Kitchen floor tiling conundrum

[mrklak]

Hi folks,

I'm about to undertake a project in the kitchen, retiling the floor and just wondered if I could grab some advice as I think it may not be as straightforward as I'd hoped. I stripped back the old dirty lino the other day to discover very old tiles laid that cover the whole of the room, right under all the work tops, some of these tiles have sunk down (but not cracked) so the surface is very uneven in parts. It's a 3rd floor flat I'm assuming under the tiles is a concrete base...

So was just wondering if it's best stripping all the old tiles out, whether it's the concrete that's likely to have sunk as well, and whether evening it out and making flat is something I can do. I'm not a pro but fairly handy I guess...

Anyway, cheers in advance!

Laurence.

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

It is always best to strip back the substrate floor. As there maybe a reason why the tiles have sunk. If the floor is uneven, there are simple methods to resolve it.

 

[mrklak]

Brilliant thanks, I'll do that... Was thinking about fitting the new tiles just in the visible area so I don't have to rip all the worktops out out, there's no real problems with that is there?

 

[Tigercubrider]

I would continue as far as possible under if you can

 

[mrklak]

Thanks, I would like to but it's going to mean fairly major upheaval - cooker out, all worktops etc... Looks like it might be original floor put in before anything else. Any particular reason other than doing a proper job?

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

I should not be an issue leaving the exiting tiles under the cabinets, but do give yourself some scope to fit the new tiles, so when the kicker boards are replaced the old tiles are not visible.

 

[mrklak]

Good advice, that wouldn't look great! Cheers all, got a bit of a clearer plan of attack now...

 

[Tigercubrider]

Only reason that I suggested continuing under is cleanliness and the future.

I had vinyl laid after fitting a kitchen and the guy laid the floor as far under as he could.
It makes such a difference when you remove the kick boards and it isn't crPpy concrete there.

My intention had been to later replace the kick boards with drawers that ran on skateboard type wheels as extra storage but I never got around it. I didn't think you'd need to remove the units.

My kitchen has screw type legs so you can un jack a leg to slide material underneAth