Plywood For Bathroom Floor Tiling

Using the right type plywood ensures a long lasting floor.

Plywood for bathroom floor tiling.

Often the subfloor consists of plywood that is nailed or screwed to the construction floor. For the best results when tiling onto plywood floors follow these instructions. That usually means the underlayment and the subfloor also get wet. Tile floors are especially heavy with layers of cement board mortar tile or stone and grout.

The tile council of america tca recommends a max. Thin set was used instead of glue or adhesive. Backerboard does not shrink or expand when it comes into contact with water mortar and grout both contain water. 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. We have our large kitchen and hallway that was originally covered by 12 x 12 ceramic tiles on top of 3 8th inch plywood. If the floor is stiff enough to tile directly on the vinyl sand or strip the floor and screw the vinyl down before tiling. Cement backerboard is made for tiling.

The floor tiles became loose cracked and ugly looking over about 2 decades of use. This is fine for wood carpeting and resilient flooring but not for ceramic tile. Residential floors are typically sized for a live load of 40 psf and a dead load or 10 psf. Tile floors are likely to weigh 15 to 20.

The safest most prudent course is to install tile on top of a cement backerboard such as durock wonderboard or hardiebacker. If you do not waterproof the subfloor moisture can make its way under the subfloor and cause mold growth or other damage. Old vinyl floors in bathrooms are a pain to tear up and if the vinyl was installed before 1980 it may even contain asbestos. Plywood substrate alternatives.

The bathroom floor gets wet. For more information download our pdf about types of subfloors. In this video we show you everything you need to know how to level a floor into a perfect flat and level floor in your bathroom using self leveling floor com. Now the entire flooring of ceramic tiles needs to be torn out and replaced.

Before finish flooring is installed on top of a plywood subfloor you must waterproof the subfloor especially in a bathroom. Deflection of l 360 for ceramic tile and l 720 for natural stone tiles.