Laying travertine on wooden floor

I want to lay a travertine slab and some travertine tiles on modern 2cm thick, narrow strip tongue and grooved pine floors. The slab is under a pellet stove and the tiles are in a bathroom.

Two questions:-
Do you think I should have a layer of sheet material between the floor and the travertine?

I’ve only previously laid travertine on cement, - does one use the same collé on wood?

Thanks in anticipation of expert advice :slight_smile:

What’s under the tongue and groove? As I wouldn’t lay stone on wood, too much micro-movement.

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Under the modern tongue and groove are nearly seven hundred year old chestnut beams that are at least 25x25cms and are like iron. They’re only around 75 cms apart, but occasionally a modern floorboard will squeak , so I think it might be a good idea to put something down in between on a spectrum from hardboard to block

Re micromovement - I’ve previously laid travertine on hardboard on wood (pine only 250 years old) in the bathroom of our last UK house, and it was fine for the fifteen years before we left.

I’m sure others will have more detail, but some years ago I remember tiling on a tongued and grooved floor. It was very important to make sure that movement of the boards could be accommodated. At the time I was given advice to either a)use a very good flexible tile adhesive over the boards and then tile or b)lay plywood sheets over the tongued and grooved boards and then use flexible tile adhesive. I selected option b) and had absolutely no problems with the floor during the 6 years we lived at the property. And the tiling was in a bathroom. So assuming the bathroom isn’t the size of a football pitch I would do option b) again without hesitation. I’m sure that nowadays there may be more elegant materials available e.g. some form of mesh or net that you embed into the adhesive to help tackle the movement issues???

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short video to set you off i

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Thanks, my gut feeling is for plywood between the existing floor and the tiles -the tiled area to be is long, narrow, runs parallel to the the present floorboards and of course, plywood is dimensionally stable.

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Bathroom started by removing floorboards
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Laying 19mm bathroom grade chip, followed by 19mm w/poof ply

To take natural slate tiles with flexi/waterproof adhesive and grout.

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No movement from any tiles in the following 7 years.

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Thanks!

The big single slab won’t make much odds if it’s on floorboards - it’s one big mass.

But the above is similar to how I’d do it for the tiles- except I’ve only ever used one layer of “wood”. In the UK 20mm marine ply - here it cost more than the tiles - so just 20mm plus chipboard and sealed it thoroughly. Never rely on the t&g but joint them on the beams.

Laid slate travertine limestone and marble without issue

And flexible cement

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I would be tempted to lift the floor boards, replace with 22mm OSB then lay a separation membrane such as Schulter Ditra. Link

Mats points a good one. Using either membrane or waterproofing stuff you paint on is the norm in so many places for bathrooms - makes sense - never seemed to be a thing in the UK - and to a degree don’t cock up your tiling and grouting and it won’t be an issue is the mind set I was taught

I strongly recommend a decoupling membrane.

A quantity surveyor pal once said “There’ as many grades of ‘marine ply’ as there are project proposal specs.”

OSB [Sterling board’] or ‘shuttering ply’ would do nicely
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Yes I know and we can have a boring chat about marine ply in general - in London they flogged me something labelled marine for an extra tenner on the room - in France I needed a first born child as deposit …

Thanks everyone for all the helpful advice. Unless something radically new gets posted, I think I’ll go with OBS3 18mm sheet (22mm not available in sheet form) on top of the existing modern, very stable and level, solid, t&g, narrow strip pine floor. Have lots of travertine collé and the stone will be sealed, so I think that should suffice.

You will have quite a step into the room of about 35-40mm, you could reduce it by removing the T&G.

Thanks, but there’d still be a change of level and removing the floor would be a major operation, also I’m not bothered by a small step, which would only be about 30mm. In addition the existing floor is very rigid and the thickest sheet OBS3 that I can find is 18mm.

For the tiler and the gardener, a brilliant bit of kit from Lidl.

2,99€ . I know any old cushion might serve but I just liked the idea that my creaky old knees are in mind, somewhere.

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Knee pads are alot better and they’re attached so no shifting around :grin:

Buy two pads and just move from one to other. Could not get on with knee pads, hated the way they cut into the back of my knee if they were to be on tight enough and just not slip.

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