2nd floor bath - flooring question
Hello, we have an 1890s house that we’re renovating ourselves. The 2nd floor bathroom has 12″ ceramic tiles embedded into a mud floor about 3.5″ thick. We’re renovating the whole room, and while the tiles are in fine shape and the footprint of the fixtures isn’t changing, we’re not in love with the tile. We’d…
Hello, we have an 1890s house that we’re renovating ourselves. The 2nd floor bathroom has 12″ ceramic tiles embedded into a mud floor about 3.5″ thick. We’re renovating the whole room, and while the tiles are in fine shape and the footprint of the fixtures isn’t changing, we’re not in love with the tile. We’d like to tile over the existing tile, but is the weight going to be too much, or can this thick floor take the weight? Do we need to tear out everything? Your advice is much appreciated, as always!
Although your floor may be different, we had tile set in an 3″ mudded floor, and it was like concrete. I tried to get tiles out using a prybar or flat edge – no luck. No luck either with a small sledge hammer and cold chisel.
Since none of the grout was cracked, so it appeared to be pretty stable, and seemed like I was going to need a jackhammer to get it up, we just tiled over the existing floor. It is a small room, and the tub was not tiled under it, so I wasn’t too concerned about the extra weight.
Steve’s right about the extra prep work though – but if you’re renovating everything else, it might not be as big a deal.
Advice above is spot on.
And as you proceed with your various reno-projects if you find you need on-site or on-call help while still doing-it-yourself, give us a call…www.constructioncoachesny.com.
You can tile over tile but it’s a lot of extra prep work and you run into issues like the door and trim needing to be cut down, the toilet rough-in being too low, a new threshold, etc.
It’s better to remove the old tile using a flat tool, like a garden spade and a prybar. You can make any repairs to the mud bed while laying the new tile.
Take it all out. At least you can see what is happening below.
We have done it in all our baths and discovered rotten floors, cut joists and etc. It is better to know.
You will gain ceiling height as well, plus you can put down the the tile you want.