Hi

I live in a old terraced house. In the nhallway I lifted up the
carpet to find (original?) red quarry tiles.
All read -- no design/patterns

Not in a particulary good state with lots of chips. But the majority
are stuck fast. About 2 or 3 are loose and can be liftted away.

I want to cover the floor with ceramic tiles. Should I remove all the
tiles or can I simply remove the loos tiles level the floor and tile
over. The floor seems sound in all other ways.

Many thanks

Bhupesh

bp
wibbled on Tuesday 06 April 2010 21:19

Hi

I live in a old terraced house. In the nhallway I lifted up the
carpet to find (original?) red quarry tiles.
All read -- no design/patterns

Not in a particulary good state with lots of chips. But the majority
are stuck fast. About 2 or 3 are loose and can be liftted away.

I want to cover the floor with ceramic tiles. Should I remove all the
tiles or can I simply remove the loos tiles level the floor and tile
over. The floor seems sound in all other ways.


The only danger with quarry tiles IME is that they may have been waxed
which could mess up the adhesion of subsequent tiles.

OTOH, if they are old and haven't been waxed in living memory, it's probably
all worn off as is the case with the few I have.

If the surface is wax free, you'll have no trouble tiling on top. Test a
blob (say about 2-3" dia) of tile adhesive and see if it is trivial or
difficult to remove after a few days setting.

--
Tim Watts

Managers, politicians and environmentalists: Nature's carbon buffer.

Tim Watts wrote:
bp
wibbled on Tuesday 06 April 2010 21:19

Hi

I live in a old terraced house. In the nhallway I lifted up the
carpet to find (original?) red quarry tiles.
All read -- no design/patterns

Not in a particulary good state with lots of chips. But the majority
are stuck fast. About 2 or 3 are loose and can be liftted away.

I want to cover the floor with ceramic tiles. Should I remove all the
tiles or can I simply remove the loos tiles level the floor and tile
over. The floor seems sound in all other ways.


The only danger with quarry tiles IME is that they may have been waxed
which could mess up the adhesion of subsequent tiles.

OTOH, if they are old and haven't been waxed in living memory, it's probably
all worn off as is the case with the few I have.

If the surface is wax free, you'll have no trouble tiling on top. Test a
blob (say about 2-3" dia) of tile adhesive and see if it is trivial or
difficult to remove after a few days setting.


Yes, I did that recently on some sheet vinyl. Impossible to get the tile
adhesive off the vinyl after 24 hours.

On Tue, 6 Apr 2010 13:19:50 -0700 (PDT)
bp wrote:

Hi

I live in a old terraced house. In the nhallway I lifted up the
carpet to find (original?) red quarry tiles.
All read -- no design/patterns

Not in a particulary good state with lots of chips. But the majority
are stuck fast. About 2 or 3 are loose and can be liftted away.

I want to cover the floor with ceramic tiles. Should I remove all the
tiles or can I simply remove the loos tiles level the floor and tile
over. The floor seems sound in all other ways.

Many thanks

Bhupesh

I had the same problem recently. I detergent-washed them well, then
painted the tiles with SBR before a layer of self-levelling (applied
while the SBR is tacky) to fill in the chips, grout lines etc., before
tiling. Use a cement based adhesive.

If you try to remove the old tiles, you will find they are bedded in
mortar, and after many years this will be b......y hard to chip off.
If you decide to go that route, make sure you have a good SDS chisel,
and be prepared to take a while.

R.