Rick,
I recently removed the carpet from my bathroom. (I KNOW, what kind of moron would carpet a bathroom? Gross! It was there when I bought the place) My house is built on a concrete slab, so the question arises: Do I need to put any kind of underlayment down to lay ceramic tile. The floor (concrete has some over spray from the painters and there are some holes where I pulled the tactless strip out, aside from that it appears pretty level. DO I need to do much prep work, if so what? My other question is about 'knockdown' texturing, but that is another time. I did not do WELL in this department.
Thanks,
Rick Bevan,
Denver, CO
Thanks for your question. As strange as it seems, people still put carpet in the bathrooms today. It was very popular for years, but most people are now using tile or vinyl.
The situation you have is actually a good one. The reason is because concrete is the ideal base for installing tile. You will not need any type of underlayment because it is concrete. However, there will be some prep and patch work you will need to do and probably using a sealant.
You can use a thinset concrete type patch or floor filler to fill the holes. You can get this at a tile supplier or local home improvement center. After you patch the holes, let patch set up and they sand it flush with the floor.
Scrape off any paint splotches and you can lightly sand down excessive paint spray that is somewhat raised. Double check to make sure the floor looks pretty level, and then use a shop vac to sweep up any excess dust or dirt.
After you have done that, then you can apply a concrete sealant. Once dry, you can then install the tile using thinset mortar to set the tile in. Once set up, the tile will be very secure. You can also use tile spacers that will help you keep the same spacing between the tile. After the tile is set about a day, you can then install the tile grout and sealer.
There is another great Ask Rick question the covers all aspects of installing tile and with links to some videos that might be helpful. Just click on the link below.
Complete Tile Installation Help
Be sure to ask your question on knock down texturing at some point in the future. I will be glad to help.
I hope this helps. Rick
Rick Maselli is Founder and Editor of Showroom411.com and Ask Rick