Tiles or Vinyl

Hello all,

I have a barn conversion in France with around 150 m² of flooring to install. The floor is 100 mm concrete over 200 mm well compacted limestone, 50 mm polystyrene slab and a top quality DPM. Laid more than a year ago, solid and as dry as a bone. The floor is perfectly level but was not screeded; there are a few tamping ripples but on the whole it is fairly flat.

Due to an error reading the specs. (dimensions) of the French doors, the floor was finished too high. We had wanted solid oak flooring but cannot accommodate the thickness; we have about 15 mm clearance under the doors. Replacing the doors is not an option - six sets of ready hung, solid oak French doors....very, very expensive.

It looks as though 6 mm WBP plywood and top quality vinyl (e.g. Amtico or Karndean) will be the answer but we would much prefer proper tiles (hence the choice of forum).

A good example of the look we are after would be ‘Castle Travertine’ from B&Q (yes, I know) which, I believe, are ceramic and around 9 mm thick -pushing it I would think. The main room is 100 m² so small tiles would look awful. Is there a type of thinner, larger format tiles that would do the job? I’m nearly 70 and do not want to be doing this again in a few years time so, proper job.

Thanks in advance

Stan

Hi there,
Yes 9mm would be pushing it (and so would b&q!)

silly question, are you not able to plane the doors a little?

if not i dont think you are going to get a decent trav/porcelain under them. If you are too close then every bit of grit will catch and scratch the floor\jam your doors

Hello there,

Many thanks for taking the time to reply.

No, I can't plane the doors, that's the problem and why I came unstuck with dimensions. The French use very small section frames (rubbish really) top and sides but with no proper cill at the bottom, just a rebated steel strip against which the door fits (very well) so virtually no threshold at all.

It is a huge problem for me and so I thought I would ask the experts; more in hope than expectation I have to admit. Hopefully someone on the forum will come up with a bright idea.

Thanks again.

now i get it!

The only suggestion that i can think of would be a recessed matt well - you could take 10mm or so out of the screed where the door opens, tile up to and around a framed matt area. matt wells are quite popular although not for this reason!

if you are after trav then be very wary on quality. Theres a lot of crap around. You should be looking for 10-12mm honed and filled.

We have recently put trav down in our entire bottom floor. it was 145m2 and we are very please with the result, i can give you some photos if you like.

A good quality porcelain would be a good option too.

Many thanks for a great idea. Much appreciated.

I'm not a tiler so how do I check quality? There are so many suppliers out there and so many 'special offers'.

I know I must use trade addy (Bal etc.) grout etc. and that I can rely on the name for quality but what about the tiles themselves?

Some 'photos would be great if it is not too much trouble.

Thanks again.

Its more critical with real trav. a lot of it starts out full of voids and ends up more filler than trav! order yourself a sample and look at both the back and the front - you can see the filler quite easily, if there's loads of it the quality is bad. Also look for lots of unfilled voids (from the back)

Porcelain wise its easier. Do you have your heart set on trav? how are you getting it to france?

I'll post some photos this evening.

Please ignore the clutter - was still moving in at the time!



and



Full disclosure - i sell tiles for a living and have an online tile shop. i'll happily send you samples and give you a quote for both tiles and adhesive if you can either send me links to things you like or have a look at my shop and contact me for a better price. I know adhesive wise i can be very keen on price.

Now thats over, if you choose to order with someone else, i'm still here for advice, an order isnt obligatory

cant seem to get the images right - look at my album on here //www.diynot.com/network/tpt/albums/9640

Many thanks. I like the baby.

Will have a look at your shop and will be in touch; not tomorrow though; I am not due back in France until October.

we are still loading products like mad so if you find something elsewhere and would like a quote send me a link