Laying ceramic floor tiles?

cheghead

Is it ok to lay them straight on to wooden floorboards?

BlueVinney

Depends!

With loose flooring which can flex and move under pressure it's a no-no. The tiles will break away from the floor and you'll end up with loose tiles scattered all over the floor!

If the floorboards are firmly attached to the joists and don't move then you can lay ceramic floor tiles. Loose flooring can best be secured by drilling, countersinking (to make sure the screwhead is not above the floor surface) and firmly screwing the boards to the joists. If the joists are uneven you may have to pack the boards before screwing them down.

A good adhesive should be used, applied as recommended by the manufacturer but preferably use a flexible adhesive such as Ardex Adru-Flex 7001 which comes as a powder to mix with water. You get a better bond by adding PVA adhesive to the water before mixing, I can't remember the ratio but I would guess 4 water to 1 PVA.

Grout in the usual way.

windym_2

BlueVinney is spot on with flexi adhesive - ours were laid prior to us moving into last house and within 2 months were cracking, splitting (grout lines) and tiles were cracking. You must have flexi adhesive and grout.

innovate

Most professionals will advise plywood, screwed [not nailed!] on in 20x20 cm squares, on top of floorboards. Usual recommended thickness is 18mm, but you might get away with 12mm, or even 8mm.

Flexi adhesive and grout is still advisable on top of the plywood, but on its own, the flexi stuff is risky.

vansboy

We HATED this job (not onto a wooden floor), ...MAKE SURE you wear thick Marigolds on your hands, I'm not really prone to allergies.skin problems, but the adhesive, Wickes own brand, must have had a nasty substance in it.

My fingers were covered in loads of tiny cuts, making my hands really painfull as well as bleeding, while trying to do the laying.

Think this must be why God invented laminate or vinyl!!

VB

cheghead

thanks for all advice...think i might just lay vinyl flooring after all!

Jeff121

B&Q have some nice laminate flooring specially made for wet areas like bathrooms, might be worth a look as an alternative. If you decide to tile, you really must use plywood on the floorboards as suggested by innovate. Any tiling jobs I use "nicobond" adhesive, used by a lot of professional tilers and has excellent adhesion not only for floors which really are a doddle to tile so don't be put off, but if you were to tile on top of wall tiles, nicobond is terrific.

Edinburghlass_2

:hello: Jeff121, you sound like you know what you are doing with floor tiles, next time you are through in Edinburgh I have 9 boxes of bargain ceramic floor tiles bought, oh at least a year ago, which are at present holding up the guinea pig cage!!

:rotfl: