Click-to-fit floor tiles

I'm going to lay a new floor in our kitchen and I've found some tiles I like:
They are rated for commercial use (factories, canteens etc) so should be no problem in a kitchen.

They have a 2mm built-in underlay, which doesn't sound like very much to me. Would it be a good idea to lay a 3mm underlay first, or is that likely to make the floor too bouncy?

Any experience gratefully received.
S

We have been debating the kitchen floor options, and went for a glued down option. I don't believe, whatever the manufacturers say, that a click system will be really waterproof. Just waterproof enough that any water that seeps under will not easily get back out. This fitted with the experience of one of the other guys at work, he has fitted out a few hair salons for his wife so has tried most methods ! Mind he does warn that even the Karndean glue down wasn't totally resistant to being marked by dog claws.

I was told extra underlay were not recommended because the extra movement can break the bits where it clicks together.

They say that the product has an integrated underlay already attached to the bottom side so no need for an additional layer.
As we all know kitchens and water on the floor due to accidents is a given. As Sheffield Tony mentioned water can make its way through the joint and remain there.
They also recommend capping the bottom of a chair leg which tells me the product does have a wear factor.

Thank you for that, Tony, Duke.
I had knock-off Karndean at my place in the UK and after 7 years it looked as good as the day it was laid. It had fake grout lines, laid separately and it looked for all the world like a stone flag floor, only warm and easier on the feet. It was excellent. But an experienced flooring team fitted it and I don't fancy practising on myself (I've just made a bit of a pigs ear of a worktop joint, but mainly because the worktops are not properly flat). Plus, I can't find the same product here in France. It appears that grout is out.

I'm aware of a potential snag with these.
People I know had a new bathroom, with floor tiles like those, with integral 2mm underlay, onto a new, smooth concrete floor.I can't remember the brand, but I think it was Dutch.

In later years, one of them needed to use a wheelchair. The extra localised pressure from the narrow wheels pressed down much harder than ordinary foot traffic. The edges all curled up and the thin clippy bits started to crack away.

They later had the floor relaid.

Can you float levelling compound on the substrate first? That ought to give adequate support.

I assume it's isn't real ceramic, in which case I'd think of it as similar to my wood-effect laminate flooring, but with a small amount of cushioning underneath. We've done three rooms in that - waxed edges to the clicky bits, and a green MRMDF core to it.

It's OK, but never recovered from a leaking pipe in the cloakroom. And it's ridiculously hard on edge tools, including TCT saws.

Would I use it again? Probably yes, because it was cost effective. There's a slight bit of give to it, which _might_ save some crockery from destruction, and it was relatively quick to do. I'm not sure it would survive wet-mop floor cleaning every few days though.

Eric the Viking said:

Can you float levelling compound on the substrate first? That ought to give adequate support.

Click to expand...

Oh yes, it needs that, and how...

Eric the Viking said:

I assume it's isn't real ceramic, in which case I'd think of it as similar to my wood-effect laminate flooring, but with a small amount of cushioning underneath. We've done three rooms in that - waxed edges to the clicky bits, and a green MRMDF core to it.

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I thtink these things are HDF, High-Density Fibreboard

Eric the Viking said:

It's OK, but never recovered from a leaking pipe in the cloakroom. And it's ridiculously hard on edge tools, including TCT saws.

Click to expand...

I've been cutting up lots of MFC lately, I wish I had shares in a blade manufacturer. A brand new blade makes a decent cut, but it doesn't take many cuts before the cut quality deteriorates very noticeably. Fortunately there is usually one face that is acceptable and where I really need to fix it this product is excellent.

Eric the Viking said:

Would I use it again? Probably yes, because it was cost effective. There's a slight bit of give to it, which _might_ save some crockery from destruction, and it was relatively quick to do. I'm not sure it would survive wet-mop floor cleaning every few days though.

Click to expand...

I've not measured up properly yet, but the whole room is about 20^m, so it will be a few hundred euros rather than a few thousand. In the grand scheme of things, that's not so bad.

Indeed this job has cost me considerably less than I had expected, including buying in some manpower and a couple of pricey appliances, heklped even more by the fact that we had a leak a couple of years ago and had a payout for a new floor (solid oak parquet - it must have looked good when it was new but it had been badly fitted with no expansion allowance, which was the cause of the leak in the first place, and was really very poorly suited to a kitchen). That payout has paid for nearly half of what we have spent.

S

We’re also deliberating flooring. Considering the click system Marmoleum Lino but my concern is the waterproofness and joints opening from movement. Going over a bit of a cobbled together suspended floor and a lot of these click systems seem to need very minimal deviation in surface over a large area to guarantee success. I don’t like paying people to do stuff but wonder if we might end up with a glue down option.

I used something similar about 6years ago in our kitchen over the top of 1950's council dark brown tiles. (probably asbestos based). The floor seemed very flat and I cleaned it thoroughly before laying the new stuff. A couple areas needed some filling to repair damaged tiles. After 6years quite heavy use you can see slight undulations that were imperceptible on the old floor. You can see the repaired sections through the new flooring.

I can’t think of any flooring that won’t be affected in one way or another by the ingress of water underneath it in large enough quantities or show under lying defects if initial preparation isn’t done correctly.

The tiles you link to Steve look like click vinyl, I’ve fitted this sort of flooring multiple times in dozens of bathrooms over the last 8 or 9 years without any trouble bar one job & that was on a toilet floor in a bungalow.

Ironically the noticeable cupping of the tiles was nothing to do with with the installation or the product, a leak under the kitchen sink had lead to water soaking into the concrete floor, this had spread from the kitchen into the toilet sub floor, the curling of the tiles lead to the discovery of the leak.
This leak had been going for quite a while & a substantial amount of water had escaped but as the kitchen floor was ceramic tiled the leak was not directly showing up in there though the customer realised after the discovery of the leak that the grout lines were darker than they used to be.
As for the vinyl flooring itself it is very easy to lay & can be scored & snapped with a sharp utility knife. As with most flooring preparation is key so in the vast majority of my vinyl click flooring jobs I latex first, key to this is sealing the the floor first failure to seal properly will lead to air bubbles in the self levelling. A spiked roller is also highly recommended when laying the self levelling.

Doug said:

I latex first, key to this is sealing the the floor first failure to seal properly will lead to air bubbles in the self levelling. A spiked roller is also highly recommended when laying the self levelling.

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Are you talking about a latex adhesive or a latex paint? I have bought a big tub of latex paint to seal the floor before the levelling goes on. Is this what you mean?
S

It’s actual self levelling Steve Like this