Hot take: skip the fancy tile leveling system for small bathroom floors

Watched my buddy spend $90 on one of those spin leveling kits for a 40 sq ft bathroom last week, and he still had lippage because the subfloor wasn't flat. Am I the only one who thinks a good thinset bed and a straight edge do the same job cheaper?

3 comments

3 Comments

kellyjones20h ago

I mean, I get what you're saying but the leveling system isn't really meant to fix a bad subfloor. That's kind of like blaming your tape measure for cutting a board wrong. The spin levelers are for keeping tiles flat to each other across a big area, not for making up for dips in the floor underneath. If his subfloor wasn't flat, he should've spent that $90 on some self leveler instead. You can still get nice results with a straight edge and a good eye, but a leveling system just saves you a LOT of head scratching when you're working with large format tiles.

ryantorres17h ago

Ask @kellyjones what size tiles they're running cause that changes everything. I do agree a straight edge works fine for most small baths, but once you get into 12x24 planks the leveling clips start making way more sense. The real trick is still getting that subfloor right no matter what system you use.

mila_campbell2517h ago

bruh it's a bathroom floor not a museum installation lol. like yeah subfloor matters but are people really stressing that hard over 40 sq ft