My house is a slab home. I want to tile my kitchen. Currently, there is hardwood floor, glued down over the cement slab. Can I tile over the hardwood. Read about Ditra but do I need to worry about any movement with the hardwood over cement? Ditra sounds like good product but don't want to spend money if not necessary. Thanks for any advice
Originally posted by DLAV: Read about Ditra but do I need to worry about any movement with the hardwood over cement? Ditra sounds like good product but don't want to spend money if not necessary. Thanks for any advice
Major bigtime movement. Hardwood expands and contracts way too much even to set tile with Ditra. There's one membrane called Protectowrap that's basically a bituthane with a fabric embedded in it that claims to isolate tile sufficiently to set over hardwood, but I don't trust it. I've seen too much literature from the TCNA that it's a bad idea. The hardwood must come up.
"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're probably right."
The wood will come up fairly well. Set your saw to a debth just deep enough to barely break through the bottom of the board and cut slices about 12" apart. Go to the local rental center and rent a power scraper made to remove tile and material from floors and then scrape each row you cut out. You should have fairly good sucess with this. But Bill was correct just to much movement to risk the attempt to tile over it, as if it fails you would be back tearing both floors off to start again.
Posts: 1010 | Location: New Jersey | Registered: 31 January 2006
Absolutely. It's not a matter of structural movement that's the cause for worry. it's seasonal expansion and contraction with the cooling and warming that occurs as the seasons change. For that, the concrete underneath is no help. The wood's going to expand and contract no matter what.
"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're probably right."
