What we have here is a three story condo/apartment. Fairly well built, concrete floors with radiant heating. Originally, vinyl sheet flooring.
My job: Ceramic tile (app 12×12) in the two baths. One full bath about ten by eight, the other a 3/4 bath, about six by eight. I have started to remove the vinyl. It was loose in the full bath, came up easily in most parts. In the small room, much better glued. I tried a heat gun, and the vinyl top layer came up easily, leaving a very well adhered layer of the base layer.
In the main bath, numerous small cracks in the concrete.
The question is: Do I have to remove the papery underpart of the sheet vinyl?
Will the cracks in the concrete cause a problem with the new tile? Do I need to put a bond breaking fabric?
Will the vinyl sheet “underpart” act as a bond breaker, if needed. And will it do as a substrate at all?
Thanks in advance
Alan
Replies
Go to wwwjlconline.com, then tile section. There is a forum there with all your answers plus more, or you can ask there. Thats where the tile guys hang out.
Tim Mooney
Alan, our tile guy uses a German underlayment called "Ditra". It is a fine mesh backing with a hard orange waffled (as in straight from a waffle iron) top. This gets thin-setted to cracked concrete then tile is thinset to the top. The beauty of it is cracks supposedly won't telegraph thru.
Ham
Alan-- You may also want to look at http://johnbridge.com/ -- IMHO the best tile advice site around. Email a copy of your post to John and he'll get back to you.
Hammer-- Thanks for the Ditra tip!
Rev Ted