~o]

Remove the tiles and as much of the tile adhesive as practicable.

The next job is to check for any flex in the floor. Put a full to the brim glass of water in the middle of the floor. Walk around it.

If it spills the you'll need to add ply to the floor to reduce movement.

If not you are good to go, a flexible addy (Mapie/bal) .. if you are newish to tiling don't go for rapid set.....