Wood plank flooring

[Firebrick43]

So, I am finishing up my ICF house and have been doing a lot of tiling. I have done a fair amount for non pro and was "trained" by an Sicilian man that owned the high end tile/marble/terrazzo shop in this area as he was my fathers friend and grandfathers neighbor.

Any who my mom, after explaining multiple times that the heated suspended slab i built would be tiled, wanted carpeting. After many go arounds I finally relented and said she could get commercial carpet squares as it was thin and could be adheared to the concrete. (her suggestion)

I was amazed to have delivered a pallet load of spanish made plank flooring. She got a hell of a deal on the last pallet left of this style, it does look nice.

At first I was terrified as I had seen some that had quite a bow, but this stuff wasn't bad, maybe at most a 1/16 of an inch over 36. Most less than that.

Well I started laying it and its going terrible. Are there any tips to make this go faster that isn't hackish

I backbutter all my tile and am having lots of squeeze out the seams as I set for full contact. I have done large 15x15 tile but never 6x36. I normally can set a 1/3 to 1/2 a room at a time, me doing all the work, but I have had 3 sessions so far and just 1/2 done. Wife is wonderful as she is doing the back buttering and cleanup/gofer work.

Is this just normal part of plank tile flooring? I tried some youtube videos but most of the "pros" were not backbuttering or even setting the tile, just placing them and the slightest taps to level.

 

[Dagny]

Can you use a trowel with smaller notches?

 

[SALIV8]

You want at least 80% thinset coverage for non wet areas and 95% for wet. So keep doing what you are doing. They make tile leveling systems to control lippage and that will help with those tiles. Id keep them at 1/3rd max offset not the 50/50 brick style also that will help hide the lippage a bit also.

Head over to johnbridge.com for pros to assist as needed. Good luck. Also I found an oversized nylon bristle toothbrush to be money for cleaning out grout lines.

 

[Firebrick43]

Saliv8, thank you. I don’t know why I didn’t think about a tooth brush. Definitely getting 95-100 percent coverage. I pull one occasionally to check and thought I was going to break these.

I am doing the 1/3 offset.

Any particular leveling devices you prefer?

 

[SALIV8]

I am a complete noob with tiling but I am using the spin doctors system and love it. They are both a spacer and leveling system so I figured one less thing to mess up. I am doin wood plank tiles in my basement.

Ill see if i can find the brushes Im using. They were cheap on amazon and with the offset handle I think it is much easier than would be a toothbrush.

 

[SALIV8]

https://hydestore.com/hyde-tools-46615-mini-brushes-nylon-48.html

 

[Firebrick43]

Thanks again. I have used some wire brushes with the same/similar handle.

 

[SALIV8]

No prob good luck with your project.

 

[duneslider]

I just use a sponge to keep my joints clean, a swipe with the spacer and quick wipe with the sponge and its clean. If you are getting a LOT of squish up you can try a slightly smaller notch trowel to reduce how much is there.

If you are already going without a leveling system I wouldnt' start using one now. Plank tiles do take longer than the "standard" square tile.

 

[Firebrick43]

I am looking at leveling systems. I can see issues if I start using one mid room but I still have a second room to do with the same tile and then need to do 750 square foot main room that is currently undecided what tile we are doing there. I found a 1/2 x 6 margin trowel to clean the squish out. I will see how that works. Noticed it on a youtube video investigating the leveling systems. Looking a the raimondi as they are one of the few systems with 3/16" spacers(actually 4mm).

Duneslider, do you mean not use one period or just not in the same room? I do the spacer and sponge to clean out the groove now if necessary just pisses me off to have big globs on my fingers and it get it off the spacers.

 

[duneslider]

I wouldn't start using the leveling system mid-room. Either do the whole room with it, or without it.

I have mixed feelings about the leveling systems. They cost money, not super cheap. You still have to get the tile darn close to level in order for them to work. It adds extra clean up/prep the next day. I still feel like I can get a flat floor a little faster when using them so I will use them a fair amount.

I have been using the Ridgid system from HD, works fine, its a copy of one of the others. I bought a **** ton of the consumables one time when they were way on sale. Not sure if it was a mistake or what but they were like 45% off. Anyway, they work pretty good. Unless I am doing really tight joints I still use spacers with the levelers, I generally prefer as spacer with a little squish and the hard spacers don't allow for any squish.

I have learned to be less messy but I also clean my joints first thing the next day before it is really hard and that works okay too, doesn't take too long since the thinset isn't too hard yet.