Róbert Pagáčik

Lydia Kitts wrote:@Róbert Pagáčik - we are about to embark on a similar project. I have a rammed earth house with poured earth floors from the 60s. When you mention material between the flooring and the tiles – what are you using? Is it literally just the same plaster you used for the floors and walls?

basically yes ... some of the old mud needs a bit more sand, some less, but I use the same thing everywhere.

Some more progress with the kitchen and bath :

         The little "step" alongside the inner wall was made to hide the walls foundation. These old houses have a stone foundation, that is quite wide. For the outer and basic walls, its the same width, but the wall for the bathroom is just one brick layer thick, so the foundations edge ( covered with a water--barrier ) had to be "hidden" this way. Its maybe a bit eye-sore, but I had no choice, if I did not want to rise the floor level another few centimeters. Original floors were approximately 20 - 30 cm lower, than the top of the stone foundations, so even with insulation and double layer floor cause of the radiant heat, it was still not enough to level it. And I wanted to keep all the foundations at the same level. The floor also takes up some height out of all my doors and it is already - a Hobbit house in terms of having to duck slightly going from room to room. ( they are 170-180 cm low already ). A newly build house would have no problems with that, but I cant rise the door-frames due to possible wall-stability issues and legislation.
         Half of the floor was made a week prior, it is already stable to walk on freely and I took all the fitting pieces off of it. Due to the whole volume under the tile being earth, it has no affinity to bend, of detach if stepping round the edges of the tiles. When I put the tiles down, I slightly shake them into place, pressing some material out, so I had to put slightly more than needed to be level with the surrounding ones. Then scooped the overflowing material off. Both ground-surface and tile had been slightly moisturized before material has been applied. You also feel if it is well placed, cause if you try to pull it off the ground, it just feels like its sucking itself into the ground, being unable to lift the tile, much like if you stuck with your shoe in deep mud.
         Also, ignore the walls - I had to start prior to putting the plaster on them for various reasons. I suggest you never do so with any floor. Its just some necessary evil I have to go trough, that I know will come back, kicking my butt real hard later on. I surely have an spot in hell just for that cursing I will spew cause of it, god forgive.  
         The real test comes later - when the floor is finished and used for two-three years. As some of you said, thermal expansion might be a problem and I plan to keep you up to date for the whole time. But right now, it seems quite well and nice. It definitely takes a bit more time to lay, than tiles on synthetic materials, simply due the fact, that I try to fill the whole volume under it with material. That takes dome fitting time.  

Took a bit ... had some problems with uneven walls ( it is an very old building ). So I started putting some tiles on the floor. Practically, the same mix I used for the earthen floor.
One difference with normal tiling, I do not put the binding material on the floor, but on the tile and then press into the floor. Its a good practice to have the area under the tile completely filled with the earth mix. Then I clean all the gaps between the tiles for grout to be applied. The only question I have now is the choice of grout -epoxy, or high-performance one ? ... Due to more flexibility, I would probably go for the epoxy one. What do you say ?

John F Dean wrote:Hi Robert,

Welcome to Permies.

Thanks a lot !

Just for better idea of my foundations on witch I will lay the tiles :  
( not sure, if its a problem on the side of ProtonDrive, but if the pictures look broken for you, just right-click on them and open them in a new window )



Here is the foamy glass and tar paper barier around the rock foundation.



The first layer of earthen floor. All foamy glass was covered by the fine dirt that was left from the original floor. It was not even, as the foamy glass sat on the uneven terrain of the rock foundation. But it was stomped till it would not move around anymore, just as a stomped fine gravel base would be done. The first layer was then roughly even and the greatest thickness is 10cm.





Radiant heating and the laying of the second 10cm layer. Want to use the same mix to glue the tiles, will see how it will hold. If it will be prone to breaking off, I will try less sand in the mix. Still have a lot of old dirt bricks to re-use for material for this. But if anyone has a proven mixture for tile-laying, I am open to try that out as well.

Have a plan to do tiles on my earthen floor with radiant heating.  ... base of the old house are big rocks on the entire fundament area around 60-80 cm deep ( they're uneveny laid ) + around 30 cm heigt of all main walls are rocks too. Walls are then raw earthen bricks. The whole rocky base was covered by tar paper to the hight of the bricks and I  put 6-7 cm of foamy glass as insulation. Then 10cm of earthen floor ( from another, but broken house used raw earthen bricks + sand + CEMIX HelmPutz clay mass )  / radiant heat tubing / another 10cm of earthen floor layer.  I want to try to put the bathroom tiles directly on it ( and the walls ), so I could then post up, how it goes.