I am going to tile my entryway of the house It is concrete . Iwould like to know what I should do to prepare the suface or if I should just put the mortor on the concrete.
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A few things.
Drip some water on the concrete and see it it soaks in or lays on top. If it lays on top there is a sealer on the concrete and that will inhibit the ability of the thinset to bond to the floor. This must be mechanically removed by shot blasting or grinding.
Same goes for paint. If the paint lets go and the thinset is only stuck to the paint, the tiles will come loose and crack.
Look for cracks in the floor that would indicate the earth under the floor is moving around. Horizontal splits other than curing cracks can be addressed with crack supression membranes but vertical shear is altogether a different animal and if still active should not be tiled over. No membrane will protect from cracked tiles in that scenario.
Drip some water on the concrete and see it it soaks in or lays on top. If it lays on top there is a sealer on the concrete and that will inhibit the ability of the thinset to bond to the floor. This must be mechanically removed by shot blasting or grinding.
Same goes for paint. If the paint lets go and the thinset is only stuck to the paint, the tiles will come loose and crack.
Look for cracks in the floor that would indicate the earth under the floor is moving around. Horizontal splits other than curing cracks can be addressed with crack supression membranes but vertical shear is altogether a different animal and if still active should not be tiled over. No membrane will protect from cracked tiles in that scenario.
