Laying Tile On Subfloor

Use intervening layers of two sheets of plywood.

Laying tile on subfloor.

To prepare your concrete subfloor make sure that it can accept water penetration. The plywood adds stiffness and stability to the floor. While tile can be laid on plywood do not install tile directly onto the plywood subfloor itself. No matter how firm the subfloor.

First make sure you have prepared the subfloor properly before you begin laying tile. We re preparing to install tile in our kitchen and bathrooms. As with a wooden subfloor a concrete subfloor must be level for successful tile installation. Use thinset with a higher latex content thinset is the wet base that you first trowel on the plywood to make the tile stick.

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. For more on prepping the floor read prep a tile floor. The kitchen is 20 22 and we re going with 16 16 tiles. When laying tile onto backer board wet the backer board using a spray bottle filled with water before spreading the thin set.

Don t lay tiles on a concrete slab with cracks that appear to be spreading or irregularities that prevent you from leveling it. Available under the brand names schluter ditra or redgard uncoupling mat this product is also known as anti fracture membrane crack isolation membrane or crack suppression membrane. Bc plywood over the old subfloor using construction adhesive and driving 1 1 4 in. Cost skill level start to finish 1 day.

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. With the plywood in place install the backer board as you normally would. Spray the backer board as you work otherwise the backer board will soak up water from the mortar causing the mortar to dry too rapidly. Before installing a tile floor a subfloor and underlayment is necessary.

Test by sprinkling water on various areas of the subfloor. The subfloor must be free of moisture damage including rot and sponginess and must be securely fastened to the joists and squeak free. An uncoupling membrane disconnects tile from its concrete subfloor and prevents cracking in the slab from being transmitted upward to the tile job. Additionally a steps must be taken to ensure that a concrete floor will create a solid bond.

Before beginning remove tiles from the different boxes and randomly mix them to ensure that minor color differences don t form an unwanted pattern in your new floor. Add a layer of 1 2 in. We intended on laying 1 2 cement board over the subfloor prior to installing all of the tile but were told by the main tile guy for the builder of our home that we don t need to install the cement board in the kitchen. This will impact how well your tiles adhere to the subfloor.