slate over tar paper with floor heat
IdahoDon
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
Without grout and mortar to evenly support the tile I’d think you’ll be cracking corners off and will feel the tile move under foot.
On one hand I’d be the first to say this is definitely a bad idea. However…
…A clint once asked to have scraps of granite countertop cut in random shapes for the floor of their basement. I couldn’t think of a reason a sand base wouldn’t work with these large heavy pieces, but that’s different from your situation. Tile just doesn’t behave without a little help from the thinset and grout.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn’t rule the world.
Replies
I think this is a bad idea. The slate will wiggle on the tar paper and pinch bare feet and the volatile organic compounds in the tar will pollute the air in your house.
Better would be to lay the slate in thin set mortar, fine if you want to go zero grout line or use a polymerized sand instead of a grout. (This is a sand that has a dry adhesive on it that you can buy at a masonry supply center and sweep into the cracks with a broom and then moisten with a light mist from a hose or garden sprayer so the grains stick together like a pourous grout)
but just say no to the crinkly wiggle stone floor on asphalt impregnated felt.
I would recommend wiping the tops of the tiles with a silicone sealer and letting them dry before installing them so any thin set that squeezes out can be wiped up with a sponge easily.
Somebody will come on momentarily and insist that you run Schluter Kerdi over the slab before you set it and I'd say that if you have any cracks developing you should at least cover those areas with a three foot strip of a crack isolater like the Schluter or "Rolled Gold" etc. available from a decent tile store.
I did a couple thousand feet of floor like this over a radiant slab with a fairly lumpy finish a few years ago and have had no problems. Here a few photos of that job. http://www.chandlerdesignbuild.com/indexFull.php?id=schultzPopish&t=The%20Schultz-Popish%20Residence
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"You cannot work hard enough to make up for a sloppy estimate."
That picture that shows the area around the pool and an area under cover in the foreground...what are the two materials there? Slate in the foreground and bluestone around the pool?Steve
The blue stone is right but I don't really remember what the stuff around the pool was. We did have some un-guaged slate on the stoops. Sorry my memory isn't better, there was a mess of stone on that project.------------------
"You cannot work hard enough to make up for a sloppy estimate."
lifer... i'd agree with shelternerd.....point by pointMike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Tend to agree w/ the others ... your description sounds 'funky'. Dealing w/ some uneveness in the floor is fairly normal for installing tile. Loose tile on an uneven floor will feel weird and you will likely have cracking, moving, etc. as you walk over it. I think you will find your felt will do little if anything to 'take up the slack'. These other pros can tell you how to accomodate irregularities (as the other poster pointed out already I think).