How To Lay Floor Tile Over Plywood

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.

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. But a number of precautions must be taken to ensure a successful installation. Loose areas on an existing plywood subfloor can cause peel and stick tiles to lift over time. While these could be smoothed over with thinset they are much harder to manage than the correct solution.

Plywood and osb frequently have imperfect joints and surface textures. 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. If you re installing new plywood use galvanized screws to fasten it and countersink the screw heads. 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.

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. 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. No matter how firm the subfloor. Concrete subfloors move shift and crack over time.

There are two materials commonly used for laying ceramic on plywood or osb that are applied before the tile.