Hi,

We intend to tile over our cement basement floor, under which we have just installed radiant heating (tubing). The floor has cracked in several places since the concrete was laid (over a month ago). I believe that it will still continue to crack here and there. From what I understand, in this situation, it is not advisable to tile directly on the ceramic - an uncoupling membrane should be used. After checking out the cost of Ditra today, I was wondering is there other alternatives that might cost less (that are available in Canada) and still prevent our tile from possibly cracking? Is the tile doomed to crack if we lay it directly on the cement? Thanks in advance for your responses!

Ditra is probably the most widely available product. There's not much else out there that's going to be less expensive and perform as well as Ditra.
Just remember, "you get what you pay for"

Noble Seal has some excellent membranes, but it's really hard to find dealers.

Hi. I am new to the forum. RC, should LauraQC have a closer look at the cracks in the concrete, especially if one side of the slab is higher that the other? In my opinion, no uncoupling membrane is designed to prevent cracking of the tiled surface from vertical movement around a crack in slab concrete. RC, wouldn't LauraQC be better off using a mud bed in her situation?