small bathroom under construction!?

Question

after removing the carpet in the bathroom to find out why the toilet was leaking (wax ring) I found shims under my toilet. the bathroom is small 64 x 39 the floor drops approx. 1 inch from left to right. I plan on installing ceramic tile next weekend. My question is how should level this floor before laying down the tile and should I use shims? I understand the floor must be level or laying the tile is a waste of time and money. the guy at lowes advised using self leveler. the current floor is hardwood. I will greatly appreciate any info.......thanks!

my question is how should I level the floor......not anything else

Im not asking about shimming the floor, its the toilet.....well and the vanity.

Answer 1

This advice is best for 1 foot square tiles.
The shims are strictly for leveling the cabinets and raising the toilet to the right height for the flange (forget about 'em for now). First you will need to put down a hardi-backer underlayment . When you are mixing your mortar make it on the thicker side (little less water). Use a 3/8 square notch trowel and lay your first tile on the high side of the room using just enough mortar (the tops of the notches should drag along the floor). When you lay the next tile to the right use a little bit more thinset. do the same with the next tile and so on. Use a torpedo level to check individual tiles and use a 3 foot to keep yourself level overall.

p.s. using a lot of mortar can be really mussy even if your careful so make sure you have plenty of room for grout as you go along. digging out the mortar from the cracks so you can grout is no fun.
this method worked for me.

Answer 2

Whatever you do ,do not use shims, they leave too many voids. Get you some 1/2 inch Hardibacker and thinset and screw it down to your sub floor. Use about a 3/8 inch by 3/8 inch notch trowel to trowel out your thinset. The thin set acts as a leveler in a way, the self leveling crap is a joke. I've seen so,too many home owner try to float their own floors with that stuff and end up messing the floor up more than it already was, it's about consistancy. It works, believe me, I've been setting tile floors for 7 years now. Good luck.

Answer 3

You want to shim the underlayment?? No. Any movement will cause the tiles to crack. That underlayment must be screwed well into the subfoor.

Any chance of using vinyl instead??? Then the underlayment could wiggle a bit from the shims and the vinyl would flex a bit.

Any chance of removing the wood, fixing the problem and resetting it?

Answer 4

I would put down cement board. For such a small room you can use the thinnest cement board. But it really helps keep your ceramic tile from breaking and the grout from cracking. And you could put a little thicker layer of adhesive on the low side to help level the floor.