Do THIS Before Tiling Your Floor (Installing a Crack-Isolation/Uncoupling Membrane) Want to help prevent your floor tiles and grout joints from cracking? This video will not only tell you WHY you should install a crack-isolation/uncoupling membrane or other types of underlayment, we'll show you HOW to do it yourself!
Imagine this: you just spent days installing a brand new tile floor. It's flat, level, and all the grout joints are perfectly spaced. Job well done! Except, you didn't bother installing an underlayment first (maybe you didn't even know membranes existed). Your floor looks amazing for the first few months, but then one day you happen to look down and notice a hairline crack running the entire length of the floor! What gives? You know you installed the tiles properly. You used the right thinset mortar. You back-buttered the tiles. You did everything right. So what happened?
We often spend so much time thinking about the proper products to use on TOP of a substrate, we forget about the substrate itself. To put it simply, if you adhere something to a surface that can expand, shrink, shift, or crack...naturally, anything that is adhered to that surface will inevitably suffer the same fate. That is, unless we are able to separate (or isolate) the two surfaces from one another!
This is why we recommend using what's known as a crack-isolation or an uncoupling membrane before laying tile on the floor. These underlayments are usually comprised of two separate layers designed to move independently of one another (or 'uncouple' ) when the substrate shifts. The bottom layer is an anchoring fleece that bonds to the substrate, while the top layer is made of a durable, yet flexible polyethylene that helps to absorb any unwanted movement.
Its important to understand that these membranes will HELP prevent your tile and grout from cracking, but they are NOT a guarantee. Still, we feel that whenever you plan on investing the amount of time and money it takes to tile a floor, a quality underlayment is money well spent. We'll take all the help we can get when it comes to protecting your hard work!
In this video, we're installing Prova Protegga Plus Underlayment by M-D Building Products.
Looking for more 'infotainment' from the Refresh guys? Follow the links below for more DIY friendly 'how to' instructional videos, as well as tons of satisfying, easy to watch videos on our other social media pages!
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