Can You Install Ceramic Tile Over Plywood Subfloor

Try laying tile over 1 2 durock or hardie and see what happens when the joists are 19 2 or 24 on center.

Can you install ceramic tile over plywood subfloor.

If installing over an appropriate wood surface sand the wood to make it smoother and remember that the installation will work better over a subfloor at least 1 1 8 inches thick. Plywood or osb flakeboard can expand and contract at too high a rate to be a stable foundation for tile. Plywood and osb expand and contract with humidity and temperature much more than ceramic tile. Installing ceramic floor tile to a plywood sub floor has unique challenges beyond that of installation on a concrete floor.

Laminate flooring which can only be installed using the floating method can be installed over a plywood subfloor over the recommended foam pad. If you must install over such surfaces it is best to install a backer board over the old surface and install the tile on the backer board. Hammer nail set drill or screwdriver plywood floor must be properly primed and prepared for thinset. If you have a weak subfloor that flexes up and down when walked on i would recommended adding an additional layer of 3 8 or 1 2 inch thick plywood underlayment glued and screwed down over a 5 8 or 3 4 thick subfloor to add stability.

Use intervening layers of two sheets of plywood. 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. This will cause either the tile itself to crack and even come loose or cause the grout to crack inside the joints. The basic answer to whether you should lay ceramic directly over plywood or osb is simple.

You shouldn t do it. Ceramic tiling can be installed onto 23 32 osb subflooring panels where the panels are supported by 16 o c. Hope you didn t like your beautiful new tile floor. Tile installed over wood floor systems must have a minimum of 1 1 4 inches of solid material beneath it.

Thinset mortar is the primary method for installing ceramic or stone tiles onto new surfaces acting like cement to bond the tiles into their new homes. Use thinset with a higher latex content thinset is the wet base that you first trowel on the plywood to make the tile stick. Cementitious backer units are not totally rigid somewhat flexible and when placed over non gaped plywood buckling of plywood edges will be transmitted through the backer unit. While tile can be laid on plywood do not install tile directly onto the plywood subfloor itself.

This excessive movement will cause bond failure and cracked tiles.