Tiling - to screed or not to screed

Hi All,

We are putting Timber look porcelain tiles in our new build.

I have contacted two tilers in our area who have been recommended by the tiling company and both have said that screeding is not required.

I thought with larger tiles (ours are 1200x300) that it was imperative that the floors are screed. Can anyone help? Or can anyone recommend a tiler who will come to Mandurah who has laid these tiles previously and knows exactly what to do with them.

I'm just going to tell you our experience with timber tiles without any screeding.

We had our bathrooms tiled recently and one was with 150 x 900 timber tiles and the other with 300x300 porcelain. All tiles had rectified edges. Neither bathroom got screeded.

The 300x300 look terrible as it's a shiny surface and any hint of them not being flat or lining up just stares you in the face. The timber tiles on the other hand look perfect. Some of them were even bowed. I think the style of the timber tile and the lack of shine really hide any area that is not perfectly flat and it gives it character like a real timber floor.

If it were me then I would be saying Yep no screeding (save $) but if there are any major obvious dips/unevenness then I want those dealt with before the tiles get laid.

Your timber tiles are a lot bigger than mine though so not sure if that would make a difference?

Good luck

Oh and a random laying pattern helps hide any imperfections as well and looks amazing my tiler tried talking me into a pattern but nooooooo!!

My understanding is all wet areas needs to be screeded in order to achieve the fall required for drainage. Not sure why yours is not screeded.

Our wet areas were not required due to the slab just being sloped towards the drain and not recessed

Sorry all I should have mentioned that the tiling is not through the wet areas.
We are tiling everywhere but the wet areas and bedrooms (our builder is responsible for tiling the bathrooms).

Just a bit confused as all suppliers of recitified tiles specify that floors must be screeded but every tiler I speak to says the contrary

I was also told that screed is not required on concrete slab. They will use a self leveling compound or something.

Hi,

Did you tiler end up screeding? I have a similar situation but the tile size is bit bigger, I'm planning to use 1200 x 600.