Tiling a Balcony with Fall Away from House

renovator_me · Apr 21, 2024 2:09 pm

Hi,

I am looking to tile a balcony but wanted to see what best options would be. The balcony is perfectly level but I wanted a slight fall away from the house.

In order to achieve this, is my only option to screed the balcony before laying tiles or is there some technique I can use when laying the tiles to get a fall without the tiles looking uneven.

What fall rate is recommended? The balcony is 6m x 1.5m so 1:100 fall would be 1.5cm fall away from house. Is this adequate?

This is of course after it has been water proofed.

Thanks

BuildingandLegal · Apr 21, 2024 10:16 pm

External tiled areas are required to grade at 1:100 correct.

What height is the step-down from the inside base floor level (not the carpet but the chipboard) down to the balcony floor?
and does your home have a minimum 2x houses in front, behind and on either side?

renovator_me · Apr 22, 2024 6:30 am

It is a 100mm step down from subfloor to balcony.

Sorry I don't understand your second question
"does your home have a minimum 2x houses in front, behind and on either side"

BuildingandLegal · Apr 22, 2024 10:19 am

Your balcony needs to be for N2 50mm lower outside than inside level, N4 70mm, N5 100mm.
That is outside finished tile height at the door to inside floor height.
The question regarding the houses is to workout what probable wind rating you are so you know the N? required height

renovator_me · Apr 22, 2024 10:55 am

From what I have been told our legal requirement is 100mm step. Our wind classification is C2.

Splashers · Apr 22, 2024 8:35 pm

If you are running falls from the house to front of balcony i would suggest to use tile screed to get the proper falls required. If the Balcony has no roof over it i would go to 1: 80 min but keep in mind screed minimum thickness is 15mm, so at the door this will be 15mm plus fall. At the entry to the house with 1:100 it would be 30mm (screed) plus tile thickness and tile adhesive this could changed your height compliance with your associated rating.
I strongly suggest you waterproof under and over the screed for long term benefits.

renovator_me · Apr 23, 2024 9:34 am

Thanks Splashers, that helps.

BuildingandLegal, do you have an online source for those heights based on wind classification?

renovator_me · Apr 23, 2024 4:26 pm

I have just spoken to our certifier, and he has advised that a 50mm step is all that is required. Currently our height difference from external to internal is 100mm. So, this leaves us with 50mm to work with for screeding and tiling.

BuildingandLegal · Apr 23, 2024 8:45 pm

AS4654.2-2012 External Membranes it is "Informative" but if you get water ingress your insurance assessor will go to this straight away and if not achieved, they will deny the claim Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅

Mallycat · Aug 05, 2024 6:54 pm

I have a very similar problem, hence I am asking here rather than starting a new thread.

I have a pole home, 3.3m above ground.
I has a 2.4 x 8m external balcony, level that I intended to tile with non slip tiles
The tiler advised me there will be about 1 tonne of screeding to add a 40mm to 10mm fall away from the house across the 2.4 m depth of the balcony. I’m concerned about the extra 1 tonne of weight on top of the tiles, outdoor furniture, and people.

My question is this. Is the fall away from the home mandatory (code) or is it recommended? Given there are no foundations I am dealing with, and moisture that falls between the house and the balcony will simply fall to the ground 3.3m below.

renovator_me · Aug 06, 2024 11:49 am

For my situation, the fall away was mandatory. I ended up falling to a central waste/drain rather than off the front edge of the balcony as I didn't want to risk any water staining down the front of the house. As always there are many ways to skin a cat but If there is a gap between the house and balcony for the water to fall then it might be ok. But (stating the obvious) you definitely don't want water pooling against the house or have the water eroding/rotting anything structural on the way down.

in terms of the extra weight then that would be a question for your engineer. As a rough example.an extra 1000kg across 20 beams/joists adds 50kg per beam/joist. Probably would be ok but I am no engineer.

Mallycat · Aug 06, 2024 5:37 pm

Thanks for replying. In my case, there’s no house for the weather to run back on to. There’s just a free fall to the ground, 3 m below. The balcony has 3 posts at the front that are very strong, but the back where it joins the house has a bearer bolted to the house bearer. There’s no posts of its own. So 12 bolts holding that side up. I agree, that’s an engineering decision. Having considered the options, we’ve decided to rip up the concrete sheeting put down to lay the tiles and instead lay a wooden plank deck. I don’t want to risk it not passing final inspection and this seems to be the easiest and cheapest option out of a bad set of choices.