Tiling on a wooden floor.

[Alex25]

Hi all,

I've just bought my first home and in the process of renovating it, I'm taking a wall down between the kitchen and the dining room and at present there is a tile floor in the kitchen and wooden floor boards in the dining room.

I would like to tile both rooms, so that's a large open planned space, my question is, can I tile on top of the wooden floor? If not, what would be the best way about getting my desired results? I'm looking to fit high gloss floor tiles, the room will be 20ft wide and 14ft deep.

Cheers Alex

 

[anonymous123]

Hi alex,
You never want to tile straight over wooden floorboards as they expand and contract through time and temperature change, which would cause pretty much all of the grout joints to crack, and the tile adhesive will be disturbed, which would ultimately cause the adhesion to fail ( loose, bouncy tiles ).

You need to put a sub floor ontop of the floorboards, sheets of ply screwed to the floorboards is the easiest way to go, I've always used sheets of 18mm osb plywood, and has never failed me!

It's also good to use a super flexible adhesive, as if there is tiny movement in the floor, the adhesive bed will move with it, and will not disturb the tiles. And stay away from the nasty ready-mixed adhesive and grout, its ****e! You always want the bags (that look a bit like sand), cant go wrong with mapei http://www.screwfix.com/p/ultralite-rapid-flex-tile-adhesive-grey-15kg/83472

 

[AdamCH]

I'd use a tile backer board (Hardie or similar) rather than ply or OSB. It's made for the job and won't fail.

 

[Alex25]

Cheers for the answer.. That'll help a lot, il get on with it soon got to remove a radiator and a wall first fun times