DIY Tiler - 90 sq m of large format porcelaine tiling making me nervous! - TilersForums.com

[PJPro]

TradeTiler Dave - if you happen to be reading this thread, I performed the sequence of steps as requested. Were you able to look at the details?

 

[Alan.P]

A decoupling membrane such as Dural, Ditra etc would be the way to go with the ufh and screed.

 

[PJPro]

A decoupling membrane such as Dural, Ditra etc would be the way to go with the ufh and screed.

But not the wooden floor....OK. Adds quite a bit to the material cost as the downstairs floor is over half the total area.

 

[Alan.P]

But not the wooden floor....OK. Adds quite a bit to the material cost as the downstairs floor is over half the total area.

Sorry, I'm deffo getting bogged down here, I'll re-read the posts,if you have a mixture of wooden and concrete / screed floors then yes, you'll need a decoupler on the wood and advisable for the screed, and also an expansion joint between and directly over where the substrates meet.

 

[PJPro]

Sorry, I'm deffo getting bogged down here, I'll re-read the posts,if you have a mixture of wooden and concrete / screed floors then yes, you'll need a decoupler on the wood and advisable for the screed, and also an expansion joint between and directly over where the substrates meet.

Apologies Alan.P. I am probably not explaining myself well.

The upstairs bathroom is wood topped out with No More Ply. There are no transitions to any other substrate.

The downstairs, featuring a hall, downstairs cloakroom, dining room and kitchen, is concrete/screed with underfloor heating. There are no transitions to any other substrate.

 

[PJPro]

OK. The tiles arrived today. There's 64 packs each containing 5 tiles. The pallets wouldn't fit through the back gate so I had to lug them through by hand. Man, they're heavy. They're stacked up in the back garden on a couple of pallets and covered with thick plastic sheeting held down with bricks. There were two boxes of tiles which are broken, so I'll have to return them for exchange.

The adhesive is Topps Trader Quick Set White....not BAL. Is this any good? The manager at Topps agreed to swap any bags I wanted to change, so have the option ot upgrade to BAL if I choose....but suspect it would come at a premium. I've been supplied with 20 x 20kg bags.

The grout is BAL Super Flexible Ivory. I've got 5 x 10 kg bags.

I'm going to start laying tiles in the upstairs bathroom later this week so I'd be grateful if someone could answer a few more questions.

Do I need the Dural matting on the floor (chipboard topped with NMP)?

Should I lay the floor tiles first or the walls? I was thinking that I'd prime the walls, fit the waterproof membrane to the walls around the shower and then crack on with the floor.

I am uncetain whether the tiles are covered in transit wax. How can I tell? Do I need to clean the wax off before I lay the tiles or can I do it after I have laid them but before I apply the grout?

 

[White Room]

Do mean Topfix adhesive, never had a problem with it

 

[PJPro]

No, I mean this stuff. Link Toppfix Rapidset Flexible White | Topps Tiles

 

[PJPro]

OK. Here's a few pictures to to illustrate the job. The work is more advanced than the pictures might suggest but, unfortunately, I don't have any later photos which are relevant to this thread.

The first picture shows the downstairs cloakroom. It's 2m x 0.8m and around 2.4m high. Clearly, the photo is taken from above. The second picture shows a part of the hallway which will also be tiled on the floor. The final picture shows the upstairs bathroom. It's at the far end of building and starts directly after the red RSJ. It's about 2m x 3m and 2.4m high and is located above the downstairs cloak so that it can share the same stench pipe.

 

[mz30]

Not had the chance to read all this thread but have perused it enough(i think).

Honestly and truthfully this job is way to big for a diy job(way to big),the money your going to pay on tools alone,would go a way to paying a pro then the astonomical prices topps charge on top of that,i done a job last week were i knocked £15 per bag off what the client was quoted and still made a little.

I think the money you would have saved hiring a pro,would have outweighed the cost of you doing it yourself(imho).