Concrete over tile?

[starting]

Ok so here's my situation...

I have a basement room that I am turning into a woodshop. When I bought the house it had a laundry room in front of it. The basement room used to be a garage and the walkout door was changed to a single man door. When I redid the laundry I leveled the floor about 2 inches at the most with some of the high bond high strength mix they sell in a box at homedepot. I did this on top of the concrete floor. The floor sloped downwards from the other side of the basement.

Not planning ahead at the time I tiled the old garage and had a sloped threshold where the door between the laundry room and garage was. I have since removed that wall and am going to be moving the laundry to the other side of the basement. Now I have an almost two inch drop between the rooms. I want the whole basement to be level.

The tile is adhered well. Should I pour concrete on top of the tile? If I leave the tile I would have to pour about an inch before having a level surface to put tile back on to make it level with the laundry.

should I maybe look into a natural stone such as travertine which tends to be a bit thicker and maybe do self leveler and then the stone?

I like to do things right but I would love to remove the hassle of removing the tile I put down and disposing of it. I figure the floor is such a solid base that either of those ideas should work in my head.

 

[James-W]

Several years ago I saw a "remodeling show" on television where the homeowner wanted his basement floor to be level. The basement had a couple drains in the floor and the floor was sloped toward the drains by a couple inches or so.

The homeowner wanted to finish off the basement and he needed the floor to be level. The contractor got hold of a company that came out and cleaned the floor, then they dumped a whole bunch of this rather thick liquid out on the floor. They waited while it spread itself out on the floor so that it covered the whole floor to at least an inch thick. Being a liquid, it was self leveling. Once it set up, the floor was perfectly flat. I have no idea what it would cost to do this, probably a lot of money, but it would be easy to do and would solve your problems.

 

[BlackTalon]

In that second post it may have been a self-leveling gypsum concrete mix, which is normally used prior to installing an actual floor finish such as wood flooring or carpet. the material is too soft to be left as a finished surface.

 

[James-W]

In that second post it may have been a self-leveling gypsum concrete mix, which is normally used prior to installing an actual floor finish such as wood flooring or carpet. the material is too soft to be left as a finished surface.

You may be exactly right, I don't recall what the material was, it was quite awhile ago and I just don't remember what it was called.

 

[BlackTalon]

GypCrete is the most common name. Also, some people refer to that type of material as "foamed concrete"

 

[davidhansen]

Several years ago I saw a "remodeling show" on television where the homeowner wanted his basement floor to be level. The basement had a couple drains in the floor and the floor was sloped toward the drains by a couple inches or so.

The homeowner wanted to finish off the basement and he needed the floor to be level. The contractor got hold of a company that came out and cleaned the floor, then they dumped a whole bunch of this rather thick liquid out on the floor. They waited while it spread itself out on the floor so that it covered the whole floor to at least an inch thick. Being a liquid, it was self leveling. Once it set up, the floor was perfectly flat. I have no idea what it would cost to do this, probably a lot of money, but it would be easy to do and would solve your problems.

That's amazing! And even if it can't be a finisher, it may only require redoing some of the tile?

 

[wil]

Concrete is an inexpensive way to just fill it. Just remember that whatever you use, won't stick to the tile. Floor tile is soft and in the future, may debond from the floor. The "possiblity" of the new floor cracking or even falling apart (only 1" thick) is real.
(think-washing machine and dryer as mini impact machines on the new floor)
Better to strip off the tile (buy an ice chipper or special floor scraper). Clean off the glue. Then apply a bonding agent and put down the material to fill the gap. For that thin a layer,
consider using a fortified concrete designed to fill thin areas.

 

[larry4406]

I was involved in a commercial renovation and we had several slabs that were out of level by as much as 3" in about 30'. The GC built a curb out of metal studs then used Ardex self leveling compound. Flowed out very well, not as thin as water but certainly self leveling. Cured in about 1 day to a perfect floor. In our case, we then proceeded to VCT flooring.

Here is a link and it says it can be applied over ceramic and many other materials.

http://www.ardexamericas.com/en-us/...s/K15-permium-self-leveling-underlayment.aspx

 

[starting]

Thank you for all the input.

 

[ssdave]

You can level it with concrete; to make the thin lift hold together, the mix will need to have a combination of metal staple and microfiber in it. I've done interior garage slabs that were 2 inches thick over wood floors (after appropriate structural mods to support them) that were used as commercial business parking garages using this technique. One had a 15 year track record and was still in place when I last saw it.

You're talking about less than 2 cubic yards of mix to do a 600 foot area 1 inch thick. I'd consider doing it as a do-it yourself project, put a mortar mixer in the basement (or just outside) and mix the material yourself using fine concrete sand and a bit of pea gravel, and the fibers/staples. You can put down intermediate screeding boards so you can do a bit at a time as you mix it.

After you have the concrete leveling installed, you can then put down a stress relief layer such as Ditra. This will keep any floor cracking and distress from going up through and cracking your final tiles. Then, install the grout and tiles and you'll have a nice, professional job.

There are also self-leveling concrete/epoxy mixes that you can pour on the floor to level it and then do the stress relief/grout/tile surface. They just get expensive.

Good luck!