Perfectly Flat Floor!!!- How to Float a Floor for Tile (Mortar Bed)

hello I'm Isaac Ostrom I'm a licensed tile contractor in Northern California and today I'm going to show you how we float a floor so traditionally we would do them on the floor so we don't float too many floors now down in Southern California that flowed a lot this floor was set up already for a flow so what they did is actually recessed the subfloor in here they recessed it 2 inches to allow for a mortar bed flow so as you can see we got the transition into the hallway we're two inches above here two inches plus and so that's going to allow us to fill this whole area with mortar and float it and screen and get it real nice and it's also gonna allow us to do a curb the century shower so if you come in here you can see we've already got our shower prepped out and what we're gonna end up doing we got our linear drain in here we have it set on the foam carrier that comes with it we did this yesterday it's already thin set it down it's level it's ready to go so we're actually going to slow this floor up to the height of the rest of our floor right here so this is going to be the threshold of the shower so our floor is going to be level and it's going to come here and slope right down so this is a really nice application to use a float we're gonna be able to get this floor flat and level and then get the correct slope going down to the drains you have our chicken wire our stucco netting this is one-inch 20 gauge stucco medding used for one cup floats we have underneath this we have aqua bar tar paper so so the tools that we're gonna use today I'm going to try to call them out as we go as we work but the basics are we need a which is really important this is a would flow you can use a magnesium float as well I like the wood floats they just feel really good this is what I used to tamp my deck mud down and you'll see me screaming and shaping the deck mud rubber mallets really important so we're gonna set up screed strips with red wood strips get those level and screed off of oh I use this to tamp all my levels so I don't damage my level margin trowel I'll always have a margin show this is my flat trial of choice this is a Marshalltown this is a 12 by 5 these are really nice okay so first thing we're gonna do is get our level set so we're trying to get our tile to the top of the hallway here so we have our hardwood floor here we want our tile to flush up right with the top so that we don't have to put any kind of reducers or anything right here so what we need to do is set the level for the rest of the floor so we want to allow the space for our thin set in tile so I'm using these two pieces of wood together and that's about what I want I want about a half-inch to allow for our 12 by 24 porcelain tile and our thin set and I'm using a piece of tile just to set the level and then we can kind of work off of that point so so I'm gonna take use use this piece of tile that I put in here so I'm gonna use this piece of tile as everything to work off the level that I want so this is the thickness of my tile on my thin set so I want this to be level with my floor pretty good on our level so if I were to take this up now I have the level that I want to work off because this is the thickness of the tile and the thin set so I'm going to flow to the level of this dot right here okay so what I'm using is redwood flow strips these are a quarter inch thick pieces of Redwood inch and a half wide you can either rip these out of redwood 2x4 or you can find them in the lattice section a lot of times and our home depot but this is what we use to flow we use these two set screens in walls and floors so I have my master height here I'm gonna take some pure cement this is something my first setter taught me he used to do this a lot when he would flow he just take pure cement and that helps the fat mud set up it'll stiffen it up so that it won't won't move so that's a good trick to use if you want float strips to set up faster you can use pure cement so basically I'm gonna send up my first float strip right here and do a line level here I also got these you'll notice these little these are called pocket grippers I had one of my viewers send these to me they're really cool I think you can find them just google the bucket gripper but they're really nice when you're carrying things it doesn't wear on your hand right there makes it really comfortable [Music] [Applause] so this fat one is a little thicker than we usually make it we're doing built up streams like this it's actually stiffer than I was like it but I'm gonna be able to work it just sat in the bucket for a little okay now I got my float strip level this way and I have a leveled off height my master point there we've got my first float strip set so Johnny you can start mixing up that deck so I got my first screen strip set this is this much a little bit more to the consistency we just went and had to remix it but yeah you can see the consistency here this is a little bit more six trips you can you can use two of these trials to kind of get your base built up about the - unit one thing also any any place where you have like that floor register you spotlight around that - because deck mode would end up just crumbling and going in there so is this our next one Steve yep okay I'm going to take my next strip and you might wonder why I'm not using one float strip right here this is so as I work I can pull the strips and pack them in without having to reach too far the next in my next one [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] just a little bar this little D bar yeah the losers of fat huts and more you just really gotta be careful [Music] [Music] you wanna get a shot of the bubble here let's see how I got a street it's perfectly level this will be a really nice floor to set off of you have in your court burn it into the fire yeah so I got these I'm gonna take some of my pure and since this fat blood was a little looser it's pretty loose had a little bit of pure cement to this just to firm these guys up doesn't hurt to do this so back in the day they used to use pure cement a lot when they would float these floors so traditionally in the houses that we see that were built in their earliest houses I've worked on probably right around 1920 or so when they do one of these bathroom floors they would floated just like we're floating it now isn't that amazing you know a hundred years later using the same techniques they floated the same way but they would take pure cement they didn't have thinset back then so most of the floor tiles were mosaics you'd see a lot of the little hexagon tiles you'd see a lot of the basket weave porcelains and so what they would do is they take their wet float they said it the same day like I said they would use their pieces of flat board to go into their fresh float they'd start in the back and work this way they just take a slurry of pure cement they'd mix it up really loose like a slurry then use a really thin notch and then they would just comb that pure cement right into the float set their mosaic on it tamp it down and that's how they got their floors built that way without thinset mortar so just a little fun back there I'm gonna get one strip here at the threshold [Music] [Music] [Music] so I was just kidding getting an idea of where I need to be I know I need to be down probably another good quarter inch so this is kind of feeling this well making this trip level as I go so I'm still high so I don't want to just try to beat down one spot because it'll throw this whole strip out so I'm just eyeballing it I'll keep keep this strip level as I work a little more you think know anything if if I want to air I want to air on it sloping down this way not sloping back down that way so I might even have a drop this a little bit more you know maybe a sixteen thirty thirty second just to be safe to make sure it's not running back that way [Music] so yeah that's about perfect so just erring on the side of being a little bit low there and see the bubbles just on that side of the line that's exactly where I want to be okay so I can do this one of two ways I can set up two screen lines going this way or I can set a screen up one this way or I can just read off of here which I don't know if I want to do but I'm gonna try it first first thing I'm going to try screening off this the only drawback to that is you got the corners but what I can do I can just lift that so I'll screed off of here and just be very careful not to damage the Kirti and that's what I'll end up doing so first thing I'm gonna do is get my bud back behind my drain here we couldn't go off we couldn't put the drain all the way at the wall because there was a structural piece of lumber here so this is as far back as we could get the drain we're gonna float these walls so it'll actually end up being about perfect so I'll just pack this mug down into behind the drain and in the little sides here get these take off the extra again just being real careful with the fleece on the drain not kind of eyeballing this obviously you don't want any ball going that way we want to err on the side more fall going towards the drain that should be good they're back this down clean their nuts over here there we go so this is going to be able to sit up like this that's actually when I'll leave all this packet down that's all right it's about what I want [Applause] okay okay so in movement Dec mud around and packing it one of the biggest mistakes I see people make is that they will pack the mud down too hard and especially before they start screening it so you'll see as I move the mud around I'm just moving it around and you can use whatever you can use your foot you could use anything to move this butt around and I'm just getting it to about where where it's gonna be just not my foot so I knew about my float strip here you can see what I did so let's a goof now I need to redo this dip up my knee right there [Music] we're good problem solved I just got to be careful not to kick this flow circuit yo I'm just moving my letter out and getting it see I'm not even packing it down yet I'm just moving it to wherever I want most of the blood okay so now that I got my might about where I wanted to be now it's time to start camping it's kind of just no but I'm not eating it again if you start putting way too much pressure on it it's going to be a lot harder to work with and you'll actually cause it as you beat it you'll cause the mud to kind of want to break apart from itself [Music] [Music] okay that's good use my edge here just gotta start taking off on material these are n alleges you can find these that contractors direct or usually fall find them online adjust an aluminum set of straight edges I think there's like six different lengths and a set and you if you don't have a set of these yet get them if you're a title Center currently about a hundred bucks and you don't use them all the time so I'm even kind of writing on my post-trip I'm not really pushing down on my float scrip I'm just kidding the main part of the mud off [Music] [Music] okay so now I'm going to start pushing a little a little more firm back and forth streeting motions [Music] [Music] okay so I'm looking pretty good here I'm just gonna check my slope I've got a good slope going downhill and going this way we're looking pretty good a little high there yeah there we go that's looking good now what I'll do is I'll take an edge and go this way and just take out I got a little hump in the middle [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] okay so I got it about where I want to get in so I'm going to take my would flow I'll keep your wish floats clean periodically you want to get the excess month of your flow and now I'll start working it and kind of filling everything in any spots you see that are a little more mud just give a little sprinkle ham you can see I'm using this trowel so that I can rest my body weight on it so this is how you see guys that know how to flow you'll see their their floats end up spinning like this because of this what I'm doing with my flow right here also our bud mix here that we use is a little leaner then like your sand topping mix and stuff that you guys use back east this is more like a four and a half to five to one sand a cement mix we're topping mix is like a three to one so you'll notice I don't have big clumps where the deck mud wants to stick together it's really smooth easier to work with and it dries just as hard believe it or not I'm gonna check with my local Walmart I'm see where I'm at with my level it is good and I will just make sure all the way through it's nice and level [Music] okay so I'm happy with that so last step is before you leave the area clean up any of the corners this you know I can use some of this tomorrow too I want it to be as clean as it does it can neither I'll just back him that out tomorrow and now just take your flat trowel pressure on the back edge and this is how we get a glass here [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] and that's that so I got the first area done now I'm going to just start moving my way through the rest of the floor so yeah you can use your foot to the motor around okay so got the mud about where I want it you also notice I put this I put a little bit of foam at the perimeter just for expansion and contraction anytime you have you either self level of floor or your flow to floor you don't want your tile system pinned in tight between walls especially over large areas because you want that floor wall to be able to expand and contract a little bit you want to have a little movement everything's pinned right to the walls and you get these two walls pinching in this is an exterior wall and say that wall starts move in it'll put pressure on the whole system you can get that you can get cracks in your float or your tile so whenever you're doing a large area either self leveling or floating make sure to put some expansion material in between your wall and your float you can see my death right here is good it's just wet enough to hold a hold of this this ball it's not too wet if you start seeing water coming up so if you were to start seeing water rise up to the surface see the cream of the cement come up it's too wet something like this this is even a little wetter than I usually have it but it's good this mind is really nice really easy to work with a little more over here so I am for like a quarter inch to a half inch high of where I want my finished surface that that leaves me enough room to to tamp down and screed but you don't want too too much and then because you'll just be redundant you'll be putting too much material down and just have to move it around again just kind of highballing so you guys that are having problems with your your deck mud separating after it dries you know I get a lot of people who have problems with its sloughing off a lot of times what that is is backing it down and then adding more mud and packing that down for those two layers come together it could slip off so you want to get your butt up higher [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I'm just working my way back now to the end of my float strips and the end of my float strip is right here this will work money with that then I'll pull my strips and throw em in [Music] you know most of what we use now - if our floors are out of level we use self leveling underlayment so the thing obviously supplement underlayment you can do thinner material it's a lot more expensive it's pretty cumbersome you have to make sure you mix it all at the same time you need a spiked roller to do it right you need a big bucket to do self leveling right and I have a video on doing a self level or put that link up so you can see it but the material is very expensive - I mean you're looking at about $30 a bag on average for self level or when deck mud is only about 5 bucks a bag so you're using a lot less a lot less technology you know floating at Florida's old schools and if you have this thickness again so I wouldn't go if it was a floating floor like if it was over a subfloor I wouldn't do anything less than 3/4 of an inch and that's like minimum I don't recommend anything under an inch but if you have a high spot in a small area 3/4 would probably be fine but I'd say inch and a quarter inch and a half is perfect more of that thickness for a floor so if you have that that's much easier just to float it than to try and put plywood down you know build dams everywhere so that you saw your self level or doesn't pour into everything you don't have to prime the surface first it's it's pretty simple easy way to do and I recommend you at least know how to do it cuz they'll be circumstances that you'll need to know how to flow [Applause] you'll see here too that even if my edge rides off of my floats like it's not resting on float strip you can ride the mud with your edge it's 15 smaller areas ok so now it's time to pull my foot strips and they come right out [Music] so then what I'll do is all this tape take more deck but tell these guys in and I see a lot of guys when they float bill don't leave these out and just fill them in what thinset I just really don't like doing that I don't know if it's an OCD thing or what but it just doesn't look right I'd rather have it all done okay so after I did that and I'm gonna go ahead and use use my circular motion you see what I'm using I would flow this always going in circles I do the same thing over here down [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] I won't mess with stuff you know like this up here tomorrow we'll just come in with the vacuum animal vacuum that off yeah I'm just putting firm pressure on the back edge of my trowel don't ever do it flat he'll dig right into your money pressures on the back of that brow floating it forth this is great for doing mosaics on if you're doing the mosaic I love floating floors so yeah so the old school methods would be now they would do this then they pour Portland is pure cement slurry real small v-notch or they could probably even even if you just coated it like this with piercing net then take your mosaic sheet plop it down tamp it in with the beading block and be done and that's how they did the old thick bed before before they have been set okay so that section is done we're just gonna keep working our way back that's good compliment you didn't read it okay so I want to show we got the toilet flange sitting right here which is going to prohibit me from doing a nice screed I was able to screen here but then I'm running into the toilet flange so what I'm going to have to do [Music] so a lot of what you can do at deck mode which is really nice as you can play with yeah I think kind of why we call a floating you know you're just kind of working with what's there so I could take a small edge since I have a level here in a lot here I can just work off of that [Applause] my little pie and start off with little bits at a time just make sure you don't dig into too far just work with what you got take as much of the material off as possible and then go back and take more off [Music] hey Johnny can you grab my little level I think I got a 16 incher so if I want I can drag my level across just to be safe make sure I'm staying staying where I need to be it's a lot easier to move little bits of material at a time than trying to do this and take it all off at once that's why I was just trying to stay stay from digging in there use your would flow to take off the rest if there's any high spots your would float we'll pick it up [Music] [Music] so now I have the same same thing I got to deal with behind the toilet can you see that Steve from behind the toilet I have no way of getting that don't say anything just take my edge or my level probably this guy right here and just do the same thing actually Steve now [Music] so instead of setting up screed strips everywhere you can float off with what's already there especially as you get a little bit better out of it a little more feel for it [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] yeah these bucket grippers the guy sent him to me and these are a really cool little invention from the bucket grippers awesome do these areas now it's a little bit a little bit wider area to work with us so working a little bit smaller sections again this getting my bud so as you see where my new mud comes up to my old mud that's already been screed 'add I'm leaving it up high one of the tendencies when you're dumping your new mud up against what you've already screening is to run into a little kind of soft spot where you didn't tamp it down all the way back so I make sure that I get enough month to overlap where I already streeted you can see that's probably yeah not beating it if I were to beat this like I see people doing stuff like this and it separates the mud it kind of breaks it up I don't need to do that it's just kind of a firm tamp that's all you need it ain't gonna go anywhere I promise there's a lot of people that's what they that's what they think I'll get an email from them and they'll say you know I can't it down really hard I can't understand what it's flaking off that's the problem you use a bug that's too rich and you tamp down on it too hard so yeah so make sure you can't be real firm against where the new mud meets the old I'm working in about you know 18 inch sections you got a long edge you're gonna pick up a lot of mud as you work you can just put it back because you're gonna end up using it you can experiment with the leading edge yeah I'm using the leading edge of this straight edge here that's pretty aggressive a take off a lot if you want something a little more forgiving just lay it flat like that from--with laying it flat especially on a long edge like this it's flexible so you can dip down in the middle where it's not gonna flex if it's laid up like this you can even put the edge down like this [Music] yeah I'm just working [Music] and that's just a thing of beauty to some level on the floor you have it I mean it's right there it's right where we need to be very nice looks purty [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] there we go we got a nice flat for it's gonna work perfect for what we need to do yeah I hope you liked this video click like and subscribe watch the next one coming up last but not least I love you guys I love being your tile coach we'll see you all next video [Music]

Channel: TileCoach

Views: 180,674

Keywords: perfectly flat floor, how to float a floor, how to do a mortar bed floor, how to float a shower floor for tile, how to build a shower pan, how to make a mortar bed shower, how to make a dry pack shower, how to pre-slope a shower, how to install a shower liner, how to make a floor flat, how to make a floor flat for tile

Id: dQw5d9sdz48

Length: 56min 29sec (3389 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 10 2020