Need some insight on project

[Stimw]

Your pic is of flooring, he is asking about the joists the flooring is nailed to.

 

[17 Oaks]

Your pic is of flooring, he is asking about the joists the flooring is nailed to.

This may be the best pic I have, but now its completely covered by sheetrock, I no longer have access.

To the Upper right of the central beam. They are 1 in wide, 12 in tall on 13- 17 in centers and go from the central supporting beam as shown in the pic to the outer wall, about 12 feet long

 

[teejk]

My floor joists are 12x1's on 13'- 17" center and the subfloor is ｾ on diagonal.

The guy who built this house, there were 3 things NOT in his tool box: tape measure, level, square. Not a single square room in this house, one room out by 18 in!

My MIL bought a house not far from here 2 years ago to be closer to my wife after my FIL passed. She was 87 at the time and the plan was to give her downstairs living. The bathroom in there was the old Kohler cast iron thing surrounded by those cheap plastic sheets that served as wallpaper. It was a mess and quite frankly at her age I didn't want her to be crawling in and out of a tub (that's the phone call you don't want to answer). So the plan was to create a proper tiled shower (using another Schluter product that is available at Home Depot). I gutted the walls and was shocked at all the water damage but I sucked it up and got it done. Came time to lay the shower pan only to see that the floor dropped 3/4" in the span of a standard tub (60"). No obvious defects in the floor structure so I guess your builder owned the same level as hers.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

Most ceramic tile flooring requires a 1 1/4" minimum sub floor for install. That can be a 3/4" sub plus 1/2" cement board.

 

[downsizingnow48]

If the tile floor you took out was not cracked, I would build it back the same way. If it was cracked, I would use a layer of 3/4" plywood on top of the diagonal floor boards and 1/4" concrete backer on top of that.

 

[teejk]

Most ceramic tile flooring requires a 1 1/4" minimum sub floor for install. That can be a 3/4" sub plus 1/2" cement board.

We built this house in 2010. It has 3/4" T&G flooring and we did extensive tiling (like A LOT!!! including 20" squares in the large kitchen) using the Ditra product. We have no regrets.

 

[mikeman1]

i put electric floor heat in my bathroom when i remodeled. so nice in winter to step on a warm floor right where you walk. also, i put 2x12 wood in between the wall joists all around where i thought i would put hand /safety rails in shower. also put water proof light in shower area. made it big enough and designed to walk into without using curtain or door. worked well for mom when she got older.

 

[DuckSlayer1017]

I used the Ditra under about 800 sqft of slate I put down in 2012. Sub floor was 2 layers of TG OSB. No issues with loose tiles or cracked grout. I used it because the slate needs shear isolation to resist cracks. The Ditra is also thinner than standard cement board and came out exactly even with 3/4" hickory it butts up to.

 

[teejk]

I used the Ditra under about 800 sqft of slate I put down in 2012. Sub floor was 2 layers of TG OSB. No issues with loose tiles or cracked grout. I used it because the slate needs shear isolation to resist cracks. The Ditra is also thinner than standard cement board and came out exactly even with 3/4" hickory it butts up to.

Plus you can cut with a scissors with no dust or band-aids associated with cement board. Cost wise...is a bit pricey but figure the cost of proper screws to anchor cement board and maybe it's not that bad. Need to follow the instructions though...it uses a different mortar to set it than you use to set the tiles. As luck would have it when we started building Home Depot sent an e-mail with a clearance on a mortar mixer (1/2hp motor with paddles that I don't think I could kill if I tried...$99).

 

[17 Oaks]

Thanks all for your comments.

I am liking the Ditra approach, will investigate further.

What I had was the concrete backerboard, looked to be 5/8ths, thick mortar of which about 40% or better of the tiles barely stuck to, in fact at least half the tiles that come up, did who whole and could have been reused with no issues.

The way they attached the concrete backer board was to use staples!


While we are on the topic of floors and for your reading enjoyment: My house circa 1945 is on a slab, with 5 separate pours over time. Originally it was black paint on the concerete floor, later and after a cattle sale they put down Linoleum, later and after another cattle sale they put down tile they bought at a WeB Tile Left Overs, different shapes and sizes. Later they sold more cattle and put down square tiles 12"x12". The floor layer was now at approx 1 ¾ in thick, all the doors have been bottom cut to be able to open.

Since there is no room in the house even remotely in square you can only guess what the floors looked it, you almost got seasick just looking at the grout lines and crazy slices to do the install.

So I took it up. It was easy and it generated right at about 10,000 lbs according to the weight slips at the dump. Most of the tile just lifted off as the mortar did not stick well to Linoleum. Stripped off the linoleum with a wide blade the ground it down smooth with a powered buffer.

Thought some of you would get a kick out this...