Tiling and more tiling, finished off with some more tiling

A delightful home in Wooburn Green. We will be replacing the existing Amtico flooring with a large random mix floor tile. Thats after we have layed in the underfloor heating first of course. 80m2 of old and new flooring to deal with, best get on..

So with the cupboards out, the appliances and the existing warped chip board floor can be removed ready for the new ply that will accomidate the underfloor heating.

This wall has been damp for some time, the cupboard base unit was rotten and fell apart whilst we removed it. The polystyrene subfloor is all stained and damp. So we have cleaned it up and allowed it to dry.

The old original floor was just a floating floor laying on top of the polystyrene. The new Plywood floor needs to be more secure so we had to install some battons to the block and beam floor which will in turn hold the the new plywood floor. Not an easy job, but necessary.

New plywood floors installed, we can start to put the utility room back together again.

With the walls chased where needed the cabling can go in for the underfloor heating. There will be four thermostats in total controlling the temperature through out the house.

With a new sink base unit installed this part of the utility room in now back together and functioning once again.

With doors taped up and sealed, the brand new stair case well and truly wrapped, kitchen covered etc, we can progress with the nightmare job of having to remove 80m2 of old dead glue. Not a task one relishes but an absolutely essential one.

And this is the machine that is going to help us ( hopefully ) do the job or it is 4 months of scrapping and 200 scrapers. Good luck Dave. Fingers crossed.

If you was just tiling, then with a special primer this would not be necessary. The primer would help the self levelling compound bond the the existing surface even with the old glue still on it.

When you are fitting underfloor heating however it is a very different matter, the heat from the element will effectively make this glue live again, soften it and it will then release the bond from the self levelling compound and the concrete base. Not good and when you are doing 80m2 it simply has to be right. So the only option is to remove the old glue to guarantee a firm and permanent bond even when it is heated. A time consuming job, but hopefully this machine we have hired will help lessen the time required.

It uses metal teeth that rotate to beat and scratch the top layer of surface off. It has left few dimples in the floor but the self levelling compound will sort all of this out. It seems to be working, It still takes time, but money well spent. Phew!

With the new floor in the utlity area, the Tv room and the hallway done, the last area to do now is the largest and most difficult. The kitchen. Once this is cleaned of the glue we can start to lay the heating element.

This projest is turning out to be a real labour of love, sweat and tears! I think that If I ever come across a floor that needs tiling and underfloor heating and it has had a linoleum floor previously I think I will be walking out the same door I just came in.

I always new the kitchen would be the hardest floor to sort out. The previous layer of screed had never really adhered to the tiled floor because it had been poorly prepared previously, again as before the only option is to remove it. More hands and knees work.

Much time later

and more time later the floor is finally back to tiles

The next thing now to do, is for us to use this primer and prime the whole of the floor area. This will help the adhesion of all the self levelling compound after all the heating element had been layed

Here is the Tv room primered

And here you can clearly see the difference between a floor that has been primered and one that is yet to be finished.

Here is the kitchen floor primered and coated with some flexible tile adhesive, this will give a proper bond to the self levelling compound that will be layed on top of it.

Now the huge task of laying all the heating element by hand and taping over it. I am beginning to wonder if we will ever walk straight again!

The wooden floor need a different primer, this one is green and smells really bad.

The Tv room

Dave primering the hallway.

The hallway layed of its heating element

and the main part of the kitchen.

Every length of this hand layed and taped over, there has to be an easier life than this!

In total over 700 meters of wire layed and taped over. I wish I had not just done that calculation. I will never moan about doing a bathroom again.

We then flooded the house with 621 kgs of self levelling compound and 148.5 litres of water. This encases the heating element and gives us a nice surface to work on.

And when it starts to dry

It should look like this. If you look really carefully you can just about see all the heating element within it.

As for those who are interested, this is 80m2 of tiles and not breaking tradition all carried in by hand. This will start be layed dependant on the screed drying Monday/Tuesday.

And finally the finished product, after 4 weeks of preperation, laying in the heating element, cutting and laying in the new tiles the house is done. Its has been really hard work where patience was needed all the time. Now its finished I must say it looks amazing. A far cry from the Amtico floor that was here before.

The utility area

The utility area works well, there was a drain cover in the middle of the floor that need to considered so we had incorporate it in to the scheme

The downstairs cloakroom, Again a lilttle tricky this one because of the cutting around the toilet.

The Tv room

The hallway I like, because from here you can see that the tiles run into all the rooms joining them all together. Keeps it looking fluid. Again with the stairs being new and fitted before the tiling, the big curves proved a challange as per usual Dave stood up to the plate and done himself proud ( again ) getting of bored of keep saying it!

As per usual, we would like to say a big thank you to Gill and Alan for trusting us whilst you were away on holiday. Thanks for your patience again for when you came home and we where still there. It was a tough job but the results speak for themselves. Look forward to coming back soon to hang the doors.

Ray & Dave