How To Install Ceramic Tiles On The Plywood Subfloor

Tile floors are heavy and tile is a hard material.

How to install ceramic tiles on the plywood subfloor.

Laying tile over a plywood subfloor can be tricky but. Remember that you need a very flat surface to work on. 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. If needed sand the plywood down to level the subfloor.

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. This will cause either the tile itself to crack and even come loose or cause the grout to crack inside the joints. The coach demonstrates how to install a 3 8 plywood subfloor in a bathroom. Cement backerboard is made for tiling.

Plywood or osb flakeboard can expand and contract at too high a rate to be a stable foundation for tile. The bathroom is small 25 sq. It will break or dislodge if the surface bends under the load. Plywood substrate alternatives.

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. A poor ceramic installation will delaminate from the subfloor split at the grout lines or worse crack directly across the tile. 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 plywood floor does have a few gouges in the surface from pulling up the old tile.

Installing ceramic floor tile to a plywood sub floor has unique challenges beyond that of installation on a concrete floor. The safest most prudent course is to install tile on top of a cement backerboard such as durock wonderboard or hardiebacker. Laying tile over a plywood subfloor can be tricky but if you prepare the sub floor properly your tile floor will last for a lifetime. Plywood must be installed over an.

Backerboard does not shrink or expand when it comes into contact with water mortar and grout both contain water. This old tile grout was cracked along the seam in the plywood subfloor. Need to install a subfloor.