How To Lay Floor Tile Over Plywood

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.

How to lay floor tile over plywood. A number of different types of substrate are used for tile including plywood. Plywood and osb frequently have imperfect joints and surface textures. If you re installing new plywood use galvanized screws to fasten it and countersink the screw heads. Proper way to lay ceramic on plywood or osb.

There are two materials commonly used for laying ceramic on plywood or osb that are applied before the tile. Concrete subfloors move shift and crack over time. Loose areas on an existing plywood subfloor can cause peel and stick tiles to lift over time. But a number of precautions must be taken to ensure a successful installation.

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. Laying tile over a plywood subfloor can be tricky but if you prepare the sub floor properly your tile floor will last for a lifetime. While these could be smoothed over with thinset they are much harder to manage than the correct solution. To prevent that movement from creating cracks in your grout and tile install a crack prevention membrane after the concrete subfloor is clean flat and free of cracks larger than 1 8 inch.

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.