Posted: 11/13/2014 4:54:08 PM EDT
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so i need about 300 sq ft of tile put in. will be going on the concrete slab.
Is a sub floor needed for this? what the heck is a sub floor? any idea what the labor cost should be in Arlington? Anyone do this for a living? |
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no sub floor is needed. Sub-floors are usually just plywood glued down to the floor so that a wood floor can be nailed down on top of it.
With ceramic tile they just spread a mortar bed down on top of the concrete (mortar looks like concrete basically) and then lay the tiles down and then grout the cracks when it dries. I can get good quality ceramic tile in this area through the flooring distributors, at a contractor price, of about $1 a square foot. 300 foot isn't a lot and you could probably do the job yourself in a day if you watch a youtube video. Not sure about installer prices in your area though. |
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Labor in the Austin area is $1.50-$2.00 a sq ft. Go to the Depot they have free tiling classes. I learned there and have done a whole bunch of floors, back splashes, showers (I prefer cultured marble/granite for showers/counter tops). A basic $80 tile saw and a few odds and ends and you are ready to tile.
I tile a slab right on the clean concrete. Sub floors needed only when on wood floors to keep it stiff and not crack. |
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is the concrete bare already? If not, get it that way. Now take a penny and a METAL straight edge of some sort that has a length of 3X -4X the width of your tile (4 foot metal framing level is idea if your laying 12"'x12" tile). Get on your hands and knees and start sliding that straight edge over the floor. If there are gaps between the straight edge and the floor that the penny will fit through, consider a leveling compound. If there are gaps that two pennies stacked on top of each other will fit, you need a leveling compound.
If all you have are some gouges, you can fill them. If all you have are a couple of small high spots, you might try grinding them down. Leveling compound comes as a premix liquid, in 5 gallon buckets or dry that you mix. It is basically a very thin mortar....thinner than syrup. You pour it on the flow and let it flow across the floor and level it. After that, laying the tile is really pretty easy. The grouting acutally takes more skill that laying the tile. |
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If you're planning to hire someone to do this,
you are probably looking at about $2.00+/sf for installation. - based on Home Depot price. But this also depends on how much prep work they have to do. As mentioned, no sub-floor will be needed. Checking the level of the slab is a good idea, but if you are having it installed they will do all this.. If you are considering doing it yourself: I recently tiled about 1,300 sf of a house. It was not fun. - OTOH, we saved about $2600.00 doing it ourselves. - maybe more. We don't live near a Home Depot, etc, about the cheapest guy we could find quoted $3/sf, with me buying all the materials, which is more than we paid for our tile. After you do it once, you will probably not want to do it again. 
I am not saying it is difficult work, but it is hard work. About half-way through the job I wanted to strangle Bob Vila. "and you can do it yourself, with just a little help from the Home Depot...." yadda, yadda, yadda... bite me 
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