Sandbag trick for leveling uneven tile on old adobe floors

I was tiling my laundry room off San Mateo and the floor had that classic 1/2 inch hump from the old adobe settling. Leveling compound was going to cost me around 90 bucks and a full day of waiting. So I tried something random, I mixed my thinset a bit stiffer and used a few 50 pound sandbags I had left over from a retaining wall project to hold the tiles down while they cured. The sandbags pressed the edges down perfectly flush with the surrounding tiles, and I did not have to shim anything. Two weeks later, no lippage, no hollow sounds when I tap them. The lesson is that sometimes gravity and weight beat fancy tools, especially on uneven mud floors. Has anyone else used sandbags or similar heavy things instead of leveling compound in this town?

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river35114d ago

Ever tried stacking a couple of paving stones on top of the sandbags to get even more weight right on the seams? That trick saved me on a bathroom floor where the hump was even worse...