How To Install Ceramic Tile On Plywood Subfloor

Cement backerboard is made for tiling.

How to install ceramic tile on plywood subfloor.

The floors joist are 19 on center. According to backer board manufacturers and tile setters installing backer board directly over an old solid wood subfloor is risky for a couple of reasons. Plywood substrate alternatives. Plywood or osb flakeboard can expand and contract at too high a rate to be a stable foundation for tile.

This guide will show you how to prepare your subfloor for a tile installation project to ensure that it s fit to support ceramic or porcelain tile. This will cause either the tile itself to crack and even come loose or cause the grout to crack inside the joints. However you re not out of the woods. Should i install durock before laying the tile.

When installing a ceramic tile floor on a concrete subfloor you don t have to worry about flexing as long as the concrete slab is at least 1 1 8 inch thick which most slabs are. The plywood will expand and contract at a different rate as the tile causing cracks to develop in the grout lines or tiles over time. A poor ceramic installation will delaminate from the subfloor split at the grout lines or worse crack directly across the tile. I was thinking 1 4 durock and 1 4 tile which would make my floor height almost the same as my hardwoods in the other rooms.

One question that folks new to ceramic tile frequently ask is whether they can lay the ceramic directly on top of a plywood or osb subfloor using a thinset cement or liquid nails to glue down the tile to the wood. The safest most prudent course is to install tile on top of a cement backerboard such as durock wonderboard or hardiebacker. I am laying the tile on a plywood sub floor above a basement. I am installing ceramic 12 inch by 12 inch tiles in my foyer 150 sq ft.

No matter how firm the subfloor. While you can lay tile directly over a concrete slab using thin set adhesive don t make the mistake of applying tile directly to a plywood subfloor. Preparing a subfloor is an essential step for installing floor tile it provides a level surface that will allow the tiles to properly stay in place. The best method is to refasten the subfloor then add a layer of plywood.

Concrete expands and contracts and that type of movement can also crack the tiles and the grout. Backerboard does not shrink or expand when it comes into contact with water mortar and grout both contain water.