I’m doing a remodel of an on slab house; 3/4 solid plank floors and 1/2 in thick travertine stone ( French/Versailles pattern, laid on a 45 deg. diagonal) in the baths and laundry rooms. I want the stone floors to be at the same hight as the wood floors, i.e., 1-1/2 in., to not have any lippage at the floor transitions. The Powder Room is only 7 ft x 3.5 ft , not a lot of space to navigate in. So… my dilima is; what do I use as a setting bed and how do I get it at the correct hight? I’ve been told, “thick set” and “medium set” and “pour in more concrete”. OK, but how to get it at the correct hight? I was thinking about cutting down some dobies, glue them down and use these as depth gages – this lead to my next set of questions: 1. If thinset is spread with a 1/4 in toothed trowel, at 45 deg angle, this results in an approx. 3/16 in. high ridge, how much will/should the thin set compress when a 1/2 thick, 12 x 16 in. travertine tile is set? 2. Do I “butter the back of the larger tiles because they are heavier? 3. (not related to hight) The drywall and wall finish (Venetian plaster) is in, and the owner doesn’t want any gaps at the walls, do i need to get the tile edge under the drywall edge a little or will the, 3/8 in, natural slate being used as the base boards, be enough?
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Replies
Over your head?
A full blown mud job is what you need, and it doesn't sound like you know how to do one.
Learning at a clients expense would not be an option for me, When I have found myself if your spot, I hire a pro of whatever trade stumped me. Pay him, watch and learn. I've actually lost $$, but learned what every cent of it was about.
Good luck.
I've learned at lot...
As Yogi Berra said, "you can observe a lot by watching".
I Learn By Doing
Thanks for the input, unfortunately there are no tilers in this area that even know what deck mud is and they've been in business for 20 years - that would be about 1990, they sure know how to use thin set though, but so do I. Only 10% of the tile work in the US uses deck mud and that's for shower pans, compared to 98% in Europe. Because of the rarity of knowledge on the subject locally, I was hoping that someone on this forum, who knew how to do a mud set, would provide some pointers/help. I wouldn't charge or put a customer at risk, I'd do some test panels first.
Mud jobs
The secrete to a mud deck is the dry mix og the mud. It should only be wet enough to hold itself together when you squeese a handfull of it into a ball and will brush cleanly off of your hands without leaving them wet. After that it is just a matter of getting it in place and level (or sloped to a drain if doing a shower pan). I cut screed boards to the desired hieght and pack the mud between then. Depending on the room I'm working in I'll set them at 2 or 3' intervals. After I back inthe dry mud I screed it down with a good straight edge board. I then lift out the screeds and pack the resulting channels with mud, using a magnesium float.
Let the base set over night and it should be dry enough to start your thinset tile job on top of it . Use walk boards and knne boards to get around on, so you don't gouge the base mud up.
Seems to me there's not enough depth to do a mud base -- he's only got 1/4" to play with. Barely enough for an isolation membrane.
Plywood.
Your tile is 1/2-inch thick. So you need to make up an inch. Bring it up with 3/4 plywood, then ditra over that, and you should be there.
Make a test slab to be sure if yo want, but you should be able to float the tile at the entry on a slightly thicker layer of thinset, and tap it rue with a rubber mallet.