Help Please-Different Floor Levels Between Tiles and Carpet

Pixelated · May 20, 2010 6:00 pm

Hi all...I'm hoping someone who's experienced this or one of the flooring experts can assist please.

We are having 600x600 matt porcelain tiles laid on our ground floor (slab) except for a formal living area on the RHS where we will lay carpet. I can't get my head around how to deal with the differing floor levels as everyone has a different fix. I've seen many examples of tiles butting up to carpet but not sure how to achieve a uniform floor level.

The tiles will be laid on a screed bed and the finished level will be 35-38mm higher than the current slab. The carpet people advise that the carpet sits approximately 20mm above the slab when installed so that's a difference of 15-18mm between the finished level of the tiles and the carpet.

One option presented is to continue the screed into the Formal living room allowing for that difference. However, the tiler says the carpet people should just lay thick underlay! The carpet people say this is not a serious solution and they told me to get a carpenter to lay particle board, or similar, to make up the difference. However, the chippy I spoke to says you can't just lay particle board on a slab...and round and round it goes.

Any advice on how to deal with this would help me sleep better at night!!

Pix

namtrak · May 20, 2010 6:13 pm

The carpet guys can access 'wedge' like ramps about 200m wide and upto about 10mm high. They can stick these under the carpet to ramp the carpet up towards the tiles. And then install a metal trim to manage the interface between the carpet and the tiles.

Find a specialist flooring supply business nearby and they will show you the gear which you can then show to the carpet guys. AFS or QEP are two companies that supply this sort of stuff

Cheers

Pixelated · May 20, 2010 6:21 pm

Thanks for that namtrak, but we're not sure about those 'ramps'... for want of a better expression.

Is this how most of these situations are handled?

Pix

Felistopher · May 20, 2010 6:36 pm

namtrak's right. The ramps are the best and easiest way of dealing with this. It's very common. Lots of houses have them and you wouldn't even know it unless you saw the carpet going down.

your tiles sound nice pix

wish we had nice big ones!

namtrak · May 20, 2010 7:27 pm

Yep, the ramps are pieces of MDF. Head into a carpet/flooring specialist (a mob that supplies the trade) and you can talk to the experts there.

Cheers

royalblue · May 20, 2010 8:44 pm

Pixelated

The tiles will be laid on a screed bed and the finished level will be 35-38mm higher than the current slab. The carpet people advise that the carpet sits approximately 20mm above the slab when installed so that's a difference of 15-18mm between the finished level of the tiles and the carpet.

That's extraordinary!

35-38mm is more than I've ever seen!

Porcelain tiles would be no thicker than about 20-25mm, and a screed allowance I would have thought to be say 5-8mm. So I'd be very surprised if its any thicker than about 33mm max. With large tiles like that, I'd expect a 30mm thickness above the slab.

If you want to have thicker carpets, make sure they are not just thick but quite dense as well. You could consider using Bridgestone Supablue underlay for thickness, but it must be laid very well, and thicker smoothedge might be required too. All quite costly!

Ash.

royalblue · May 20, 2010 8:51 pm

Another thought.....

What thickness exactly are the porcelain tiles? Perhaps in the areas where the tiles meet carpets, the last row of tiles could be laid so as to ramp down. That way, the lower end would be only the thickness of the tiles (I would have thought 20 to 25mm) So then the carpet would meet it nicely.

You'd have to check with your tiler. Edges may need to be machined to provide the correct angle at joints etc. But a slight ramp over 600mm would be pretty discreet.

Ash.

Pixelated · May 21, 2010 11:48 am

Thanks Ash, namtrak & Felistopher :-)

After following up on your suggestions I now have a much better idea of the alternatives available. I've spoken to our carpet layers and they say they can either use the MDF wedges or custom build a ramp from a compound, mixed with water, and feathered.

However....

Unless I raise the entire floor level, what do people usually do with skirtings in the transition area, where the tiles and the carpet meet? Won't those skirtings 'float' and look a bit odd?

Ash, I have spoken to the tiler and they confirmed the finished floor level will be between 35-40mm *above* the slab. This is because of the depth of the screed bed required for large format porcelain tiles. The surface must be *completely* level otherwise the tiles will be out-of-whack when laid. Ceramic tiles, esp smaller ones, can be glued directly onto a slab but unfortunately we can't get away with this.

Once again...feedback much appreciated!!

Pix

Mark S · May 21, 2010 6:21 pm

Pixelated

Unless I raise the entire floor level, what do people usually do with skirtings in the transition area, where the tiles and the carpet meet? Won't those skirtings 'float' and look a bit odd?

Pix

Are you saying that the skirting is not already fitted in the tiled area??
If that is the case, the skirting may need be cut down by the tile/screed height, in the tiled area, to keep the skirting the same height through transitions in the house. Or approx. 40mm higher skirtings in the carpet area to achieve a better result.

Pixelated · May 22, 2010 8:04 am

The skirting is tacked on in the area to be tiled and also in the area to be carpeted. The latter was a mistake by the chippies and we are working to fix this so that it will be fixed.

We wanted the skirting tacked on in the tiled area so that it can be removed while the tiling takes place and fixed permanently afterwards. We just prefer the look of skirting on top of the tiles rather than tiles butting up to the skirting with a grout line in between.

As carpet sits against skirting we've come to the conclusion we're going to have to live with skirting in two adjacent areas that *looks* like it's a different height...however, we still have the problem of how to overcome the disparity in the skirting levels in the spots (in four areas) where the carpet and tiles meet.

Any ideas or is this all getting just waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to boring and hard? LOL (it is for me)

/me wishes someone could just wave a magic wand and solve this! hehehehe

Pix

cherub · May 22, 2010 9:13 am

Lay plywood to rest of area, can be direct fixed with glue. Small cost for best outcome

Pixelated · May 22, 2010 4:12 pm

Hi Cherub,

If we do that, how do we reconcile the different heights of the skirting between the two areas? Remember, the skirting will be fixed on top of the tiles and on top of the plywood and carpet is laid in front and up to the skirting in this area, not beneath it.

Pix

Mark S · May 22, 2010 7:40 pm

IF you put the ply in the carpet areas[ to bring the floor up to the tiles], the skirting can adjusted be up to 10mm above that for the carpet. This should be enough to keep the skirtings the same height through the transitions. Plus the skirting could be cut down in the tiled area if need be.

Pixelated · May 24, 2010 10:32 pm

Thanks everyone.

The SS came up with a solution that will work :-)

Replace the existing skirting in the carpeted area adjacent to the tiles with taller skirting so the heights look the same. We'll do this after handover and clever husband has already costed it at less than $50 !!!

No point in cutting down the skirting in the tiled area (90% of the ground floor) because we paid extra for the increased height :-)

Thanks for all the suggestions -- this was really making me crazy!

Pix

jimmijamz · Jun 15, 2010 10:06 pm

Pixelated

Ceramic tiles, esp smaller ones, can be glued directly onto a slab but unfortunately we can't get away with this.
Pix

Can anyone else confirm this? Can you lay ceramic directly on the concrete bed? If so, what sizes?
400x400?