laying marble tile in bath?

[Bubba_Bill]

Have a 1995 Damon Intruder. Just got back from Wintering in Fl. The bath, smallish as it is, has been quite usable. However, the carpet has become stained and worn, so we decided to put down marble tile. I discovered they laid the carpet, then put the walls, cabinetry, shower and toilet directly on top of the carpet...never heard of that one!. The subfloor is chipboard. A 'search' suggested putting Hardy Board on top of the chipboard. No way I'm going to try to fit that stuff in such a tiny space! So, the question becomes: what kind of adhesive to put the tile in with. As of now, I'm considering panel adhesive...non-water based. Most tile adhesives are 'water cleanup', which I'm afraid will add to the possibility of buckling, though I must say the chipboard has not buckled next to the shower where it has obviously spilled. Supposedly, there adhesives specially for chipboard, so need a trip to Lowe's. Any thoughts on this? Bill

[tiredkid]

Canadian Rainbirds wrote:

Bubba Bill wrote:
It's real marble, had to special order so I don't have it on hand yet. Not sure of the 'pink'? When I pick the stuff up, I'll ask Lowe's, I know there's a solution.

I'd be very worried about the marble cracking. Motorhomes flex quite a bit.

In a small area such as bathroom marble tile will be fine.Put down a new subfloor before laying.I have Marble tile on the steps of my Pusher for 3 years and nary a problem.water does not bother marble tile and does not stain
No need for the orange underlayment just use fortified thinset

[Jerrybo66]

Bubba Bill wrote:
It's real marble, had to special order so I don't have it on hand yet. Not sure of the 'pink'? When I pick the stuff up, I'll ask Lowe's, I know there's a solution.

OK, it seems my "pink" stuff caused some confusion. As stated, it's been a while. I'll admit to orange. I also used it on our concrete patio over the expansion joints. After 4-5 years, no cracks in the tile. One other thought. For a tile that is used under adverse conditions, stains, water, rust, etc. I'll only use porcelain tile...
Just a remodeler's opinion, not a tile expert... 🙂

[erniee]

marble tile in a 3x3 bathroom is like having another guest on board.

[Effy]

I put a tile floor in my Sister's house that had some sub floor issues that couldn't be fixed unless I ripped the entire floor out or built it up dramatically with green or rock board which would have caused a lot of other headaches (transition to wood floor etc) . I ended up using flexible grout. And while not cheap, I think it was about $50 for a ready mix quart, it's been 3 years and no cracking or popping. This stuff can tolerate 1/4" flex in the seam. But as others have said Marble seems to be a challenging choice for functionality let alone in a MH. I would probably go with a synthetic tile if not even a smaller tile on flixible backer sheets.

[Blaster_Man]

What will marble do to your weight carrying capacity, it's very heavy?

[Deano56]

[Deano56]

allot of people on the other forum tried to discourage me from tiling my bathroom floor for many of the already mentioned reasons. Our coach is a 1990 34' Champion Lasalle, the carpet was to much of a target for our grandsons. Upon removing the carpet I too saw it was under walls and cabinets. Once the carpet was removed I was surprised to see the the sub floor was a good quality 3/4" plywood with a paper coating almost like good sign board. I ended up laying a white cement board that was either 5/16" or 3/8", then found a nice light colored ceramic tile that was glossy like polished marble. No problems with slipping around plus we threw a carpet down when showering.

[AprilWhine]

My bus has marble flooring in the kitchen and bath as original equipment. After 17 years, there is some minor chipping but no cracks. If I had been able to choose, I would not have put marble in there, it is too porous for a heavy traffic area. The good side is since the bath is over the Aqua-hot, the floor is always warm. :B

[jfkmk]

erniee wrote:
I haven't seen any pink underlayment, either. Schluter systems makes an orange mat that can be used under tile. It looks like a waffle. Since this is probably a small area, I don't think the floor would flex that much. If it does, I'd get rid of the coach.

I just finished a 300sf tiling job in my house and used Schluter's Ditra (the orange stuff). The MINIMUM subfloor when using Ditra, is 3/4" plywood or OSB. The minimum subfloor when not using a decoupling membrane such as Ditra is 1 1/4". There are also maximum deflection requirements for tiling, and you would be surprised to see how little deflection a tile can take. Marble is one of the more sensitive tiles to cracking. It doesn't take much at all to crack a marble tile. The coach floor, while rigid enough for a vinyl product, is probably not 3/4" thick and is most certainly not 1 1/4" thick. Also, those required thickness numbers is combined with a 2x10 joist spaced at 16" on center. I can pretty much guarantee the coach is not constructed like that.

But, don't take my word, google tiling requirements (there is a tile association, I forget what it is called) and google Ditra. The installation instructions are available online.

[rockhillmanor]

Real slippery, cold, porous and the list of cleaners you can NOT use on marble is endless. Great to impress but soooo not functionable!

[erniee]

I haven't seen any pink underlayment, either. Schluter systems makes an orange mat that can be used under tile. It looks like a waffle. Since this is probably a small area, I don't think the floor would flex that much. If it does, I'd get rid of the coach.

[fla-gypsy]

You will need to do some more research. Marble has very specific requirements for adhesive and applications.

[jfkmk]

You're going to have cracked tiles and grout all over the place if you use marble. Marble needs a VERY rigid underlayment, which your MH won't offer. I'm with wolfe10, go with a high quality vinyl.

[davebrown]

Bubba Bill wrote:
Have a 1995 Damon Intruder. Just got back from Wintering in Fl. The bath, smallish as it is, has been quite usable. However, the carpet has become stained and worn, so we decided to put down marble tile. I discovered they laid the carpet, then put the walls, cabinetry, shower and toilet directly on top of the carpet...never heard of that one!. The subfloor is chipboard. A 'search' suggested putting Hardy Board on top of the chipboard. No way I'm going to try to fit that stuff in such a tiny space! So, the question becomes: what kind of adhesive to put the tile in with. As of now, I'm considering panel adhesive...non-water based. Most tile adhesives are 'water cleanup', which I'm afraid will add to the possibility of buckling, though I must say the chipboard has not buckled next to the shower where it has obviously spilled. Supposedly, there adhesives specially for chipboard, so need a trip to Lowe's. Any thoughts on this? Bill

Put down a 5/16 good one side plywood subfloor with glue and screws.Lay your tile with 1/8 spacers and use a high grade polymer added thinset.use a sanded polymer added grout and things will be fine.I have done a lot of flooring in motorhomes.This area is so small u will have no tile problems at all if u use/do what I said