Alternative Building Grass Fed Raised Animals Organic Gardening Original Country Band Homeschooling Projects Homesteading Farm Family Farmers Market Onine Store

 

Tile over Soil Cement Floor

Strong & Water Tight
We have found Soil cement to be our favorite type of subfloor. They are cheap and strong. We have been topping them with earthen floors. But when it comes to the laundry room, we wanted a floor that was not only strong enough to handle heavy appliances but one that could take water spilling onto it.

 

While out garage saleing, we found what we needed - enough tiles to cover the laundry room floor.

 

Our first challenge was finding a way to adhere the tile to the floor. We decide to use homemade mortar.

 

Homemade Mortar Ingredients

3 parts sand
1 part Portland cement
Water

 

The trick in masonry construction, is to keep the material wet so it chemically binds.

 

Leveling the floor was the second challenge. When the soil cement was installed, we leveled it with the thought that Earthen/Cob floor would be on top of it. It didn’t need to be perfectly flat. Now we had to rethink it.

 

We leveled the floor by using a long 2x4. We scraped off the excess in high areas. Once the floor was somewhat level, we started to lay the tile.

 

 

 

Mortar Directions

Mix the mortar
Wet the floor
Wet the back of the tile
Set the tile
Continue the pattern until it's finished

 

Homemade Grout Ingredients

3 parts sifted sand (see Sifted Sand Video)
1 part cement
Water

 

Grout Directions

Place grout in between the tiles (moving hand in diagonal direction)
Wiping the excess away with a sponge (diagonally)

 

The floor turned our very solid. We are very pleased with the results.

 

The tiles had to finagled to fit as although they were all the same color, they were not all the same size. This is one of the drawbacks to garage saling but this does not deter us! Functionality trumps expense at times like these.

 

If you want to take a look at our soil cement application, click on Soil Cement Subfloor or you might be interested in our install ofradiant heat in another application of installing soil cement. If so, click on Soil Cement & Radiant Floor. (These are both alternative building ideas.)

 

Behind the Scenes

Bree got to try out her “Ms. Rubarb” character that was specifically created for this video. We had contemplated using a scientist character which Gary would play - he is always ready to ham it up in front of the camera. In the end, we settled on a teacher character from Britain. It seemed appropriate since Joseph Aspdin, the inventor of “Portland Cement”, was from England. We barely got through the recording as everyone was having so much fun!

 

 

Shelly
January 2013