Hello,
I'm new here and am in need of some serious help, and I hope I'm posting in the correct place. Ill start this of by saying I'm not a professional at the work I’m doing on my home but I have been told my work is very good, and not by my mother, questionable but good or works. I am in the military up here in Alaska, I bought a home 2 years ago and have been doing upgrades to it. I am having trouble with the kitchen floor, here's where it gets all jacked up.
The sub floor is plywood with a 16” on center joists give or take a little, its also over a crawl space, warm and dry under the house. What I had to do to get this floor level is another story. I put durock over it with thin-set screwed in and taped the joints, some are not taped now.
Then I bought Ditra-XL/175 and tried to install it last week and had to take it back out the next day, It did not stick at all It came up way to easy. I think the thin set (unmodified) was old, as it had been in the garage for a year, so it may have had moisture in it. When it dried I could break it like a cookie, and smash it into powder. I did the lift the corner test on the Ditra and had very good coverage, I used the float to push the Ditra into the thins set. The thin set was moist and a little thinner then peanut putter but able to leave the troul marks. I spent the next few days cleaning the dried up thin-set off the Ditra, it looks like new Ditra again so it cleaned up well and easy, telling me even more that the thin set failed ( I think?).
So round two I got new Thin-set from Home depot, around 7 dollars a bag so I need feed back on this thin-set too that sounds too cheap to me? Name brand of thin set is LATICRETE / Floor adhesive economy grade and it meets ANSI A118.1. So before I go through all that hell again I want to make sure its going to work, so I took a small piece of Ditra and mixed a small amount of the new Thin-set and put in on the floor. Again the same thing happened almost 24 hours later It pulled up like it had nothing holding onto it? I have watched and read many forums and videos and so on on how to install and am a fan of Mike Holmes T.V show. I know this post is as long as a book but I am pulling my hair out and the kitchen needs to get done soon, as its been in shambles for over a year.
Please help.. Im going to try and post pics...
Michael J.
I'm new here and am in need of some serious help, and I hope I'm posting in the correct place. Ill start this of by saying I'm not a professional at the work I’m doing on my home but I have been told my work is very good, and not by my mother, questionable but good or works. I am in the military up here in Alaska, I bought a home 2 years ago and have been doing upgrades to it. I am having trouble with the kitchen floor, here's where it gets all jacked up.
The sub floor is plywood with a 16” on center joists give or take a little, its also over a crawl space, warm and dry under the house. What I had to do to get this floor level is another story. I put durock over it with thin-set screwed in and taped the joints, some are not taped now.
Then I bought Ditra-XL/175 and tried to install it last week and had to take it back out the next day, It did not stick at all It came up way to easy. I think the thin set (unmodified) was old, as it had been in the garage for a year, so it may have had moisture in it. When it dried I could break it like a cookie, and smash it into powder. I did the lift the corner test on the Ditra and had very good coverage, I used the float to push the Ditra into the thins set. The thin set was moist and a little thinner then peanut putter but able to leave the troul marks. I spent the next few days cleaning the dried up thin-set off the Ditra, it looks like new Ditra again so it cleaned up well and easy, telling me even more that the thin set failed ( I think?).
So round two I got new Thin-set from Home depot, around 7 dollars a bag so I need feed back on this thin-set too that sounds too cheap to me? Name brand of thin set is LATICRETE / Floor adhesive economy grade and it meets ANSI A118.1. So before I go through all that hell again I want to make sure its going to work, so I took a small piece of Ditra and mixed a small amount of the new Thin-set and put in on the floor. Again the same thing happened almost 24 hours later It pulled up like it had nothing holding onto it? I have watched and read many forums and videos and so on on how to install and am a fan of Mike Holmes T.V show. I know this post is as long as a book but I am pulling my hair out and the kitchen needs to get done soon, as its been in shambles for over a year.
Please help.. Im going to try and post pics...
Michael J.