Floor tiling starts with a flat, sound, primed floor

Hallways, living areas, kitchens and laundries across Murrumbeena and the surrounding south-east suburbs — levelled, primed, set out from the sightline that matters, and fixed with full adhesive contact so nothing sounds hollow later.

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DRUMMY UNDERFOOT

Voids beneath a tile concentrate load at the edges and corners. In most cases the tile breaks before the bond does, which is why the crack gets blamed for a problem it only reported.

A hollow-sounding floor is a bond problem, not a tile problem

Tap a tiled floor with a knuckle and the sound tells you what is underneath it. A short, dead note means the adhesive is in full contact with both the tile and the substrate. A hollow ring means voids — usually adhesive combed too thin for the tile size, a bed that skinned over before the tile was placed, or a substrate that moved after fixing.

So the first work on site is done to the floor, not the tile. We check the slab or sheeting for flatness, drumminess and movement, read how the surface has been prepared, and decide whether it needs grinding, patching, a self-levelling compound or an overlay before anything is fixed. Priming follows, so a dry substrate cannot pull water out of the adhesive before it cures. That groundwork is covered in more detail in Tile Preparation. If tiles are already lifting, drummy or cracking, start instead with Tile Repairs.

THE SEQUENCE

From bare substrate to a floor you can walk on

Four stages in a fixed order. Skipping one rarely shows on the day — it shows months later as a lipped joint, a cracked tile or a grout line that opens along a wall.

STAGE ONE

Levelling and priming

High spots ground back, hollows patched, and self-levelling compound where an older slab has wandered out of plane. Primer then seals the surface so the adhesive cures properly instead of drying out into it.

STAGE TWO

Setting out

Layout is decided from the line you actually see — the hallway run, the doorway you enter through, the longest wall. Cuts are pushed to the edges so the pattern resolves at thresholds.

STAGE THREE

Fixing and levelling

A notch sized to the tile, back-buttering where the format asks for it, and a levelling system holding neighbours flush while the bed sets. Ridges get collapsed, not left standing as ribs.

STAGE FOUR

Joints and perimeters

Movement joints at perimeters, doorways and changes of substrate — left open and sealed, never grouted solid.

REFERENCE FRAME

Levelling spacers set between light-coloured floor tiles as they go down. The adhesive is combed to suit the tile, and each tile is pressed down and back so the ridges close rather than trapping air under the middle.

Grout, traffic and where the floor meets everything else

Grout on a floor is a traffic decision before it is a colour one. Narrow joints read cleaner but leave less tolerance for variation across pressed tiles; a slightly wider joint absorbs that variation and stays straight down a long hallway. A kitchen or laundry floor wants a dense grout that copes with cleaning products, and the junction where tile meets a wall, a cabinet kick or a timber threshold is sealed with silicone rather than grouted rigid.

Most of this work sits in hallways, living areas, kitchens and laundries around Murrumbeena, Carnegie, Hughesdale, Oakleigh and Ormond. Bathroom and laundry wet areas carry a different specification — falls, membrane and set-downs — and are covered under Bathroom Tiling. Anything over 600mm changes the flatness tolerance entirely; see Large Format Tiling. Where a floor runs out to an alfresco or path, drainage leads the layout — that is Outdoor Tiling.

A finished interior floor: joints running true to the door line and the perimeter left free to move.

ASKED ON SITE

Three questions that decide a floor

Can you tile over an existing tiled floor?

Sometimes. The existing floor has to be sound, fully bonded and flat, and the extra height has to still work at doors, thresholds and any step down. If a knuckle test finds drummy areas, that section comes up rather than gets buried.

How soon can the floor be walked on?

Adhesive cure and grouting are separate stages, and the wait between them depends on the product, the substrate and the conditions in the room. We set that sequence on site and tell you the plan for your floor rather than quoting a number that suits every job.

Porcelain or ceramic underfoot?

Porcelain is denser and harder wearing, which matters in a hallway, kitchen or anywhere shoes and furniture land. Ceramic has its place, mostly on walls. The full comparison is set out in Porcelain vs Ceramic Tiles.

Get the floor looked at before the tile is chosen

Tell us the rooms, the rough area, the tile you have in mind and what the floor is right now — timber sheeting, an old slab, existing tile. Request a quote, or send the question through contact. Further reading before you decide: Tile Preparation and Large Format Tiles.