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My bathroom tile job is a total mess after a talk with my neighbor
I was trying to retile my small bathroom floor last weekend, thinking I could save some cash. I got about halfway through laying the new tiles when my neighbor Mike, who used to work construction, stopped by to borrow a ladder. He took one look at my work and said, 'You didn't use a level on the subfloor, did you?' I admitted I just cleaned it and started sticking tiles down. He pointed out a clear dip in the middle that I hadn't even noticed. Now the whole section I laid is uneven, and the tiles are starting to crack at the edges because they aren't supported right. I'm out about $200 in materials already and the floor looks worse than when I started. Has anyone fixed a situation like this without tearing everything out and starting over from scratch?
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adam_young317mo ago
Been there, man. You can try to fill that dip with a self leveling compound right over the subfloor, but you have to pull up all the tiles you just laid. The thinset underneath them is now making its own bumps. Trying to float over the top of wonky tiles just kicks the problem down the road. It's a brutal lesson, but starting from a flat base is the only fix that lasts.
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lily_stone766mo ago
That prep work taking twice as long as the tiling really hits home. How do you even check if a subfloor is flat enough before you start? Is there a specific tolerance, like no more than an eighth of an inch over a few feet, or is it just by feel?
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sarah2687mo ago
Starting from a flat base is the only fix that lasts" is the absolute truth. I read a whole thing from a tile setter who said the prep work takes twice as long as the actual tiling, and if you skip it, you see every mistake forever. Trying to fix a bad floor after the fact just adds more layers of problems. It's one of those jobs where the boring part is the most important part.
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