what is best?

[nextqueen]

we are wanting to put an island in our kitchen which already has wooden flooring. we are thinking of having ceramic floor tiles and are not sure if we should do it at the same time, would be a bit of a push financially. do you think its best to do it all at once as i assume the tiling will have to be done from the island and then working out to the edges of the room? thank you

[The Builder]

Nothing wrong with tiling afterwards, but make sure it's possible to tile onto the timber floor. You wouldn't want to have to rip it up after the island has been fitted.

[nextqueen]

was thinking of ripping wooden floor afterwards then tiling, isnt this a good idea?

[DTCwordfan]

have you got electrics and plumbing coming up for the isalnd - if so I would go all at once and be done with it.....

[The Builder]

It would be a very difficult job to cut the flooring away with a fixed island sitting on it. At least take up the flooring now, before fitting the island. Then tile later.

[nextqueen]

we were thinking of standing the island on just the floor, not the wood so if its possible to tile later that would be better, no electrics or plumbing though to centre so heaven forbid.

[AlBags]

Tile or Floor after the island is fitted in .. as Builder says.
That way, you can get at the services/wastes, etc.
And any tiled floor up to it can be made neater.

[Clanad]

At last here in the U.S., one wouldn't want to lay ceramic tile directly on the wooden flooring. You'd need a subflooring such as this: http://www.hammerzone...ep1/cement_backer.htm ...

So, if you left the island, installed the backerboard and the tile, you'd have an island that wouldn't be standard height. I'm just saying that here, that wouldn't meet code. Probably not a big deal, but for resale purposes it's worth considering...

[AlBags]

I agree Clanad .. but we don't really use that method here in UK.
It's ok if the floor is really stable .. but I have never been too keen on tiling suspended floors.

[Clanad]

AlBags, we've a term coined for damage that occurs to tiled floors when they aren't properly backed... "decoupling"... usually starts with cracked grout and later, moving in the tiles themselves. If the wooden subfloor is really sturdy and realatively new, I imagine the results would be satisfactory via your method though...

[AlBags]

We tend to use a ply screwed down every 6" -ish ... (some use a Backer Board) 12mm-18mm at least for ceramics ..thicker for stone.
Then a flexible solid bed of repid-set BAL adhesive to support porcelain or marble tiles with a BAL wide joint grout.

[geno500]

Hi I agree with puttting down plywood and screwing to wooden floor if you do not do that the tiles will lift in time as the wooden floor moves,with regard the island if you are having a sink on it or a hob it is much easier to run water and waste or power with the wooden floor when you have that I would install the island and if you need to wait to afford to tile then you can.