Tiling on wooden floorboards

[MarkR1chard5]

Hi, im just about to start tiling my bathroom floor. I'm a bit confused by all the mixed messages about tiling over wooden floorboards, my floorboards are 600mm wide and run along the bathroom. they'r slightly creaky but not too bad. I need to know what i can get away with because i dont really want to lay 18mm ply and also 12mm tiles as there will be an arkward sized step. Also could anyone advise a good floor tile adhesive for porcelin tiles which is not too expensive? my bathroom only measures 2x2m. If i do end up using plywood, does it need to be primed with anything prior to spreading the adhesive.
p.s is flexible adhesive & grout worth buying? im not sure which brands are any good? thanks in advance.
Mark

 

[tpt]

Theres quite a lot of info on here if you search around. whichever method you use you'll need to use a flexi adhesive and grout.

when you say your boards are 600mm wide i'm guessing that means they are flooring chipboard sheets rather than old style tongue and groove floorboards am i right?

 

[MarkR1chard5]

Ok thanks for the advice, flexible adhesive & grout on my shopping list! Yea the flooring is chipboardsheeting approx 22mm thick.

 

[Richard C]

the flooring is chipboard sheeting approx 22mm thick.

You can hardly call chip (crap) board wood; DO NOT tile over it, it’s the worse possible tile base you could imaging & if it’s green (MR) the adhesive probably won’t stick to it either; either way your tiles will most likely fail within a very short time. You need either to rip it up & replace with 18-25mm WBP ply (thickness depends on joist size/pitch/span) or over board with a minimum 12mm WBP ply fixed through into the joists (not just the chip) or use a decent tile backer board, preferably 12mm over chip. Acrylic Prime the underside & edges of ply do not prime the tile surface.

Read the Tiling Forum Sticky & archive posts before you start making potentially disastrous & expensive mistakes. Use only quality trade adhesive & grout of the correct type for your tiles & tile base, cheap own brand & DIY products are mostly crap; BAL Webber, Granfix, Mapei (but not the stuff in BNQ) etc, You must use powder flexy adhesive for floors not tub ready mix.