Tiling On Timber Floorboards

Timber and non tongue and groove floorboards and chipboard are usually subject to large amounts of deflection movement and therefore cannot be tiled onto with even the most flexible of tile adhesives.

Tiling on timber floorboards.

I am wanting to install ceramic tile flooring in my upstairs bathroom in an old house. Use our guide below to learn how to tile onto timber floors. Tiling over wood wood in any form serves as a poor subfloor for ceramic or stone tile. There are two main materials you can use for your overboard.

The floor is in good shape but i don t know what type of subfloor is under the linoleum. It wouldn t matter what shape the tiles or what they are made of. Good luck with your project. Laying them directly on top of floorboards is a recipe for disaster because the timber underneath will force the tiles to move.

Have a good stomp around your room. Long answer to can i tile directly onto wooden floorboards. It currently has linoleum in there. The best approach would be to remove the wood flooring and screw down a layer of 5 8 or thicker plywood followed by a layer of 1 2 cement backer board before laying the tile.

This means you will need to strengthen the substrate first with either a levelling compound tile backer board or plywood. Some diy floor tilers try to get around this by using a flexible floor adhesive but report mixed results. To install ceramic tile over wood the wood surface must be structurally sound enough to support the weight of the tile. Unfortunately tiling directly to floorboards is not recommended.

Floor tiles on the other hand are rigid. Can you tile on wood floorboards. I am wanting to install 3 4 inch backer board directly over the linoleum and then the tile on top of that. Natural timber shrinks and expands.

Tile is hard and will break or dislodge if the surface bends under the load and many wood surfaces can expand or contract negatively. Checking for any creaking. Lay plywood or hardie backer boards onto the floorboards first using a bed of tile adhesive to ensure a sound flat surface which you can then tile onto. Tiling on floorboards in bathrooms is pretty commonplace because of this but getting this wrong can result in broken floor tiles and cracks appearing in the grout.

Wood naturally warps twists swells and shrinks due to change in temperature or humidity.