Advice pls, to tile entire floor or just 10 cm behind the plinths??

4 years ago

My old kitchen has been ripped out and the kitchen installer is working to put the new kitchen in. The kitchen men told me that I don't need to tile the entire floor, but enough to tile behind the plinth, because it's unlikely that those part will ever be exposed or opened, that's what most people do according to him.

I'm confused. Can you let me know if that is the norm? What is the pro and the con? Any drawback not to tile the entire floor ? The old kitchen installed by the previous owner also only tiled behind the plinth.

Thank you.

Featured Answer

Diana Wright
Original Author

4 years ago

After some consideration I decided to pay extra and tile the entire floor. Arch KBB's comment make sense. My kitchen is on a suspended timber floor, quite deep, and I don't want the risks of anything leaking onto the wooden base which may affect the tiles. Also the thought of dust or insects coming from the bottom is not attractive. I'm glad I have made that decision against the installer's advice to save money. Thank you all.

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Comments (8)

PRO
The Arch KBB
4 years ago
Hello Diana,

Being part of kitchen industry, the tiling can be done either way but we strongly recommend to be done fully for different reasons some of them being:

-Having straight floor which will be quite useful especially if you need to change the appliances later which is easy to be adjusted on a straight floor.

-Be entirely sealed under to avoid having insects, mouses, cockroaches coming in from the land.

-Have a better finish on the tile (avoid cutting.

Hope this helps.

Good luck with kitchen installation.
Ellie
4 years ago
We are almost in same position, builder has removed walls and tidying up before new kitchen goes in. He said not to tile fully. We will have at least 4 sqm of hidden floor and at £60 per sqm I would rather have that extra £240+ in my pocket.
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Daisy England
4 years ago
Normally I‘d say don’t bother where you can’t see as long as something supports dishwasher or washing machine in case you need to drag it out for repairs. Just enough under the plinth to give the effect of tiling all over.

However, we swapped our kitchen almost 2 years ago and wanted things in a different position as we wanted a tall bank of unit and the sink moving. We had to think how far we’d gone with the floor tiles. Thankfully where the sink originally was we had tiled all the way to the wall which was good as that area is now fully exposed. Just something to bear in mind. Be certain that you won’t want to swap things around in the future.
PRO
Open Volume Studio
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
I realise that this comment may come slightly late... A solution I have used to save cost and to maintain the waterproofing thus reducing risk was to use a cheaper tile under the kitchen units and the expensive tile where visible. This managed to save my clients a lot of money on the tiles making sure that they were the same thickness +/- 1mm. The tiles were around £250/sqm and we used same thickness tiles at £30/sqm. Over 5sqm this saved the clients £1100 which they could then spend on another luxury item instead.
PRO
Brandler London
4 years ago
Wise choice Diana. IMHO it is always a false economy to tile partially under the base units.
Gabby Wong
4 years ago
Sorry to hijack the post slightly... for those saying it’s a false economy to partially tile - would you same the same for LVT like karndean?

As my understanding is they normally come in and fit virtually right at the end.

There are a couple of small sections that would be slightly more liable to change so I’d want it under those, but under the main bank and the island, I can’t see those changing really?
PRO
Open Volume Studio
4 years ago
I would advise continuing any finish under the units, especially in a kitchen. Because of oil spills/water spills going down and insects coming up, having a continuous water proof surface reduces risk. Another solution is to run a bead of silicone around the base of the plinth but this will get damaged when the plinth needs to be removed for maintenance or to replace appliances. Only in bedrooms, under built-in wardrobes, you can get away with not installing the finish underneath.

Advice pls, to tile entire floor or just 10 cm behind the plinths??

Diana Wright
Original Author

Comments (8)

The Arch KBB

Ellie

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Advice pls, to tile entire floor or just 10 cm behind the plinths??

Diana WrightOriginal Author

Comments (8)

The Arch KBB

Ellie

Related Discussions

Daisy England

Open Volume Studio

Brandler London

Gabby Wong

Open Volume Studio

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Diana Wright
Original Author