Do you have to use plywood on wooden floorboards before tiling?

madelaine

Hi

My Husband and I are doing a house up, We have bought the tiles and fitted them in the kitchen, we were planning on tiling the bathroom floor, but it has wooden floorboards, now my Husband says we will have to take the tiles back, as by the time we put plywood over the floorboards and tile it will make the floor to high, we could take the floorboards up and put chipboard down, but that would be a big job as some of the floorboards run under the skirting board, We can take the tiles back as we have 90 days in which to do so, and get bathroom laminated tiles instead, don't really want to take the tiles back, as i like them, is there another solution. Thanks

olias

Because floorboards bend and flex, then you have to make them rigid by screwing down a ply subbase. You could try getting away with screwing down the floorboards, but tbh you could end up with a huge and messy remedial job if the tiles start cracking after they have been layed

The height difference shouldn't be a problem, all you need to do is edge it neatly somehow at the door, and skim a bit off the bottom of the door so it clears the new floor height

Olias

TaBunny

I had a quote recently from a tiler he said he would definately have to plywood the whole kitchen floor before tiling, we have floorboards and part concrete so I'd say you would need to.

jimbo_the_jetset

Depends on the state of the floorboards. If they are in good nic and are screwed down solid you might get away with thin ply or even hardboard. Even vinyl or vinyl tiles should be put on ply or hardboard.

Basically you don't want one floorboard moving with respect to the next causing cracking in tile grout or even tiles. People have tiled onto boards in the past ok, others suffer the consequences.....

ormus

ive got hardboard down in the bathroom and the kitchen floors, with tiles on top.
both on floorboards, and all tiles fixed with unibond flexible adhesive.
no problems at all.
the kitchen floor still moves when the washing machine is spinning. but no tiles have cracked.
yet.

ps.
ive done the kitchen floor twice in ten yrs. same method. (wife wanted a change of decor/tiles).

will-he-payitoff

As jimbo says putting vinyl on to bare floorboards is not a good idea. If there are no loose boards you should be ok with the tiles, just make sure you use the correct adesive and grout.

27col

Whatever you put down needs to be really well secured with screws at close intervals. Even a tiny amount of flexing will allow the tiles to lift. My neighbour, who does floors as part of his job, is very reluctant to do any tiling over a wooden floor. He warns people that there is a good chance that some tiles will lift.

amarg

You don't say what the tiles are made of?

Natural stone tiles require more rigidity than man made tiles.

Take a look here-

Floor Tiling

I know that some flexible tile adhesives say that you can tile directly onto floorboards, but this often only applies to new homes where the floors should be more rigid.

andyhop

12mm plywood minimum with flexiable cement based adhesive from either BAL or Mapei

Screwed down every 200mm sq

You could use 6mm Hardibacker boards but would cost more £££

craig777

I tiled my bathroom. Firstly took up the chipboard flooring and replaced with new proper floorboards screwed down at regular intervals, then tiled directly on top... 8 years later, not a crack in sight.

Don't penny-pinch on the adhesive and grout, get good quality stuff... as mentioned above, BAL is good, pretty sure that's what I used if memory serves me.

gardnt1

Whatever you decide....if you are screwing or nailing hardboard down, remember to note where all the pipes etc below run....I have known people easily stick a nail through one. :rolleyes: