I am no Tiler

[BB Kong]

Earlier this year, I tiled my kitchen, about 25 sqm. It's not really rubbish, but I've never been happy with the end result. There are too many lips and sometimes the grout lines are different by around 2 or 3 mm. My wife is happy with it, people have complimented me on it, but truth be told, I hate it. Every day I walk in and feel the lips under my feet (weird sentence) and it Ps me off. In fairness to me, all of the tiles had a slight bow and being an amature, I just plodded on. A builder I showed them to said he wouldn't have used them. However, I have come to acceptance, that I never want to tile a sizable floor again - it's not just the tiles it's me.

I need to do something to the floor though. I was intending to continue it throughout the downstairs, another 35 sqm. But I'm not going to do it and even if a pro does it I think I won't be happy as the kitchen floor will remain. SO....

Do I chisel it up and then try to make the concrete sub-floor good with self leveling? Or maybe it would be easier to put a thin underlay and laminate over it (I could handle this no problem).

2nd option appeals more, less mess and can get stuck in quicker, only downside is cutting off bottom of doors, and kitchen plinth - no skirting on walls at the moment. I've got 50mm between external kitchen door and current level so that would be ok. The floor meets the hallway, and I would put a threshold in but it would also mean raising the floor level throughout downstairs. Although a major ball ache, although I thought maybe I could use something like 25 or 30mm celotex which would be a good thing over the concrete floor (I think)

My fear is that if I start to chisel the tiles off I am going to just end up with a cr@p surface that I will have to sort before going any further. i had put self levelling under the tiles as well as overly generous adhesive so I reckon it will be tough work.

In an ideal world, I would call someone in, but no cash for that, hence a post on a DIY forum.

Wow, feels like I've just been through a session with a therapist, even if nobody replies, just getting that out there has really helped. Now (as I recline on the therapy chair)...let me tell you about my relationship with my father...

Any advice much appreciated.

 

[Keithmac]

Maybe post a few pictures up?.

Laminate could be an option depending on how level the floor is.

 

[BB Kong]

Maybe post a few pictures up?.

Laminate could be an option depending on how level the floor is.

Ah man. Too embarrassed for pictures.

Floor is pretty level. It's just the lips, but i'm hoping that some underlay would swallow them a bit.

 

[Doggit]

If you can handle the extra height, then you could apply acrylic primer, and then some feather edge SLC. If you can't, then hire a medium duty breaker, and take off the tiles and the adhesive, re-level the floor , and if the funds allow it, put down a 6mm fibreboard underlay, and engineered wood flooring - much warmer than tiles or laminate, and the cost of celotex and tile adhesive will balance against the extra cost of the wooden floor.

As to your father issues, learn to accept them, as you will become him as you grow older.

 

[BB Kong]

Thanks @Doggit , I reckon the breaker would be the proper option - but i'm worried i'll end up with a completely forked floor underneath. I fully buttered the tile with way too much adhesive. not sure how that would come off.

As to your father issues, learn to accept them, as you will become him as you grow older.

- Judging by the baldness, deafness (selective hearing), and belly paunch, I'm nearly there - acceptance is the best advice ever.

 

[Nige F]

Go for the laminate - reducing the height of plinths - providing they are removable - is easily done with a power plane. Screwfix have one for £30. I've just done the same job @ home with my B+D Boot fair £5. one. Any decent plane doesn't like chipboard.

 

[BB Kong]

Go for the laminate - reducing the height of plinths - providing they are removable - is easily done with a power plane. Screwfix have one for £30. I've just done the same job @ home with my B+D Boot fair £5. one. Any decent plane doesn't like chipboard.

Thanks, I think I will. Good job we are all short@rses. I have a mate that's 6 7 though - might have to stop him coming around if i make the ceiling any closer to the floor. If I live here long enough and mess this job up enough times anything can happen.

 

[Nige F]

Just one point I forgot - take the top off the plinth - where it goes under the cupboards - the planer can chip off small bits of the front - @ the top it won't be seen Though it's tempting to scribe it into the floor.

 

[BB Kong]

Just one point I forgot - take the top off the plinth - where it goes under the cupboards - the planer can chip off small bits of the front - @ the top it won't be seen Though it's tempting to scribe it into the floor.

That's a really good suggestion thanks.

 

[cjard]

If you're gong to tile it again, level the substrate well, use good quality rectified tiles (tiles whose edges are cut after they're baked, not before - you can tell because the edges are dead straight and sharp, not rounded and soft) and be consistent when laying your adhesive (notch trowel at a consistent angle). I don't personally think it necessary to back butter, even large tiles, but if you do, strive for the same consistency with that. The tiles for the most part will self level/follow the level of the substrate so pay particular attention to improving on the substrate level. Being rectified will help gaps stay consistent, and if you have doubts about your ability to control lippage take a look at something like the Vitrex Lash system. If tiles are particularly bent (sight down them) set them aside for cuts, or pile them up with other tiles bowed in the same direction and lay them (if you don't have enough to finish the job) in a lightly trafficked area such that all the bows/dips are aligned. Separate bows from dips- the one downside of rectified tiles is that they are lippage more apparent

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I'd say reach for the breaker (although a rotation stop SDS with the right chisel would also do the job) - you'll find it very theraputic

 

[opps]

Do you really want laminate in a kitchen?

I recently had to lift/repair a (Howdens "kitchen safe") laminate floor that was only 3 months old- water leaked under it and caused it to belly upwards.

Perhaps a decent quality Amtico-esque (read:vinyl) flooring might be better?

 

[Doggit]

Opps makes a very good point. I forgot to suggest that you could use 5mm fibreboard, and then 18mm engineered wood, and that's be much warmer than the laminate.

 

[securespark]

Now (as I recline on the therapy chair)...let me tell you about my relationship with my father...

This Be The Verse


They fc uk you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fc uked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.

By Philip Larkin.



Makes me weep, that does.

My Dad buggered off when I was 2. I saw him some Sundays when I was a kid, but that was it, apart from a visit when he was teaching in Borneo in 1981 (when I was getting on for 16), which his employers paid for.
I saw him reasonably regularly (usually he called when he wanted me to do something for him), until I was forced to give up driving on medical grounds. now, I only speak to him if I pick up the phone, or see him if someone takes me round.

I can understand he may not want to see me as whenever I did see him I used to lay into him for being an absent father, but I don't do that any more. He was a bsatard to my Mum, no bias here, he admits it: he used to play around all the time and was often out of his head on booze and cannabis and left her to do the housekeeping, cooking and childcare.

I thought things might change when my kids came along. I understood he may not engage with them as babies, but when they got older, I thought he would like to read to them (he's a retired EFL English teacher), encourage them to read and maybe play chess. But not a bit of it. He was not interested in the slightest.
Whenever we visited him, it was as if we were hindering his routine, preventing him from writing his books.

Try as I might to avoid it, I can see some of him in me and I hate myself for it. I haven't always been the best Dad to my boys and it causes me great anguish. I know I can't turn the clock back , but....

And now, as my Dad reaches the end of his life, family members are urging me to get in touch and make things up with him before it is too late, but I can't. They say I will regret it for the rest of my life if I don't, but I can't. There's just too much anguish, regret and self-loathing.

 

[DaveHerns]

Sorry to hear that Securespark. I didn't get on with my father either.