The Cook's Kitchen - 2 full baths and one half bath are on concrete slab. One bathroom is on the second floor, and I'm assuming it's just subflooring underneath. We're closing on the house in less than 3 weeks, so I'm trying to get fully prepared and do all my homework so I can get straight to tiling.

I was told that I could tile right over the concrete if there are no major cracks, and that I should use a crack filler if there are any small ones. The house was built in the 1980s, and it's not in an area of shifting ground, so I'm hoping there are no significant cracks under the carpet. The instructor said to screw down 1/4 inch backer board over the floor in the upstairs. Another thing he said was to be sure floors are level within 1/8" over 4 feet and if not to use a pour-on leveler. He made product recommendations that made sense for a do-it-yourselfer. It wasn't always the most expensive product, but it was cement and grout that would work better in a bathroom. He also recommended self-sealing grout which, to me, makes sense in a bathroom.

Any and all suggestions are welcome! I will definitely read the resources you've kindly provided. Thank you!

When remodeling, we had to remove 2 toilets, extend the flanges and then reset the toilets, because the stupid previous owners installed flooring on top of old flooring without dealing with the toilets. It was totally stupid.

" if there are no major cracks, and that I should use a crack filler if there are any small ones." Wrong. Apply a crack suppressant membrane or a uncoupling membrane provided it is horizontal separation only. Not vertical.

"I could tile right over the concrete" Depends. Was the carpet glued down? Then you will need to address adhesive residue. Were sealers or accelerants used on concrete that would be a bond breaker when using tile setting mortar?

"The instructor said to screw down 1/4 inch backer board " Wrong. Instructor has no idea of what you have for a subfloor or joists. Does it meet deflection requirements? If it's particle board the subfloor must be removed to the joists. Cement board is set in mortar then fastened.

"be sure floors are level within 1/8" over 4 feet" Wrong. Floors actually don't need to be level. There are flatness requirements and they depend on the size of the tile being used. Most commonly 1/8" over 10'. Never in 36 years have I heard a 4' reference.

Finally always tile under the toilet.

Yes you need to remove the toilets and as for the rest there could be some issues with the concrete that were covered with carpet so be prepared for that . I honestly would be a bit hesitant to start tiling right away only because you might want to change vanities or toilets before deciding tile. We lived with just the concrete for about 3 months in one of our houses that had carpet in the bathrooms (so gross). We knew we wanted to change the vanity . Just my opinion but something to think about since probably no low flush toilets in there at the moment.

Creative Tile Eastern CT - Thank you!

You've added to my knowledge and confirmed some things I've read as well. A question - what does "Does it meet deflection requirements? " mean?

Patricia Colwell Consulting

Unfortunately, we won't be changing toilets or vanities at this point. We are kind of reaching with this home purchase, and we really need to live with the toilets and vanities that are in the house for an unfortunately long time. If you'd see the kitchen in this place... That's where the money's going to have to go. If the carpet is glued down, I will definitely be investing a lot of sweat equity into the bathrooms. I have lots of time, but not a ton of money. Here's one of the "lovely" bathrooms. I can live with the vanity - maybe a coat of paint - and the wallpaper - I actually like to strip wallpaper. I dream about pulling off the wallpaper - it's all over the house. We're going to get an estimate on de-popcorning the ceilings right away, too. It would be great to get it done ASAP, before we move in.

Stop with the bolding. It’s hard on the eyes, turns off responders, and is against netiquette.

Take almost everything you learned at that clinic and put it in File 13. Rip out the carpet and live on the subfloor until you can hire a Pro. Small rooms like bathrooms are 10x harder to do than large rooms. It’s not where you start learning to tile. To start learning to tile, you pick an entry way, or hall. Something larger, with few cuts, and zero penetrations to cut around like soil pipes and water lines.

It is possible to learn to tile semi-adequately. You won’t do it if you rush it. Have the Pro do the most used bath, and you watch, while staying out of the way. There’s a LOT more to it than a mostly wrong half hour clinic can ever tell you.

Rethink any home purchase that is a “stretch”. The mortgage is the cheap part of home ownership. You can expect to need to put st least the same amount in a savings account every month to deal with home maintenance. That way when you have the 19K HVAC replacement and 22K roof all needing doing within 18 months, you can deal with it. If the home is a stretch, then deferred maintenance happens, and the home deteriorates, with the value going down. It’s not a good situation in which to place yourself.

https://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/deflecto.pl

The popcorn ceiling may or may not contain asbestos. You would need to have it checked by a testing agency as soon as possible. There are also self tests available.

I had popcorn ceiling removed which did contain asbestos. You would want to have it done, if possible, prior to moving in with furniture because removing it when your furniture and belongs are in place is really a hassle. If you don't do anything to the ceiling, you are safe because although it is ugly, the asbestos is contained safely so long as it isn't disturbed.

live_wire_oak

Sorry about the bolding - just figured out how to fix it! Your suggestions are great, and I'd really like to hire someone (we have a decent contractor) who will let me be his helper bee on the first one. I agree on the half-hour clinic, too, because although he was a great guy and showed us some good things, when the clinic guy suggested that we tile around the toilet, it was an "uh-oh" moment. My husband was onboard with that. I was not. I'm so glad for input here on Houzz.

I've tiled bathroom walls in the past, but it was just walls, and they stayed up for the almost 20 years we lived in the house and used the shower. That was easy, but these floors are a much different thing. I'm planning to use 8 X 8 porcelain tiles, spacers, and levelers so it at least comes out even and level. The tiles are the kind that have a slightly rounded edge, which I think will be the easiest to use, and to cut and nip into the right shapes when needed. It's all the prep work and the right materials that are the biggest issues. Thank you so much.

"Stretch" is a relative term. We have money to deal with any possible emergency that could come up. We have the time to do much of the work ourselves, and we just don't want to go into savings any more than we need to. At this point, we own another home with no mortgage that we're selling, and if we don't sell it, we'll be renting it out, so we won't have a huge pot of money to spend if that happens.

Helen

I completely agree, and I hope we can afford to have it removed before we move in. We had a 1920s house with a lot of asbestos insulation on piping - big boiler and radiator heat with lots of piping in the basement. We painted a couple coats of some sort of sealer paint on it and didn't so much as touch it after that.

LWO is correct about not over extending yourself. Hopefully you have good savings to deal with issues that come up such as HVAC or roof or...

As for the tiling, I'd pull up the carpet, strip the wallpaper, maybe paint the vanities, add some nice pulls from HD, maybe change the light fixture and call it a day for now. Live with the concrete floors until you can figure out exactly what you want and also so you make sure no major issues come up.

As for the upstairs bathroom, for now, I'd probably just put some peel and stick vinyl tile down.

What an exciting adventure! About 11 years ago we too bought a crappy house on a great block and it was 100% the right call. Eight years later we sold it for triple what we bought it for. Best real estate decision of our lives.

We actually hired people to do all the work and when we purchased the home made sure to include a buffer in price to give us the money to renovate.

The only mistakes we made in our renovation were:

• not replacing the subfloor once the kitchen was out and ensuring the floor was really level. All our tiles started cracking within months and it was awful

• putting hardwood on our stairs. Waste of money with our dog who ran up and down them scratching them

The first one is important in your case. In retrospect we should have really done so much more prep work for the kitchen floor. I agree with getting a pro to do one of your bathrooms so you see it done well and right.

And yes, my first two houses were a stretch and my ex and I did most of the work ourselves and it was well worth it.

cpartist

We are selling a mortgage-free house, but if we don't sell it, we're going to have to rent it out, so that really limits the pot of money we have to spend on our new-to-us house. We don't want to go into any more debt on this new-to-us house, and sweat equity is free. We are very lucky, and definitely could pay for any emergencies with savings. We had the house inspected twice - once by an inspection company and then again by the contractor who's done work for us in the past. Plus, we'll have one of those homeowner's warranties. We are very fortunate because we have never over-extended ourselves, and we're going to keep it that way.

A S

It's great to have Houzz to use as a sounding board, and congratulations on your smart purchase and sale! Thanks for your supportive input.

When we were raising our 4 kids, we bought a truly crappy 1920s house in a wonderful neighborhood, and we were only the second owners. The original owner was over 90 years old, and the house had been a wedding gift from her parents who'd lived next door. They did almost nothing to the place other than replace the kitchen counters with boomerang pattern Formica and change out the coal furnace to gas. We spent 19 years in that house, and it was one heck of an adventure as we learned to do things ourselves. I loved that house, but after 19 years, we had to move across the country. I hope I'll learn to love this place just as much. Thank you.