can you lay floor tiles down on top of wood floor boards?

Question

if not, how do you lay them in a kitchen? are they easy to cut to shape + size?

Answer 1

Are you talking about ceramic floor tiles? To cut them you should use a wet saw, but they can be cut with a hand tile saw. You can purchase one at the home stores. You should NOT lay the ceramic tiles directly onto the wood floor boards. Wood has flex and give to it and you do bot want your ceramic to do that. Usually they will lay down a cement board or a composite tile backer board, which comes in 3'x5' pieces. That is either nailed or screwed down. Then the floor is prepped with either mortar or tile adhesive to affix the tiles to the floor. After they are down and dried (wait a day or so) you need to grout the lines in the floor. Grout needs to be mixed correctly and there are several types of grout. Is this sounding overwhelming yet for a novice? It is alot of work and a process that takes several days to do correctly. Now.....if you were talking about the vinyl, self-adhesive floor tiles, then you still should put down what they call underlayment. This is 1/4" thick plywood that comes in 4'x8' sheets and can be cut with a saw or a utility knife. This is so the floor has a smooth surface and no gaps . The underlayment manufacturors recommend nailing every four inches and every two inches around the edges. That's a whole lot of nails! This can be done by someone with little or no experience. I'd get some knee pads! Or.....you could hunt down a handyman and get a quote. Remembe this is just a brief outline of how this is done. There is a little more to it and as always.....Hope for the best and expect the worse! I seriously wish you luck with this project. When done right, it gives a beautiful look to your kitchen. Depending on the tiles you select, the cost can range from $5-$6 per sq ft, up to $30 per sq ft and higher. For labor and materials. Again good luck.

Answer 2

Not a good Idea. The mortar mixture used to set the tile in would soak into the mdf,causing it to warp and creating an unlevel surface. As they said above first put down concrete backer board or plywood as suggested.

Answer 3

I would always put down a subfloor, but if you insist on not doing that, make sure the floor is primed so the tiles will stick. if you are using adhesive tiles.