Selection.....What To Do?


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Old 07-17-08, 09:00 AM
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Selection.....What To Do?

Will be flooring an outbuilding that will have air-con but not on all the time. We live in Central Florida so the temperature swings while gradual will vary quite a bit.

The building might be used every day and likely go for days/weeks with no use at all.

It is well insulated and exceeds building codes.

Wanted to use Engineered Wood but the wood floor guys say under the circumstances, the wood floor would like to have stable temperature all the time so using wood is a big risk.

Any tile material I should stay away from?

Thanks
 
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Old 07-17-08, 12:59 PM
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Is this a concrete slab or a framed wood floor? How large is the space?
 
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Old 07-17-08, 02:27 PM
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My first thought is a bare cement slab floor. What purpose will the building serve?
 
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Old 07-17-08, 07:12 PM
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the place is 16' x 32' in the main portion.

It is a detached studio to make the wife happy.

In that vein, happy is tile or wood.....

Have seen some great treatments for concrete floor but unfortunately this has a few cracks in the slab which further detracts from an unfinished floor......
 
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Old 07-17-08, 07:38 PM
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Ok so a couple of things. The absolute best tile you could use in this application would be porcelain tile.

As to the slab, if both sides of the cracks are on the same plane you can probably tile it. If there is any vertical shear (1 side higher than the other) then the floor is not a candidate for tile. How big are the cracks and do you know if they are still active?

An isolation membrane would be good insurance that hairline cracks in the slab do not transfer through to the tile. For that size floor you will need some soft joints as well to absorb some of the horizontal movement.
 
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Old 07-18-08, 02:25 PM
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There's a porcelain tile out there (and I can never remember the name) that has a rubber/plastic backing on it so that you don't need thinset to put it down. Comes with its own flexible grout. Easier than regular ceramic or porcelain and allows for a little movement in the floor.
 
 

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