Help Support Flooring Forum:
You popped off all the old tile without damaging the ditra mat?
My first question would be how did that happen? Was the tile not bonded well? Did the previous tile become loose and broken before you removed it?
A good tile job should not have separated from the ditra so easily. I would hate to say it's ok to tile over what you have if there was issues with the subfloor (deflection) or they used mortar that wasn't mixed properly or the wrong mortar.
When that system gets installed properly believe me when I say you're not going to just pop off the old tile and install new. It normally comes up in big chunks with a demo hammer and a lot of sweat, tile, mortar, & ditra all still sandwiched together.
My first question would be how did that happen? Was the tile not bonded well? Did the previous tile become loose and broken before you removed it?
A good tile job should not have separated from the ditra so easily. I would hate to say it's ok to tile over what you have if there was issues with the subfloor (deflection) or they used mortar that wasn't mixed properly or the wrong mortar.
When that system gets installed properly believe me when I say you're not going to just pop off the old tile and install new. It normally comes up in big chunks with a demo hammer and a lot of sweat, tile, mortar, & ditra all still sandwiched together.
Maybe the last installer didn’t back butter the tile so it all popped free? If so would you then essentially skim coat the existing thin set to smooth things out then once that cures install your new tile on top of that?
If that were the case I think I would do that. Like improper trowel notch or skinned over mortar. But then again if the tile guy got that wrong, what else did he get wrong on the next layer?
Just hesitant to recommend doing that without knowing exactly what's going on below the tile.
80% of all tile demo I do these days just pops off the floor. Nobody back butters anymore. Good for me I guess
