Tile On Top Of Plywood

The safest most prudent course is to install tile on top of a cement backerboard such as durock wonderboard or hardiebacker.

Tile on top of plywood.

Cement backerboard is made for tiling. The floor tiles became loose cracked and ugly looking over about 2 decades of use. Given that wood containing materials contain resins that make it unnecessary to apply a layer of waterproofing over plywood foxes it is recommended to lay a moisture resistant coating only on the side of the log system. Plywood substrate alternatives.

It is the only plywood that is rated for use with tile installations in areas where condensation or other moisture is going to be present. The glues and resins inside of exterior grade plywood are of a higher quality and are designed to deal with moisture above and beyond what interior types are designed for. Rolling tiles with a 75 to 100 pound flooring roller helps each tile make as much contact with the primed plywood as possible which increases the life of the floor. For the best results when tiling onto plywood floors follow these instructions.

A poor ceramic installation will delaminate from the subfloor split at the grout lines or worse crack directly across the tile. Thin set was used instead of glue or adhesive. We have our large kitchen and hallway that was originally covered by 12 x 12 ceramic tiles on top of 3 8th inch plywood. Now the entire flooring of ceramic tiles needs to be torn out and replaced.

To be sure maybe drill up to 6 evenly spread out holes in the plywood at least 4mm deep or straight through in the areas to be tiled so the adhesive sinks into the holes and hardens hence creating a stronger fix. Clean and heavily score area to where tiles are to be fixed it sounds like the adhesive does not have a rough surface in which to secure itself to. 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 however tiling onto plywood floors is still acceptable under british standards. Such as on top of plywood.

Laying of tiles on plywood is carried out provided that the base is well protected from moisture. A 3 4 inch plywood subfloor on a joist structure with 24 inch spacing needs the extra thickness of cementboard or the floor will flex and the tiles will crack.