wall tiling on plywood

[thirdtimelucky]

I am putting in a back to the walll toilet and building the cabinet rather than buying one.
I want to tile it, when finished, to match the walls.
The salesman in the tile shop told me that tiles do not stick well to plywood.
As plywood is my preferred material to build the cabinet this may be a problem.
Has anyone any experience of tiling on ply?

 

[1john]

why do you want to use ply, why not tile backer board or MR plasterboard?

 

[thirdtimelucky]

plasterboard wouldn't be suitable as part would need to be able to be removed in case of plumbing faults. In which case a section of plasterboard, with tile(s) attached may need to be removed periodically.
Tile backer may be a possibility if it is strong enough (I have no experience of using the product)

 

[Richard C]

Take the advice of your tile shop; it's not that tiles don’t stick to ply very well they just have a habit of not staying on there very long, especially on a removable panel. I use tile backer board on my removable panels with a steel plasterboard edge trim fitted to protect the edges. It’s far easier to cut & work with than ply; I usually plaster mine but I’m sure it’ll look lovely with tiles stuck on it.

If you insist on using ply it must be WBP, seal the back & edges with SBR primer & only use flexy cement powder addy not tub mix & use flexy grout.