How do you tile an uneven concrete floor in a laundry room without building a subfloor?
Question:We are renovating our basement and the concrete in our laundry room is rather sloped and the ceiling is rather low, so a subfloor would not work. We would ideally like to lay ceramic tile, but have been told that our only option is to use that awful comercial grade tile. We would be open to other materials, but since this laundry room is open and can and will be seen, we dont want anything overtly ugly. We have heard that the click together vinyl wood is an option, but again the sloped floor is a problem. So, besides laying concrete or a subfloor, how could we tile (or vinyl "wood" etc) that area? Thanks!
Answers:
you can buy a self leveling cement/concrete. get some wood to block off/box in the area and use the self leveling cement to straiten it! then put whatever you want on there. you can get some excellent large tiles, or wooden click type flooring.
There are cement based leveling products that you can apply over concrete to get a level surface, but they are really for uneven surfaces, not sloped ones. You could always even the floor with something like that, then tile it and live with the fact that it is sloped.
I would not put laminate (plastic click together wood look stuff) in a laundry room as it is subject to moisture damage - I'd be going with a ceramic product. I have no idea why someone would tell you you can only use commercial grade tile, I sold tile for years and that doesn't sound right. I would definately suggest a porcelain, not just ceramic, as it's much stronger. There are many looks in porcelain, shop around.
Home Depot sells 40 pound bags of self leveling floor leveler. It is the best leveler I ever used. Its in the tile aisle made by Henry. Make sure you put the exact amount of water in there and prime the floor with a primer made for concrete. Like the other answer said, block off the doorways, floor drain if you have on with wood.
I just laid vinyl wood in my house. It was easy and forgiving. It should work fine on a slope, but pits and cracks are noticeable. I can tell wear my carpet tack strip was under one strip. Fill holes with floor putty cement stuff.
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