I would like to lay pre-sealed Saltillo tiles down in my laundry room.

Floor is concrete and uneven.

Uneven means the slab was poured up to a pre-existing concrete slab which is
a tiny bit lower than the newer slab which was feathered down to the meet
pre-existing slab.

Tiles will cover both slabs.

What are the correct steps to do this project?

Do I first use a floor leveler compound?

What do I use for waterproofing?

Thinset, etc., etc.

TIA

CP wrote:
I would like to lay pre-sealed Saltillo tiles down in my laundry room.

Floor is concrete and uneven.

Uneven means the slab was poured up to a pre-existing concrete slab
which is a tiny bit lower than the newer slab which was feathered
down to the meet pre-existing slab.

Tiles will cover both slabs.

What are the correct steps to do this project?

Saltillo tiles (unless you get the sissy machine made ones) are
inherently uneven on the backs - all sorts of bumps and dips - so a
smidge of unevenness in the concrete matters not one whit.
______________

Do I first use a floor leveler compound?

No need
________________

What do I use for waterproofing?

Water proofing what? The tiles? You said they were pre-sealed.
_________________

Thinset, etc., etc.

Yes, plain old thinset. I use the cheapest I can find, under $5.00 for
a 60# bag at HD. Just use plenty of it, comb out with a 1/2" notch
trowel. Even that may not be enough, the tiles themselves will often
vary 1/4". Main thing is that you want the tile well supported...if you
use too much the worst that will happen is that some will squeeze out
into the grout joints. No big deal, you are going to fill them up
anyway with mortar anyway.

BTW, non-machine made Saltillo varies in length/width as well as
thickness from tile to tile. Moreover, thay aren't square so don't try
to lay them with narrow grout lines.

--
dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

Thanks for the reply and info.
Very much appreciated.
Regarding waterproofing, I am under the impression that miosture could come
up thru the concrete slab and cause problems with the thinset and/or tiles.


"dadiOH" wrote in message
news:ziJjf.7237$AB2.2135@trnddc08...
CP wrote:
I would like to lay pre-sealed Saltillo tiles down in my laundry room.

Floor is concrete and uneven.

Uneven means the slab was poured up to a pre-existing concrete slab
which is a tiny bit lower than the newer slab which was feathered
down to the meet pre-existing slab.

Tiles will cover both slabs.

What are the correct steps to do this project?

Saltillo tiles (unless you get the sissy machine made ones) are
inherently uneven on the backs - all sorts of bumps and dips - so a
smidge of unevenness in the concrete matters not one whit.
______________

Do I first use a floor leveler compound?

No need
________________

What do I use for waterproofing?

Water proofing what? The tiles? You said they were pre-sealed.
_________________

Thinset, etc., etc.

Yes, plain old thinset. I use the cheapest I can find, under $5.00 for
a 60# bag at HD. Just use plenty of it, comb out with a 1/2" notch
trowel. Even that may not be enough, the tiles themselves will often
vary 1/4". Main thing is that you want the tile well supported...if you
use too much the worst that will happen is that some will squeeze out
into the grout joints. No big deal, you are going to fill them up
anyway with mortar anyway.

BTW, non-machine made Saltillo varies in length/width as well as
thickness from tile to tile. Moreover, thay aren't square so don't try
to lay them with narrow grout lines.

--
dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

"CP" wrote in message
...
I would like to lay pre-sealed Saltillo tiles down in my laundry room.

Floor is concrete and uneven.

Uneven means the slab was poured up to a pre-existing concrete slab which
is a tiny bit lower than the newer slab which was feathered down to the
meet pre-existing slab.

Tiles will cover both slabs.

What are the correct steps to do this project?

Do I first use a floor leveler compound?

Nope. Even if you flattened up the floor, the saltillo won't be flat. It
never is (I'm assuming you're buying true saltillo and not the machine made
crap).


What do I use for waterproofing?

Are you talking about sealing the Pre-sealed tiles? I invetigated saltillo
for a while and decided against using the presealed stuff. I decided I
wanted to do the sealing myself so I could re-do it easily enough down the
road. With the pre-sealed, there was really no way to know what products
down the road would be compatible or not. As well, I found the unsealed
tiles to have much better color variations etc.... Got the stuff at HD for
like 94 cents a tile. Worked great. Perhaps you are referring to keeping
moisture from entering from the concrete?


Thinset, etc., etc.

How long has your slab cured? Any cracks? If it hasn't been curing for a
few years or there are cracks, I would recommend putting down some
Anti-fracture compound before the thinset. One brand name is Redguard by
Custom Building products. If I were to do my saltillo over, I think I
would just go ahead and put either this stuff or a membrane down....cheap
(well not really) insurance against cracks down the road. As for thinset,
I used a medium priced stuff that had more flex to it, just in case my slab
does decide to crack. You want to use a 1/2"x1/2" trowel to put it down.
Wash the backs of the tiles off with a sponge, back butter them, and put in
place. Typically grout joints are 1/2" to 3/4". Regular grout won't
handle that. I found a product called Pavermix that is meant for just this
joint size and it worked well. The other option is to just mix Portland
cement and sand to create your own grout.
Cheers,
cc

"CP" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the reply and info.
Very much appreciated.
Regarding waterproofing, I am under the impression that miosture could
come up thru the concrete slab and cause problems with the thinset and/or
tiles.

that will cause white discolorations on the top of the tile, unless the
backs are also sealed. if this is a problem, then you might want to put down
a full coat of antifracture membrane first.

tape a 3' square piece of clear plastic down for a few days. if you get
condensation under the plastic, then you should do something about this.


"dadiOH" wrote in message
news:ziJjf.7237$AB2.2135@trnddc08...
CP wrote:
I would like to lay pre-sealed Saltillo tiles down in my laundry room.

Floor is concrete and uneven.

Uneven means the slab was poured up to a pre-existing concrete slab
which is a tiny bit lower than the newer slab which was feathered
down to the meet pre-existing slab.

Tiles will cover both slabs.

What are the correct steps to do this project?

Saltillo tiles (unless you get the sissy machine made ones) are
inherently uneven on the backs - all sorts of bumps and dips - so a
smidge of unevenness in the concrete matters not one whit.
______________

Do I first use a floor leveler compound?

No need
________________

What do I use for waterproofing?

Water proofing what? The tiles? You said they were pre-sealed.
_________________

Thinset, etc., etc.

Yes, plain old thinset. I use the cheapest I can find, under $5.00 for
a 60# bag at HD. Just use plenty of it, comb out with a 1/2" notch
trowel. Even that may not be enough, the tiles themselves will often
vary 1/4". Main thing is that you want the tile well supported...if you
use too much the worst that will happen is that some will squeeze out
into the grout joints. No big deal, you are going to fill them up
anyway with mortar anyway.

BTW, non-machine made Saltillo varies in length/width as well as
thickness from tile to tile. Moreover, thay aren't square so don't try
to lay them with narrow grout lines.

--
dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

Thanks again for the helpful info.


"James "Cubby" Culbertson" wrote in message
...

"CP" wrote in message
...
I would like to lay pre-sealed Saltillo tiles down in my laundry room.

Floor is concrete and uneven.

Uneven means the slab was poured up to a pre-existing concrete slab which
is a tiny bit lower than the newer slab which was feathered down to the
meet pre-existing slab.

Tiles will cover both slabs.

What are the correct steps to do this project?

Do I first use a floor leveler compound?

Nope. Even if you flattened up the floor, the saltillo won't be flat.
It never is (I'm assuming you're buying true saltillo and not the machine
made crap).


What do I use for waterproofing?

Are you talking about sealing the Pre-sealed tiles? I invetigated
saltillo for a while and decided against using the presealed stuff. I
decided I wanted to do the sealing myself so I could re-do it easily
enough down the road. With the pre-sealed, there was really no way to
know what products down the road would be compatible or not. As well, I
found the unsealed tiles to have much better color variations etc....
Got the stuff at HD for like 94 cents a tile. Worked great. Perhaps
you are referring to keeping moisture from entering from the concrete?


Thinset, etc., etc.

How long has your slab cured? Any cracks? If it hasn't been curing for
a few years or there are cracks, I would recommend putting down some
Anti-fracture compound before the thinset. One brand name is Redguard by
Custom Building products. If I were to do my saltillo over, I think I
would just go ahead and put either this stuff or a membrane down....cheap
(well not really) insurance against cracks down the road. As for
thinset, I used a medium priced stuff that had more flex to it, just in
case my slab does decide to crack. You want to use a 1/2"x1/2" trowel to
put it down. Wash the backs of the tiles off with a sponge, back butter
them, and put in place. Typically grout joints are 1/2" to 3/4".
Regular grout won't handle that. I found a product called Pavermix that
is meant for just this joint size and it worked well. The other option
is to just mix Portland cement and sand to create your own grout.
Cheers,
cc