Floor Tiles

I am beginning to wish i had never started this job some time back removing the hideous tiles from the walls half the plasterboard came with them so cut my losses and put up new on all four walls using the green aqua board by this time the lino was gone anyway secured the floor where i thought it needed and sanded removing any lumps and bumps swept and hoovered to remove dust decided how i was putting down the tiles cut where necessary all laid out mixed the adhesive started to lay the tiles had to stop halfway through but it gave 4 days for the tiles to set my dear wife noticed they were moving found i could lift them easily by hand glue stuck to the tile not the board so logic dictates the board at fault but having sanded whatever is on the boards must be in pretty deep i can get backer board but its 6mm thick and will give a step that someone will damage or stub their toe so will try 3 mm ply screwed down other jobs using 50mm ply have been perfect so surely it has to work i suppose i should be grateful i had to stop and didnt do the full floor

No primer should be required if using correct adhesive.

If the sub floor is sound I would sand it to remove all the old adhesive. I would then use an approved primer that is compatible with the tile adhesive. Let me know how you get on.

I personally would sand the boards back a bit. I am suspicious of the adhesive that was used to attach the original lino sanding back should remove it. I would not seal the boards after sanding. The adhesive will come off the tiles if you soak them for long enough.

Hi John, that's why I put the ? but as you are using good adhesive it should ok and the tiles test seems to show it is. Lino is oil based so yes after many years it could have an effect. try on a small area cleaning with degreasent like ammonia, cheap at a brico. Then paint on the latex to the board and try again after the latex has had a chance to adhere. Latex sticks adhesive to my buckets (plastic)

Thanks guys but the adhesive i am using is PCI Pericol Plus a cement base powder i have to mix supposedly flexible and for tiling on wood, there is a date on the bag December 2014 surely that isnt the expiry date after which the stuff looses its adhesion, or is it.I think the only thing i can do is to go into the shop i have tried to remove the compound from the back of the tile but other than a hammer and chisel which will probably damage the tile its not going to come off so it does look like there is a problem with the board as there was a layer of lino previously down i wonder if that has anything to do with it

Aha, I knew the guys would come up with some alternatives to save you ripping the floor up and ending up with a step. Well done you lot (assuming you like the sound of them John!).

I would stop using pre mixed adhesive? it's rubbish. mix your own from cement based powdered tile adhesive and add resin de anchorage (sp) which is latex as sold for flex adhesive. It is true the green faced is harder to stick to but the latex resin allows tiles to be stuck on tiles without preparing in anyway other than cleaning.

Good luck.

screw down some thin plywood, place screws every 6 inches to secure it, then tile over the top using flexible tile adhesive designed for wood.

Come on members - what's the answer for John!! Must be some of you who've come across this type of board.

Those decisions are so difficult but love dictates in the end and in your heart you know when one of your pets has been through enough, devastating though it is. I absolutely feel for you on that.

There are so many renovators/DIYers on here I'm surprised no-one's had experience of this and has much more effective ideas than my pathetic attempts.

I'm going back to the top of this post and doing a call to action - I think your question is disappearing off the front page under a pile of comments on another thread.

Hold fire and we'll see what you get ...

Not sure Valerie on price of board just at this moment we are skint with the vets bills and car the vets bill i would willingly pay again if it would reverse all for the dogs but the dog we lost had a heart problem which was under control though would never improve and would have shortened his life but then he developed leukemia and went down bank very rapidly the kindest thing we could do was to let him go he was just short of his 8 birthday .The price of backer board is about £17 a sheet in the UK 1200x800mm luckily its only a very small shower room so only need about 4 sheets if that but i bet its double or even more over here.

John, what an awful sequence of events. I would have suffered a major sense of humour failure a very long time ago but it sounds as though you're a man who will win out in the end. I'm actually surprised sanding and scuffing the board didn't give the tile adhesive enough purchase. Your idea sounds right to take some of the board to the shop - I just hope they don't try to palm you off with a load of expensive grippy stuff that in the end doesn't work. Is tile back expensive (not had experience of it) and will the step it makes prove dangerous at all?

Did think of that but read on a manufactures web site do not coat with PVA glue so i am at a loss i thought of putting a sheet of tile backer board over it, this is guaranteed to stick but it would raise the floor up another 6mm so making a step into the bathroom.I have even tried sanding the board but no different its as though it is impregnated with something. will take a piece of board to the shop we bought the adhesive and tiles from and ask them

I feel like taking a year out as this year, if it could go wrong it has and we are only into March, every DIY job has turned into a nightmare,stripping a lovely old oak door to find beneath the umpteen layers of pain swirl marks in the wood left by a sanding disc fitted obviously to a grinder so hours of careful sanding needed to remove them, loosing one of our younger dogs then another our oldest dog had a malignant tumor removed and is on borrowed time, our other old dog we suspect the onset of dementia, our two cockerels managed to get together so now we have one, the car needing a 4 figure sum repair but looking on the bright side !!! what bright side.

If the board is still in good nick, as it seems to be John, it would be a shame to lift it and to replace with what? Might end up in the same boat. Would it be worth brushing on a coat of PVC glue which would be partially absorbed and would provide an extra bit of grip for the tile adhesive to hold onto?