Vinyl wood effect replacing tiles

[JustUseTheDoorSanta]

Previous owners had underfloor heating put into a bathroom with big tiles over it. The tiles have now cracked; we suspect it was all laid on large floor panels, so it simply wasn't sturdy enough as a base. Too late for the extension company to take responsibility for fixing it under warranty.

So, for replacement there are a range of options and I want one that isn't ludicrously difficult not expensive. We have a radiator so don't need nor use the underfloor heating. We had thought we might remove the tiles and underfloor heating, then get new tiles or wood panels put in, but making the unknown sub-floor sturdy will be a challenge, and managing wall tiles will be a challenge as this will change the floor height. I've wondered if a reasonable shortcut would be just getting the tiles up then putting down high quality wood effect vinyl.

Has anyone dealt with a similar issue? What can go wrong?

If you take the tiles up, you’ve still got underfloor heating to lay on , or is the UFH heating coming out?

That's where my question lies. If we keep it then it would be cheaper to just lay the vinyl tiles on top, but I don't know if that will cause us problems meaning it's significantly better for us to remove it and then do something about the floor being much lower than the wall tiles.

Is the UFH pipes?
Are they encased in some material which the tiles were laid on.
Could it be that this encasing is the flexible bit (that caused the tiles to crack) rather than the floor?

The UFH turns on by a separate switch, so I'm presuming it's some sort of electrical coil. It could be flexible, but shouldn't be if it was laid properly.

Ok , after a quick trip to YouTube , you should have insulation boards, the UFH wiring ‘mat’ then a screed to cover the wiring, then tile adhesive and finally tiles.

It seems IF that’s all been followed you should have no problems yet you have cracked tiles.

And all of that has raised the floor height upon which the wall tiles were begun.

Tricky.

I’d be thinking of getting back to the screed but getting the tiles and particularly the adhesive could be.a messy drawn out job.

If you managed that, you could lay put thin foam layer then LVT. Compare the height of the foam/LVT against the tile/adhesive.

I agree it's likely to be messy. Underlay plus vinyl is maybe the height of tile and adhesive do you think?
The original company who put it in gave me a quote to remove it of £400, which seems high and my trust in them is low. If I don't take out the UFH then a tiler is presumably the right person for the removal job so we can ask in a tile shop for contacts?

If they’re removing tiles/adhesive and UFH and screed it might be worth it. If it’s just a removal of tiles and adhesive you’d have to be clear you want to put down LVT so the adhesive must be completely removed.

We put this in our bathroom www.quick-step.co.uk/en-gb/vinyl/pulse-click-plus/pucp40093_picnic-oak-ochre

It’s 4.5mm high , probably less than your tiles?

Ours went down on a sheet mdf floor which had plenty of screws put in mainly to stop the squeaking that naturally develops over the years with that flooring. The foam was 4mm if I remember right. In part the foam just gave a small allowance for unevenness with the boards.

If you look down the webpage for the flooring, you’ll see a line that says “All available accessories”. Expand that and you’ll see skirting options. That could be used to hide a gap between LVT floor and wall tiles.

That looks exactly what we want, thanks.

Quite happy with them. Surprisingly heavy ‘planks’ give a solid feel.

That's great to hear, I really like the look of them. I will go to the place that sells them and ask their opinion too, they might have seen a similar situation.

Will you have a problem with the gap under the bathroom door too?
Easy solution would be to change the door.

Probably! We'll change the door at some point anyway, so that isn't an issue.