Kitchen is half quarry tiles / half concrete... what do we do?

[RFw3Duwrd7Yu]

I've just got up the old carpets on our renovation project, and weirdly the kitchen floor is mostly quarry tiles, except for the back third of the room being concrete. Unfortunately the floor is level throughout, so we can't just put tiles on top of the concrete to fix it. I'm imagining we just hire a floor grinder, lower the concrete bit by the requisite thickness and then tile it over. But is there some logical reason why a kitchen would be built this way? I'm rather new to quarry tiles...

 

[Why Not Indeed]

Given that there is a wall in line with the concreted area, then presumably the reason for the flooring being different is that they weren't always the same room.

 

[RFw3Duwrd7Yu]

Well, now that you say it - that seems like a pretty obvious conclusion! But I'll admit it hadn't occurred to me. So maybe some sort of extension some decades ago... will look at other inner walls to see if there are clues hiding in there. Am also leaning towards breaking up the whole pad, taking it out, putting down a proper membrane and re-pouring a slab...

 

[Malakym]

I've seen self levelling put over quarry tiles before.

Though if these are the thick ~5x5" ones you might want to check the value of them and remove them first.

 

[RFw3Duwrd7Yu]

Had a chat with a builder, and after thinking it out, seems best to just hammer out the existing concrete and lay down a new slab that is 1-2" lower. Benefit here is I can install it with a membrane underneath to manage dampness in the back wall (which is partially underground) which the previous builder seems to have forgotten...