Prepping painted concrete before laying tile.

[Dairylander]

I'm laying tile on a basement floor. It's concrete with crappy old paint on it. I don't want to rent a floor sander to remove all the paint, but neither do I want to use any stinky, toxic solvents.
Any easy shortcuts here?
How well do I have to clean the concrete to get proper adhesion?

[garager]

Well this seems fit to place my 1000 post. Never try to lay tile over a painted surface. Your going to have to grind off the paint, but that'll take forever and it could fail, more then likely.

So my recommendation for you, Dairylander. Is to put 1/2" Durarock down first, you can nail it down with with a 22 caliber fastener. They are cheap for $20-$40.00, single shots. Let me try and google one up for you. You can get these at any big box store.

http://www.ramset.com/HD_22.asp, this isn't the one I have, but it will work.

Get the fiberglass tape and tape up all your seams, before laying your tiles, mud it like you would with a drywall seam, but with thinset. If you don't do this procedure w/the Durarock, your asking for big problems later. You can also use HardyBacker Board instead of Durarock, they will both work. Also you can use Floor leveler to fill in dips in your floor before you put down the other product.

This is my only recommendation I will give you, because it is a painted floor. Your results will come out excellent by doing what I explained to you. Even if you tried to strip the paint or even grind it down, your floor will be to smooth for a proper adhesion with thinset mortar, eventually your floor will fail. You need a rough surface for a decent bonding.

I hope this helps you, and let us know what your intension will be, and I could help walk you through your process as well as others in here. Good Luck

PS. take pictures when your finished and show them off in here... :thumbup2:

[Dairylander]

Thanks Garager.
My old man has some concrete grinding equipment; is scarring up the floor insufficient?
I've got a Remington nailer, so I'll probably heed your backer board advice.

[BHD]

if you have a floor scarfer that is the way to go, I have used a needler/weld chipper, and a Air compressor, it was slow.
but if you can get down to raw concrete you will do fine, IMO

[bigscore]

One other excellent option is to sandblast the paint off.

Did that on our front porch. Took 10 minutes & the surface was good to go.

[Mr. Concrete]

Well this seems fit to place my 1000 post. Never try to lay tile over a painted surface. Your going to have to grind off the paint, but that'll take forever and it could fail, more then likely.

So my recommendation for you, Dairylander. Is to put 1/2" Durarock down first, you can nail it down with with a 22 caliber fastener. They are cheap for $20-$40.00, single shots. Let me try and google one up for you. You can get these at any big box store.

http://www.ramset.com/HD_22.asp, this isn't the one I have, but it will work.

Get the fiberglass tape and tape up all your seams, before laying your tiles, mud it like you would with a drywall seam, but with thinset. If you don't do this procedure w/the Durarock, your asking for big problems later. You can also use HardyBacker Board instead of Durarock, they will both work. Also you can use Floor leveler to fill in dips in your floor before you put down the other product.

This is my only recommendation I will give you, because it is a painted floor. Your results will come out excellent by doing what I explained to you. Even if you tried to strip the paint or even grind it down, your floor will be to smooth for a proper adhesion with thinset mortar, eventually your floor will fail. You need a rough surface for a decent bonding.

I hope this helps you, and let us know what your intension will be, and I could help walk you through your process as well as others in here. Good Luck

PS. take pictures when your finished and show them off in here... :thumbup2:
Question for you.
I pour a lot of concrete floors. A lot of the comercial floors I pour are a hard trowel finish (smooth) and they put tile over it. All they use is a bonding agent then grout. Should they be doing that? Ive seen it last for years in heavy traffic areas, both indoors and outside.

[Ross Creek]

I replaced a ceramic tile floor in the basement room of a house a few months back. It was laid right over painted cement floor.

It was great for me, cause the old tile came right up with just a tap of a 5-in-one & a hammer. :D Only place place stuck to anything beside the paint was right in a doorway where I'm sure the paint had worn off before they laid the tile. The owner said the floor was about 5 years old.