How To Tile Floor Over Plywood

A subfloor is the bottom most structural level of your floor.

How to tile floor over plywood.

Ceramic tile doesn t expand contract nearly as much. In order for tile floors to last for many years tile must have a level solid foundation. Plywood and osb expand and contract with humidity and temperature much more than ceramic tile. Installing over wood.

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. Laying tile over a plywood subfloor can be a bit tricky but if you take the time to prepare the sub floor properly you can enjoy a new tile floor that will last for a lifetime. While most floor tile these days is installed onto a layer of cement board or similar backerboard it is possible to lay tile directly over plywood. For more information download our pdf about types of subfloors.

In other words if you are installing tile over plywood the subfloor must be able to bear the weight of. 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. Hope you didn t like your beautiful new tile floor. 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.

As the plywood or osb expands the ceramic won t. It supports your decorative floor finish whether it s carpet hardwood vinyl laminate or tile. But a number of precautions must be taken to ensure a successful installation. Preparation for installing floor tile depends on the type of subfloor in the room you are tiling.

It can also be used under hardwood laminate and carpet but this is much less common these days because subflooring is typically smooth enough for these materials many of which are installed with a different type of underlayment or pad. Plywood underlayment is a thin plywood material that is most commonly used under resilient flooring materials such as vinyl and linoleum sheets and tiles. A number of different types of substrate are used for tile including plywood. Chipboard cushioned vinyl flooring particle boards of any type oriented strand board osb interior grade plywood tongue and groove planking and hardwood floors are unsuitable substrates for direct installation of ceramic tile.

To install ceramic tile over wood the wood surface must be structurally sound enough to support the weight of the tile.