Tile Installers
 

New to The Villages, am very handy with a wet saw, looking for a tile person willing to help with install. Master bath has been prepped, I think. Vinyl sheet flooring removed, mastic scraped and chemical'd down to bare concrete, do I need a primer before LFT mortar. Shower surround replaced with hardi. My experience is all with plywood subfloor and hardi. Do you empty your wet saw into the street ?? All these questions.

Hopefully, someone will help you out. I do just about everything except tile work - for myself. And the people who come in here and quote work - well, get as many quotes as you can. There are companies operating here that do excellent work, but rip people off as well. Just have to be careful, There are people out there who figure that since many people are retired, they are loaded and will pay whatever is asked.

But there are good honest people out there.

Tile install
 

Mapei and Schulter both make an underlayment that needs to go over the concrete before the tile is laid. As far as the tile dust I’d drain the water from the saw and scrape the sludge out, bag it and put it in the trash.

When you run the wet saw, drain the water out into the lawn (if you have one). The grass is so thick that it will only be a small spot of discolor. If you drain it into the driveway you'll have a mess.

If you've cleaned the floor down to the concrete chances are you won't need a leveling compound. You should just be able to lay the tiles.

Good luck with your project.

As noted above, you need a crack suppression barrier. The big box stores sell this stuff, but if you are lucky you may be able to buy this when you buy your tile. I used the Mappi brand as I recall. You put down a primer (the brush or roller is toast afterwards), and then put down the crack barrier. Then you apply the thin set and your tile. If you do not use the crack suppressant barrier your tile will crack when the concrete cracks and most concrete slabs eventually crack. Learned this from my step son that has done tiling for over 20 years.