Tiling Wooden Floors

[jobboman]

Can anyone give me advice on tiling a wooden batroom floor? I have a bathroom floor which is only 3m2. The house is reasonably new and has wooden boards for flooring. I have been told by some people that I should screw large sheets of wood on top of this existing floor before installing my tiles. (This is to produce a solid platform.) Is this entirely necessary? I know that flexible adhesive can be bought also. Additionally I would like to remove the toilet before starting, is this a difficult task, are there any important water seals on the toilet to replace? Does anyone have any tips? Thanks.

[wildwood]

Presuming that you mean ceramic tiles, the reason that you need a solid base is because of cracking between the tiles joints. If lino type tiles, you can get away with special oil-tempered hardboard designed for the job. Again, to protect from shrinkage and expansion of the floor boards which will mark and/or crack the tiles.
Removing/replacing the toilet is really a plumbers job, unless you feel confident. There are probably council by-laws regarding this, if you take any notice of them. :-)

[gazzawazza]

Jobboman, depending on how long your toilet has been fitted (you say your house is new) should mean the job is not too difficult.

Due to an accident, I've just fitted a new toilet and it's definitely within the realm of a DIYer. Having said that, I'm a serial DIYer so I might think that a job is easier than it seems to many people.

The job can be done in three stages.

First, you need to isolate the water supply. Look on the water supply pipe to the cistern. On recently fitted toilets there should be a valve which allows you to turn off the water supply to the toilet. It's silver, about 50mm long and has a screwhead to turn off the water. When the slot on the screwhead is at right angles to the pipe the water is off. If you don't have one of these then you'll need to turn it off at the mains stopcock.

Second, flush the toilet to empty the cistern, then look at how the cistern is connected to the toilet.

Most new cisterns are connected by wingnuts straight onto the toilet itself. Undo these, then undo the screws holding the cistern to the wall. You should now be able to lift the cistern free.

Third, disconnect the toilet from the waste pipe. Most toilet wastes are push in fittings nowadays and simply pull out from the soil pipe. There should be two screws holding the pan to the floor, undo these and pull the toilet free.

Stuff the waste pipe with an old cloth and tile away.

Replacement is a direct reversal of this procedure.

As to the new boards, I know B&Q recommend 12mm plywood to be laid before you tile. Although I wouldn't have thought that thickness was necessary, that's up to you but I would use 6mm just for a better surface, surely there can't be that much flexing in a room the size of a bathroom.

[gazzawazza]

Whoops, I should have said that after isolating the water supply you can then disconnect it from the screwhead valve using two sets of adjustable spanners. (This valve has a funny name but I can't bring it to mind, I'm sure it begins with B). Never mind, I'm sure someone will post the name.