It is fair to say us Brits have only recently moved away from having carpet or lino in our bathrooms. Accordingly, we are still feeling our way with ceramic tiled bathroom floors. Since most bathrooms are upstairs and UK houses usually have timber floors, the tiles will invariably be laid on top of floor boards.
Note: Obviously any plumbing (or cables) under a tiled floor will not be accessible except possibly from underneath (going through the downstairs ceiling) so before you commence check and double check everything for leaks, pipe-hammer, etc.
When you tile onto timber boards, the whole floor area to be tiled MUST be braced usually with a covering of ply of at least 9mm thickness. This over boarding must be screwed to the floor underneath at roughly 200mm intervals in each direction and also stagger joins between the ply boards where possible.
Before tiling, walk around to make sure nothing still moves or creaks. When you are happy the floor is rigid you must then use a slightly flexible tile adhesive and grout designed specifically for sticking tiles to timber floors.
The first bathroom pictured below had only recently been finished because I was asked fit blinds, trim the entrance door to clear a transition strip and do some other finishing off.
Judging by the quality of the wall tiles and bathroom furniture it was NOT a cheap refit but whoever tiled plainly didn’t brace the floor because I could feel the tiles move and crunch as I walked on them.
With crumbling grout (second picture) water will get underneath these tiles perpetuating the problem.
I very often see this in houses and in fact my own bathroom was the same when I moved in. But as you can see in the last picture, when I refitted my own bathroom I secured the tiles properly and they are still stuck firm after four years.
Comments are closed.