tile over concrete or use ditra (also glue residual from vinyl)
I am trying to get this all in one post. All of the toilets are leaking in a house we bought. I realized why when we removed the first toilet and saw that it had shams stuck under it to keep it in place and it was not flush with the flange.
Question 1:
The house is only 10 years old and the subfloor is in good shape (no cracks and it's level). Should I use the ditra or save the money and tile over the concrete floor?
Question 2:
I plan to tile both bathrooms myself and this will be my first time tiling but I have experience using thinset and grout so I am not a total novice. I removed the old vinyl sheet flooring today in the first one (it's only 25 sq ft the other bathroom is larger). All of the floor and paper were removed but there is some glue residue. I have researched a lot and it seems to be a mixed bag of whether the ditra or tile would stick directly to the floor without removing ALL of the glue first, and I have also seen a lot of suggestions over how to remove the glue (ranging from boiling water to kilz to a product ditra makes to grinding it down which I really don't want to do).
In this case, it is worth getting all of the remaining glue off so the thinset will stick or is this overkill?
Attaching a pic of the floor. The worst is around the toilet where it had leaked because all of the paper was really stuck and I used a razor to scrape it up. (For context we are in the south so I know that moisture may be more of an issue with a concrete floor than cracking at this point in time).
Comments (9)
PROHALLETT & Co.
7 months ago
PROPatricia Colwell Consulting
7 months agoRelated Discussions
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Comments (5)How about one of those upright electric floor sanders, the orbiting kind? With lots of drop cloths taped down well over everything that has to stay in the area while sanding. And using good breathing protection such as a snug-fitting, soft pleated surgeon's mask. Those masks filter out tinier particles than the rigid white nose-cone type masks do. Also, wearing a nylon-type track suit (or whatever those 2-piece sports outfits are called) while sanding would shed a lot of the concrete dust off you. After sanding, close the door on the room tightly and exit quickly (any windows to the room should have already been closed so that there was no turbulence in the air to stir the concrete dust around any more than necessary). Wait 24 hours for the dust to settle (literally), then either hose down the floor if you have a drain or damp mop the entire surface to pick up the dust on the floor. Or go over it with a vacuum cleaner (doesn't have to be a shop vac unless it looks like more dust than what a regular vac could choke down) and then wet mop. Next day, carefully remove the plastic drop cloths, folding the cleanest sides over onto the dusty sides, keep whatever has settled onto them bundled up, and toss them. Anyway, that's how I would go about it....See MoreBest way to use Gardz(vinyl wallpaper glue left on RAW drywall)!!
Comments (10)I just used Gardz last night to start the repair process in the bathroom I just painstakingly stripped wallpaper off unprepared dryway (what a nightmare - I am still cursing whoever did this!). I sanded it down pretty well, but there were still little chunks of glue that I could not get off. Anyway, the gardz cost $30 a gallon, and my local store did not carry it in quarts. I used very little as it is quite thin. It did an amazing job of "sealing" that drywall and I feel alot better about moving forward with this! Some of that pesky glue actually loosened while I was applying the gardz and I scrapped it off as I went. This morning, I have a fairly smooth (well, excepted where the drywall is torn and we have to skim coat) wall and it feels like a nice consistent surface sealed from any residual glue etc. The can says to sand, apply gardz, do the skim coat, sand and then reapply gardz. I was going to use a normal white tint primer for the second application - over the skimcoat as i think that is the advice I read on this forum. Do I need to apply the gardz over the skimcoat like the can says? thanks for the recommendations, this seems to be a great product!...See MoreVinyl Tile glue down questions
Comments (3)Level isn't all that important for the flooring - level is important for everything but the flooring - installing doors, cabinets, appliances etc. Flat is the major issue with flooring and that means really flat, not just kinda-sorta-mostly flat. We recently glued down rubber floor tiles in my basement remodel which had a typical 80 year old "flat" concrete floor. We started by filling the obvious small holes and found that helped but was not nearly sufficient. In the end, my partner used a feather finish compound and skimmed the entire floor surface. After that, we knocked down any trowel marks and laid out tiles over the surface. Anything we could feel through the tiles received another round of either knock down or build up. We walked all over the floor in every direction trying to find all the places with a notable dip. It is surprising how the body can find even very shallow depressions in the floor, a couple of mm thick. Another reason to be very picky at this stage is that the tile corners won't line up if the surface isn't flat and there aren't grout lines to hide any issues...See Moreinstalling schluter ditra over vinyl tile over basement concrete
Comments (7)Using ditra you can go right over it, just follow ditra guidelines and you will never have a problem especially when existing vinyl tiles installed on concrete. Keep in mind that Ditra allows dissimilar materials to act independently of each other this why the tile or grout will never crack even if there is differential movement between the subfloor and the tile. We used ditra over asbestos tiles installed in the kitchen about 6 yrs ago over an old wood floor in a house that was built in the 20s and there was no issues then and there is no issues a year ago when I was there doing a deck repair. Good luck...See More
Mike Schoenbaum
2 months agoga99
2 months agoMike Schoenbaum
2 months agoga99
2 months agolast modified: 2 months agoMike Schoenbaum
2 months agoga99
2 months ago
ga99Original Author