quarry tiles

[MrT]

After removing a badly installed concrete floor in my kitchen I'm now left with an earth floor which is half covered with 12 inch quarry tiles laid on top. What to do now. Buy reclaimed
quarry tiles, expensive, and lay directly on earth. Use some 12 inch clay tiles I bought last year, which are only half as thick and lay on a bed of lime mortar - much cheaper. Also there is a now redundant soil pipe running though the room. What material shall I infill with, I have lots of broken up concrete fllor left.

If I lay the tiles on mortar should I use hydrated lime and maybe a pozzolan?

 

[inwood]

I've also done as you did - removed concrete floor to reveal three previous floor levels - a mixture of quarry tiles and clay pavers (also 12").

I relaid the floor with limecrete as the internal floor level is about 4 foot below external and was constantly damp - now lovely and dry.

If your planning to stick with the earth floor then you have two options:
1. Relay into 3:1 sharpsand:lime mix. If you're planning on using hydrated lime then you're correct you'll need a pozzolan (metastar or brick dust) to give it a decent set.
2. Alternatively buy bagged NHL3.5 lime. This is in effect the same as a hydrated mix but gauged with clay to give it the set.

If you need to clean your tiles see my post on tips for cleaning reclaimed tiles.

With regards the infill - pretty much anything will do, just make sure you give it a good tamping down to ensure there's no settlement after you've relayed your tiles.

 

[Mark]

I relaid the floor with limecrete as the internal floor level is about 4 foot below external and was constantly damp - now lovely and dry.

This interests me. I have a floor to deal with at some point that is currently a concrete skim on earth also partly below exterior ground level. I had thought of limecrete or flags, but I wondered if the breathability would result in it being damp - or even causing problems with damp/rot in the bottom of the legs of the table.

 

[inwood]

I'm very pleased with the limecrete floor - I did leave a small area un-limecreted which (remains of a concrete hearth) stayed constantly damp to the touch yet the limecrete (which was right next to it) is completely dry to the touch. I'm relaying quarry tiles which should maintain breathability.

My labourer also left the tap running in this room over a weekend (causing a minor flood). The water which spilt everywhere was simply absorbed by the limecrete and then slowly dried out again to become bone dry to the touch.

 

[MrT]

Thanks inwood.
I looked at limecrete but it would meen ripping out the earth slab which about 200mm thick and is above ground level at the back of house and level with the front. Also the floor is subject to through traffic and we would have to move out whilst the floor dried out. Tiles
on earth seemed to be there for about 90 years so hopefully it will serve our need.

Mark, I'm not worried about the timber. The bottom of our timber staricase was resting on the tiles when they poured the concrete. After removing the concrete there is no evidence of rot. Now the timber will be able to breath so even less chance. If the wood can breath and isn't wet why would it rot.