Concrete or leveller?

[mezzabird]

Hi guys. Going a little insane trying to work out what to do here.

I have an old wood fireplace that we've taken the wood oven out from and placing a new free standing oven into. The base consists of old red bricks at the back with a smooth painted concrete bit at the front. I've decided to tile this whole area. Now being a complete amateur I am trying to work out what is best to use to level the area out for the floor tiles and for them to adhere properly without cracking soon after due to my shoddy prep work or impatiemce to get on with the job. Oven is a 900mm one. Bricks are a bit all over the place height wise but still doable, the slope difference from back (bricked area) to the lower front (old concrete) is approximately 10-15mm. (Not sure if my wording is correct, hope you can visualise what I mean.)

Now I do have a tiling leveller (Dunlop multi purpose floor leveller) but tossing up whether it would be better to just use concrete to level the area. Which would be the better option to go with? Tiles being used are 200mm square ceramics. The next thing is if we do go with the concrete and keep a slightly roughened surface how long does this need to sit for before I can start tiling and what else do I need to apply if anything?

I am a complete amateur on this so I apologise if the question sounds very basic. Really appreciate any assistance/advice.

Cheers.

[Dave]

If i get your scenario correct then you could just use a thickbed adhesive....

[mezzabird]

Thanks for the reply Dave.

I spoke to the local hardware guy yesterday who has helped me problem solve a few things in the past. I'm over thinking the whole matter as usual.

What I'm going to do is paint the area with bondcrete then mix up the leveller according to instructions with some added clean fine sand. I chiselled down a couple of the bricks that were a little high in the back part and roughened up the smooth concrete bit at the front. This should give me a smoothish level surface to work on for the tiling. The tile adhesive should sort out any other issues and the oven will be over the worst of it anyway.

I'll let you know the end result in a week or so. There is no way I am having the rangehood guys standing on my new tiles to shove the rangehood up the chimney. I won't be tiling the area until that's done.

[jay]

hi mezzabird try to remove as much paint as you can from area you wish to tile or concrete as not much will stick to paint cheers

[Dave]

Bondcrete..not a product i have any knowledge of...I tend to use a slurry coat for good adhesion for levellers...SBR and portland cement mix brushed on and then level straight on it...adding very small chippings for strength will be better than sand..

[jay]

bondcrete is a primer and should only be used inside not wet areas sand added to leveling comp helps to increase leveling thickness but as dave says slurry coat would be better make sure bricks are solid cheers

[mezzabird]

Thanks guys. I got rid of that old paint on the hearth area after reading what you wrote Jay. Used the whole bondcrete and leveller stuff on Monday and all looks good for tiling tomorrow. I've cut and done a test layout and happy with how the positioning looks. Am I allowed to post pics of my first amateur effort once finished? Hey I managed to cut tiles without screwing any up so gotta be happy with that. Had the guys standing on the area today putting a Qasair rangehood up the chimney and nothing was moving so all looking good for tomorrow.

[jay]

yes you can post pics that would make daves day cheers

[Dave]

Am I allowed to post pics of my first amateur effort

Most definatley please.....we love pics...

[mezzabird]

Cheers. Thanks guys.