PLEASE HELP! - Tiling onto a butcher's block

[samwich]

Hi there. I offered to tile a friend's butcher's block top with a few tiles - used good tile primer, superflexi adhesive and flexi grout with an admix....
The next day the block had bowed and the tiles and grout had cracked!
I need to sort this out!
Wondering if I remove the tiles, plane the top down so it's level again, then put a substrate on top like backerboard or plywood so i'm not tiling onto the porous wood? I read fixing 15 pound roof felt and metal lath then tiling?
Anyone know what to do, I don't what to bugger it up a second time!

 

[Richard C]

The bowing is caused by the top layer of the wood absorbing the water from the adhesive & expanding; apart from WBP floors, timber is not an ideal tile base as it is not dimensionally when wet. If you remove the tiles you will probably find the block will dry out & revert to its original shape on its own. If you plane the block flat before it’s dried it may end up with a hollow in it. 6mm backer board is an option but mechanically fix rather than use tile adhesive.

Tiling a butchers block seems a strange thing to do, I assume he’s not going to carry on using it as – a butchers block

 

[wotan]

Richard C says.............

tiling a butchers block seems a strange thing to do, I assume he's not going to carry on using it as a ------- butchers block

Possible new use autopsy table

Wotan