Advice on tiling entire ground floor of House

D

daveco23

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Thinking of doing the above - has anyone done it? Will I need to get underfloor heating? How much does it (heating) cost?
Thanks
 
Whether you get underfloor heating or not is your own choice tiles are cold but need very little maintenance a good size rug placed on the floor will help with avoiding cold feet syndrome.


Good Luck
 
I cant imagine a whole downstairs with tiles, maybe its just me but I find it hard enough to get used to a wooden floor which doesnt cause cold feet syndrome, but in the winter I really do prefer a carpet (warmer feel)..........which has been tossed due to one year old and maintenance issues.

Tiles in the kitchen are a must but for practical reasons only, spillages/leaks etc
 
We were thinking of doing it ourselves but decided against it instead opting for tiles in the hall, kitchen and semi solid ash floors in the sitting rooms the wooden floors look great and are not really cold even in the winter time some how they are just a lot warmer than tiles the only thing I hate about the wooden floors is the daily/weekly addition of scratches I hate em sometimes we wish we had went through with the tiling option but hey there's always another time to do it.
There is even a range of tiles that look like a wooden floor when I saw them I was impressed.
 
Tiling the kitchen and hall is defo best. I know lots of people who put wood in the hall(me included as Mrs. Legend got her way) and wooden floors in the hall just get cut to bits, get wet etc etc. its a dizzyaster.
 
- the thing to watch out for is the condition of the flooring ....

1. is it level ......
2. are there cracks in the floor leveling compound ...
3. I used PTB adhesive for the downstairs aswell .....
4. When doing fancy patterns plan out your floor before you begin....

If you are going to tile the front room ......you could pick the same tiles as the kitchen
if you have partitioning doors it give the feeling of open plan ....

I knew people who did the other way round and put wooden floors both in the kitchen and front room. It did make the rooms look bigger but how practical
this was I don't know.


Hope the tilling goes well!
 

Why would you see an issue with cracks in the floor compount for tiles> is it because you would be afraid that the cracks would widen and as such snap the tile apart? Just curious?
 
oulu said:
Make sure you have good knee pads
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And a large wallet, between grout, adhesive, labour, the tiles themselves and almost certainly any patterns you decide to make features of, its going to cost a pot of money.
 
legend99 said:
Why would you see an issue with cracks in the floor compount for tiles> is it because you would be afraid that the cracks would widen and as such snap the tile apart? Just curious?
Click to expand...

if there are crack if often means that the floor that you are tiling on is unstable or worse still hollow.....this could later cause the tiles to have hair line crack ...... esp where
a tile has been cut.


I once tile a house that have very poor flooring and even after putting PVA the tiles still crack. From then on before I begin tiling I check for crack hollowness in the floor and there has been no crack ..... at lot of hard work upfront but worth it in the end.

Are you thinking of tiling yourself ?

Just for the record I am not a tiler (well not the day job anyhow) ........
 
I also did what dopbber22 did. Tile the kitchen, diningroom & hallway and the rest of the rooms in (hard)wood. My decision was driven by the fact that I have 2 small kids. I ammhappy with the decision & believe it is the right way to go. Was surprised that that the kids are happy to play on the tiles as much as they do....
 

I'm not a tiler either, but I've tiled the kitchen in our new house, our odl house and my mother's house. Also have done few bathrooms in those houses and ensuites. Find it grand to do actually.
 
legend99 said:
I'm not a tiler either, but I've tiled the kitchen in our new house, our odl house and my mother's house. Also have done few bathrooms in those houses and ensuites. Find it grand to do actually.
Click to expand...

I have also taught a monkey to tile as he finds it very easy
 
I know somebody who did the this. their house got flooded once or twice by a freaky combination of stormy conditions, high tides and the local council fecking up a drainage scheme. they did all the rooms bar the Sitting Room.

the kitchen had been done years ago so they did hallway, bathroom and 3 bedrooms (All with the same tile/style) it looks really well, they put alot of thought into the type and style of tile they used and I must say it has a real mediteranean (SP??) feel to it.
 
I put vinyl in my bathroom and kitchen and am so glad I did. It's much nicer than tiles - lovely warm softish feel to it, much more choice, and just as easier to clean. Actually it's easier - when sweeping the dust doesn't lodge in the space between tiles.
 
If you have/are going with UFH then I would recommend putting tiles in every room. You do not have to worry about the cold feeling as the tiles will always feel warm under your feet. I have UFH and I put tiles in the kitchen and hall and they are perfect. I put semi-solid wood in the dining room, sitting room and study and they turned out to be a disaster (mainly I think due to the fact that I put under lay between the concrete and the wood which acts as a heat barrier).
I have a geo-thermal heat pump which works excellently with the tiles but not with the wood. The temparatures in the rooms with the wood takes ages to come up and so the heat pump is having to be on all the time. This means my electricity bills are way too high. I guess I am going to have to take out the foam under lay and see if it will make a difference. Not going to be easy considering the semi-solid is all glued!!!
 
Sorry- don't have time to read all the above but can say that after much thought on it we went with tiles in the hall and utility room it runs into and hardwood in the rest of downstairs.

This way the decorative hardwood does not take heavy traffic and we got lovely tiles that do not give off a cold appearance and we think this practical solution is ideal, especially if you don't have a side passage for bringing wheely bin in and out, or if you are doing ongoing renovations in other parts of the house these tiled areas won't get damaged by building work.

One other point - I saw a post either here or elsewhere on cork flooring and it looked great on their website (it was one of them cases where a vendor uses a forum to advertise - grrr!) but I've never actually seen the stuff, but it might be worth finding out more on.
 
My cousin had cork tiles years ago. looked lovely when first went down and were warm underfoot. But they did suffer from wear and tear and as they got older, the top surface seem to wear on some of them so they looked a bit dirty. some looked like they were kindof crumbling. They were a nightmare to take up as they fell apart but had to be removed because they were uneven. Quality is probably alot better now though.
 
In the process of tiling an entire ground floor. We have underfloor heating so tiling is really the way to go for us. Same tile in every room, looks very well, flows very well and no need for saddle boards etc.
 
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