Achieving a Flat Tiling Surface....

When doing a tight joint with a polished natural stone or a tight joint
with a polished or unpolished porcelain tile it is very important that
your substrate be very flat so the finished tile work will look great.

To get a nice finished tile floor you need to start from the beginning and make sure the substrate it flat, smooth and strong. This will ensure that when your
tile contractor is setting the tile you don't have rolls, lips or uneven tile.
The prep work can make or break a tile project.

Doing a lot of home tile renovations and new homes in Florida in the Tampa, Lakeland, Sarasota, Orlando & the Daytona areas I have seen my fair share
of horrible wavy slabs with humps, dips and incorrect rough textures.

There are many ways of correcting this......

One would be using an SLC (Self leveling Cement).
Another way could be Floating the floor with Thinset.
Or even doing a Sand & Portland Wetbed/Mudbed.

If the slab or floor area cannot be properly made flat.
You could also "wetset" mud the tile or natural stone when you set it.

When you have small humps using a grinder with a cup wheel to grind
down the humps works well, or using an electric chipping hammer with
a bushing bit on it to break down the humps also works.

There are other more aggressive ways to correct a bad slab with humps
or to remove old thinset like using a scarifying machine to grind or
a shot blaster to make smooth.

A good Tile Contractor with the right selection of a deeper notched trowel
and back buttering of the tile can make a slab with minor imperfections a smooth work of art.

With the proper Tile Contractor all of these methods
can help you achieve a smooth finished tiled floor.


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