Tiling A Floor Over Plywood

Increasing the floor height can create problems in a room with cabinets or a toilet and it may cause headaches at transitions to other rooms with different flooring.

Tiling a floor over plywood.

Plywood and osb expand and contract with humidity and temperature much more than ceramic tile. To install the concrete board apply tile adhesive to the back then press it down against the plywood. As the plywood or osb expands the ceramic won t. Use a polymer modified thin set a type of mortar to attach the backer board to the subfloor.

If you put tile directly on top of plywood it will chip and break. Tips for laying tile on plywood subfloor for flooring use intervening sheets of plywood. Follow the directions on the packaging to properly mix the thin set mortar. Use the right.

While tile can be laid on plywood do not install tile directly onto. Use a large bucket and. Try laying tile over 1 2 durock or hardie and see what happens when the joists are 19 2 or 24 on center. Lay down a vapour barrier overtop the concrete pad then fasten 3 4 inch plywood using a ramset to the concrete pad.

Tile can be installed over a plywood substrate and it is actually a fantastic way to make sure you don t have deflection in your floor. Under british standards bs 5385 part 1 plywood has now been excluded as a suitable substrate material for the direct fixing of wall tiles therefore when tiling on to walls a tile backer board is required. With a trowel scoop out and spread enough mortar on. Use thinset with a higher latex content.

Thinset is the wet base that you first trowel on the plywood to make the tile. If you add a layer of plywood or cementboard however you could raise the floor by as much as 3 4 inch not including the extra height added by the tiles themselves. You cannot install tile directly onto plywood because it is not dimensionally stable. Regular seasonal humidity shifts are significant enough to make the average 10 x 10 wood subfloor floor expand or contract as much as 1 2.

A couple options considered are. Ceramic tile doesn t expand contract nearly as much. However tiling onto plywood floors is still acceptable under british standards. Install concrete board over the plywood.

Hope you didn t like your beautiful new tile floor.