Hello,
I'm currently in the process of trying to beautify our front path.
The current path is a concrete slab in good condition, and is about 3 metres long and 1 metre wide (actually the slab extends to about 4 metres wide, but the piece for the path is 1 metre wide). The concrete also has a reasonable amount of aggregate in it for non-slip and decorative purposes. It's also had some lines marked into it when setting to give the appearance of being paved rather than a solid piece of concrete. The lines are only 3 - 4 mm deep and every 30cm's or so. The slab is probably about 5 - 10 years old.
My plan is to put a geometric pattern onto it (I'm reasonably experienced at tiling
. Tile size is 70mm x 70mm - although the edges will be 150mm x 50mm.
The surface is as you would expect with a lot of aggregate quite coarse and then the lines don't help things, but it is at least very flat.
My question is what is the best way to prepare the surface for tiling. My options as I see them are (and you may have much better suggestions!):
* After a thorough cleaning and priming, tile directly onto the surface
* Use something like BAL Acrybase to level the surface. My concern though is that as the path slopes away from the house I might find it pooling at the end?
* Potentially use something like Ditra matting to act as a layer between the concrete and the tile. My thought is that this should bond better with the slab and solve the problem of the rough concrete and lines which might be more of a problem as the tiles are quite small.
I'm quite intrigued about the Ditra, also as it could act as a decoupling between the slab and the tiles meaning any movement there (and hopefully there will be none!) shouldn't affect the tiles. I've check and it can be used externally
What would you do?!
Thanks.
I'm currently in the process of trying to beautify our front path.
The current path is a concrete slab in good condition, and is about 3 metres long and 1 metre wide (actually the slab extends to about 4 metres wide, but the piece for the path is 1 metre wide). The concrete also has a reasonable amount of aggregate in it for non-slip and decorative purposes. It's also had some lines marked into it when setting to give the appearance of being paved rather than a solid piece of concrete. The lines are only 3 - 4 mm deep and every 30cm's or so. The slab is probably about 5 - 10 years old.
My plan is to put a geometric pattern onto it (I'm reasonably experienced at tiling
. Tile size is 70mm x 70mm - although the edges will be 150mm x 50mm.The surface is as you would expect with a lot of aggregate quite coarse and then the lines don't help things, but it is at least very flat.
My question is what is the best way to prepare the surface for tiling. My options as I see them are (and you may have much better suggestions!):
* After a thorough cleaning and priming, tile directly onto the surface
* Use something like BAL Acrybase to level the surface. My concern though is that as the path slopes away from the house I might find it pooling at the end?
* Potentially use something like Ditra matting to act as a layer between the concrete and the tile. My thought is that this should bond better with the slab and solve the problem of the rough concrete and lines which might be more of a problem as the tiles are quite small.
I'm quite intrigued about the Ditra, also as it could act as a decoupling between the slab and the tiles meaning any movement there (and hopefully there will be none!) shouldn't affect the tiles. I've check and it can be used externally
What would you do?!
Thanks.
