Concrete Floor Preparation For Porcelain Tile

That old basement floor with the crumbling vinyl tile may look hopeless but with a little scraping and a few strips of crack isolation membrane you can turn it into a perfect base for new ceramic tile.

Concrete floor preparation for porcelain tile.

The next step is to apply a concrete sealer on the floor surface. One of the first steps in refinishing a basement or turning a garage. How to prepare for laying tile over a concrete floor. Follow the seven steps below to get your concrete floor in great shape.

Ceramic and porcelain tile are so frequently installed at or above grade level on a cement board underlayment or directly on plywood that it almost seems novel to install tile directly on concrete. Self leveling compound can be purchased at your local home improvement store. When installing a ceramic tile floor on a concrete subfloor you don t have to worry about flexing as long as the concrete slab is at least 1 1 8 inch thick which most slabs are. To prepare your concrete subfloor make sure that it can accept water penetration.

A concrete floor is a good base for laying ceramic tiles provided it is level and free of cracks or abrasions. This is an optional step but can really benefit your tile installation in the long run. A sound surface is necessary when preparing concrete floor for tile installation. How to prepare a concrete floor for tile.

How to prepare concrete floor for ceramic tile. It will also provide a stronger adhesion between mortar and concrete. Patch little cracks or holes with a cement patching compound. A concrete sealer prevents moisture from staying underneath the ceramic tiles.

Step 3 plan your layout. Concrete expands and contracts and that type of movement can also crack the tiles and the grout. Additionally a steps must be taken to ensure that a concrete floor will create a solid bond. If the existing tile floor is set over a mortar bed it may be hard to remove the tiles without removing a lot of the mortar bed.

After getting to know the precautions you should take before laying tile and choosing the installation option that works best for your floor you re ready to get started. Push air bubbles out to the edge with a j roller or the edge of a grout float. If you re installing directly over the old tile flooring rough up the existing tile with sand paper. Cracks and depressions may create weak spots that cause tile to crack in the future.

Yet this application does make sense since concrete is heavy solid and is typically thought of as an unbending uncompromising material. As with a wooden subfloor a concrete subfloor must be level for successful tile installation. However you re not out of the woods. Concrete floors are durable and easy to clean but not very attractive.

Clean with a degreaser and test a small area overnight for bonding.