Can You Lay Ceramic Tile On Wood Subfloor

This means you can have a 3 4 inch wood subfloor covered by 1 2 inch plywood cement board or approved gypsum fiber underlayment.

Can you lay ceramic tile on wood subfloor. Installing over existing vinyl. Learn if you can lay tile on plywood or on subfloor and tips for how to make this a success. This is not my favorite way to install tile but it can be done as long as the existing tile and subfloor are in good condition and the old tile is thoroughly cleaned and scuffed up with sandpaper to allow the new mortar to grip. How to lay tile floors with a wire mesh.

But ceramic porcelain and glass tile along with their service components of thinset and grout are far too fragile to withstand even the slightest substrate movement. Concrete expands and contracts and that type of movement can also crack the tiles and the grout. 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. Regarded by some professionals as the best underlayment for tiles a mud bed with wire mesh adds both stability and support to your tile installation.

Tile installed over wood floor systems must have a minimum of 1 1 4 inches of solid material beneath it. Ceramic tiling can be installed onto 23 32 osb subflooring panels where the panels are supported by 16 o c. A subfloor is the bottom most structural level of your floor. It supports your decorative floor finish whether it s carpet hardwood vinyl laminate or tile.

However you re not out of the woods. Installing ceramic tile over vinyl or linoleum surfaces can be more complicated than expected and probably should be avoided whenever possible. For more information download our pdf about types of subfloors. 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.

Manufacturers generally recommend that the deflection of the subfloor system be limited to no more than span 360 under total load. I m often asked by homeowners if it s possible to lay down new tile over an existing tile floor. No matter how firm the subfloor.