Can you lay ceramic floor tiles onto wooden floor boards?

Question

If so does it require a differant adhesive?

Answer 1

YES.
I have just tiled my bathroom floor and walls.
Firstly you need to lay down some boards. at least 5mm for a good base. just nail them down with no gaps. try to have them running the opposite way to your floor boards as this gives less flex to make the floor move less once tiled.
Then just lay your tiles using an adhesive for wooden floors. I got mine from B&Q for about 18.00 for a big tub. good luck

Answer 2

You can lay ceramic over wood as long as you don't mind all the tile cracking or coming loose. Do Not believe anyone who tells you anything different. Wood expands and contracts with the weather and ceramic doesn't move because it is made of fire hard clay or stone.

Tile needs to be laid on a cement surface. In the olden days the tile guys would lay down an inch or more of "bed" and letting that dry before spreading another coat with a notched trowel and then embedding the tile into that.

In the US you can buy a product named duraboard or stediboard or some such thing. It comes in 4 foot x 2 foot sheets. They are made of cement and provide a stable foundation for your tile.

The only reason you would put tile over wood would be if you were planning on selling your house and really wanted to screw the next owners.

Get a book on tiling and buy the cement board. You will be much happier.

Finally, this tile job is only a DIY project if you plan on doing more tile work in the future. You will spend more on books, tile tools and broken tiles than you would by hiring a retired tile guy to do your little side job.

Answer 3

not directly, no

Screw ( not nail as one answer says ) a piece of ply to the floor, minimum of 20mm thick and use marine or exterior ply if its in a bathroom or kitchen.

I would say the 5 or 10mm boards mentinoed above might leave you with problems in the future.

use flexible floor tile adhesive and grout.

remember this will raise your floor height so you'll have to think about door openings and plumbing.

wirefox is wrong when s/he says "Do Not believe anyone who tells you anything different"

We've got 4 bathrooms in our house on wooden floors, al tiled wet rooms and lasts jsut as long as concrete ground floors if the preparation is a good strong ply.

How many Uk bathrooms are upstairs ? 90 %, how many are tiled ? 50% So is firefox really saying that 20 million houses in the UK have bathrooms that are falling apart ?

Answer 4

Either use a ply board on top of the wooden floor boards or a 6mm cement based backer board to get a good surface. Your tile supplier can sell you these. Use a flexible adhesive and grout specially made for wooden floors.

Answer 5

Yes but he wooden floor will not expand and contract at the same rate at the ceramic tiles. You will be lucky no to have cracks in the tiles or tiles just seperating.

Once the cracks appear then you might get water getting to the wood and cusing it to rot.

You can 'pour' a hardened surface on to the wooden boards and place the tiles on that.

Answer 6

Standard wooden floorboard tend to be uneven, you therefore need to regularise them, the easiest way is to lay sheets of ply on top, if you do use wbp, ask the diy store about the tile cement.

Answer 7

you will have to lay ply wood sheating over first , securly screwed down (otherwise the movement in the floorboards will make the tiles lift) and yes you can get a different adhisive for wooden floors

Answer 8

Thinset down a cement backer board. Screw down every 6 inches. Apply tile to that.

This is the industry standard, and will ensure your tile is done correctly and your grout or tile will not crack.

Answer 9

hi coming from the building trade we normally get 9mm ply screw this down every 6 inch so minimal movement is maintained then u will need to get your self some flexi adhesive try BAL FASTFLEX THIS IS A 2 PART MIX U WILL NEED TO BUY THE MILK(FASTFLEX LIQUID WAT U MIX IT WITH ) THIS IS A GOOD ONE should cost around £25 for a mix ) if 2 dear try bq home made one

Answer 10

make sure the wood has a "key" for the adhesive to grip. I tried it a while back and they all came loose.