I pulled off the 20 year old tile and found the original hexagonal 1" (or smaller) tiles that were laid originally - the type that always accompany 'subway tiles' on the wall. The original tilers poured a bed of mortar about 4" thick between and rising above the top of the floor joists about 1 1/2". This thick bed of mortar only concerns me in terms of weight but it has lasted for 94 years and the floor joists still seem fine. I'm going to go the extra distance and sister some lamibeam to each of them underneath in the basement level - just because it will make me feel better.
If it were as easy as 'popping up' some old tiles - I might consider it. But these are so firmly locked into this thick bed of mortar that to remove them would require removing the entire bed. I'll trust the 'old world' artisans that evidently put this together, use their tile as my bed and reinforce for weight /longevity reasons.
I'm tiling over the old stuff... and here's why:
I pulled off the 20 year old tile and found the original hexagonal 1" (or smaller) tiles that were laid originally - the type that always accompany 'subway tiles' on the wall. The original tilers poured a bed of mortar about 4" thick between and rising above the top of the floor joists about 1 1/2". This thick bed of mortar only concerns me in terms of weight but it has lasted for 94 years and the floor joists still seem fine. I'm going to go the extra distance and sister some lamibeam to each of them underneath in the basement level - just because it will make me feel better.
If it were as easy as 'popping up' some old tiles - I might consider it. But these are so firmly locked into this thick bed of mortar that to remove them would require removing the entire bed. I'll trust the 'old world' artisans that evidently put this together, use their tile as my bed and reinforce for weight /longevity reasons.
Posted by: PulSamsara at September 8, 2009 12:48 PM in response to TILING OVER TILE??