marble tile in basement

im refinishing a small hallway in my basement with green marble tile. when i took the old carpet up and removed the old adhesive, i discovered that the concrete floor was cracked creating a highspot. i bought some "floor leveling compund" and have it nearly level.
question is; how level and smooth does the floor have to be for the marble to work well? ive learned that trowling isnt as easy as it looks and its not gonna be "perfect" with me doin it. is that gonna effect my marble?

also, i was told to use white mortar. the box the marble is packaged in says to use non water based adhesive. wtf is white mortar and will it work?

 

First, if that crack wasn't even on both sides, one side of the crack higher than the other, I would think twice about tiling this floor, also you will need an isolation membrane over the SLC in that area.

You can not use regular thinset with those tile, they moisture sensitive and will curl, you need an epoxy thinset for green marble, you can try skim coating the backsof them with the epoxy thinset, letting it cure overnight, then use regular to set them.

You want a dead flat floor for marble tile, you don't want any lippage with this tile.

 

ok, whats an isolation membrane?
and SLC means self leveling compound? if so, the stuff im using isnt very self leveling. could just be im not adding enough water.
ahhh. isolation membrane to prevent the water based leveler from being against the green marble...

what do you recomend for an isolation membrane?
i had already planned on using a non water based adhesive of some kind.

any products you would recomend?


dead flat huh... guess this project is gonna take me a bit longer then.

 

Isolation membrane as in crack isolation, that crack in the floor can transmit up through the tile and crack it.

There are 3 I use, Flexgaurd, nobleseal and Ditra, do a search on them.

For setting green marble.

http://www.tecspecialty.com/product_....asp?prodId=39

 

thanks for the help.