Installing New Tile

amber07

I am going to install new tile in the kitchen and master bathroom. I have taken up the tile that already existed and 98% of the adhesive..what remains is very little and just enough to make the floor not a smooth surface but rather just a little rough in some places - I would estimate about 1/8" tall in those places. Is this a big deal? do I have to make sure it's 100% clear of any of this old adhesive?

Thanks!

beenthere

Moved to tiling forum.

oh'mike

What kind of floor is under that adhesive? Concrete slab? Wood?

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amber07

Concrete slab

oh'mike

You may be fine---or not---take a long straight edge and see if the old thinset will cause high spots---should be within 1/8" in 10 feet for large format tile (13x13 or larger)

Often the remnants can be troweled right over with thinset as you tile----

A floor buffer with carborundum stones can get that cleaned up fast--rent one if possible.

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DexterII

Not sure how wrong this may be, so let's hope that Mike is still around to tell you it's nuts, but I'm old school (too old school sometimes), so when we retiled our mechanical room I gave my helper (a.k.a. wife) a fire brick, relatively flat with a mildly coarse surface, to knock off the high spots, and it worked great. Once the ridges were knocked down, we cleaned it good, checked it with a straghtedge, as Mike mentioned, and started laying tile. I don't know if the scuffing she did with the brick was absolutely necessary, but I felt better knowing that we had the subsurface relatively flat.