Replacing carpet with ceramic tile

[drwwicks]

I have a 2007 Itasca Horizon 40FD with what I think is a standard flooring, ceramic tile in the entrance, kitchen and bath, and carpet under the driver/passenger seats, the aisle area in the living room, slide floors, and bedroom area. The living room area has opposing slides with parts of the kitchen and couch and dining areas. I am OK with the carpet in the bedroom and actual slide floors but would like to replace the carpet in the middle of the coach with the same ceramic tile as the kitchen/bath has. I did see pictures of another coach that is for sale with full tile in the living area.

The potential issues. The slides are flat floor and where they move across the tile surface they are on rollers, where it moves across the carpet it's a long linear plastic/nylon slider. The carpet in the mid floor wraps under the slide like a ramp and in the tile area the tile abruptly ends with a metal sloping ramp similar to the carpet ramp.

Questions. Has anyone made a similar change and what was the slide roller issues you had? I expect to have some difficulty locating an exact replacement for the tile but a good tiler can blend in the pattern. Where the slides have the bar not rollers, will they work satisfactorily moving across the tile? I would hate to have to pull the slides to accomplish this. Any other comments and help is appreciated.

[Kayteg1]

Fool'ya guys.
The marble floor on the picture I posted has no grout.:B
Takes professional to notice that and technically nothing wrong with it.
The floor on Airstream trailer was 45 years old and I did not worry about couple rotten holes at the door. Marble is strong tile.

[mobilefleet]

I would also use epoxy grout and not regular grout to avoid cracking. It's harder to work with and is like peanut butter when spreading so it does not sponge off as easy as regular when installing, but it will not crack down the road

[drwwicks]

rexlion wrote:
Personally, I'd be concerned about cracking the tiles and/or grout lines. An RV bangs along some rough highways at times, and things can flex... but a floor like that cannot flex, it can only crack. Why not use laminate or vinyl?

I also considering cracking but the original parts that are tiled are not cracked.

In reference to underlayment, I also considered that and that is also part of the question involved. I'm not concerned about weight since I have plenty of cushion per the last weighing and the area is small. The slides on both sides move over both carpet and tile at this point so I suppose the height issue can be adjusted.

[TNGW1500SE]

I would be careful on what type of mortar I used. It needs to be something with a little "give" to it. Maybe a latex additive. Same with grout.

They make some "fake" tile that is really wood and it looks pretty good. It might stand up better to the bounce of the RV traveling down the road.

Might want to look at this:
http://www.flextile.com/

[rexlion]

Personally, I'd be concerned about cracking the tiles and/or grout lines. An RV bangs along some rough highways at times, and things can flex... but a floor like that cannot flex, it can only crack. Why not use laminate or vinyl?

[Kayteg1]

800 lb makes 200-250 sq of tiles.
On 30' coach that would make wall to wall flooring. No cabinets, no beds?

[Ed_Gee]

The ceramic tile in my previous 30' class A motorhome weighed 800 pounds. Then again, the original poster is only looking to replace a small area ....

[Kayteg1]

I put marble in 2 of my RV and loved it, so did new owners.
RV floors are very small, so few feet of marble at 5 lb/sq is not going to make big difference and when you compare how much sand some RV accumulated under the carpet, it might actually make the coach lighter.
Tiles are lighter, but they have only microscopic layer of porcelain, who when scratched require replacement. Marble tiles are 3/8" of solid material who can be repolished thousands of times

[DSDP_Don]

"drwwicks".....If you look at the tile in your entry, I'm guessing you'll see that it sits higher than the carpet. The carpet will usually meet it because of padding and the thickness of the carpet, but is usually ramped up some. The problem is that they typically use something like "wonderboard" under the tile to keep it from cracking, where your carpet is stapled down to the plywood floor.

To stabilize the tile you would have to add the wonderboard, which will create a height issue with your slides. Your best bet might be to find some linoleum that looks like tile. There is some pretty nice stuff out there that looks like tile.

[Ed_Gee]

Only thought that comes to my mind is the additional weight. Ceramic tile weight does add up. Be sure that you have room to increase your coach weight under it's GVW rating.