Subfloor Material For Ceramic Tile

Laying tile on plywood.

Subfloor material for ceramic tile.

It will break or dislodge if the surface bends under the load. Underlayment is the material placed on top of the subfloor that assists in the installation of the tile or other type of flooring. Tile floors are heavy and tile is a hard material. It sounds like your joists are well within the acceptable limits of l 300 so your main concern is the deflection of the subfloor between joists.

When installing a ceramic tile floor on a concrete subfloor you don t have to worry about flexing as long as the concrete slab is at least 1 1 8 inch thick which most slabs are. Because of issues of moisture movement and adhesion ceramic tile will work well with certain types of subfloor underlayment systems and can go dramatically wrong with other subfloor materials. Concrete expands and contracts and that type of movement can also crack the tiles and the grout. Check for dips in the floor by sliding a 4 foot to 6 foot straight edge in different directions all around the room.

However you re not out of the woods. For this reason ceramic and porcelain tile floors can be considered somewhat delicate despite the inherent strength of the material. Cement backer board can provide a solid flat surface to install tiles on if you have a wood subfloor. For ceramic tile the tile council recommends using joists that are 16 inches on center a 3 4 inch thick plywood subfloor and a 1 2 inch thick cement backer board or concrete slab.

2 prepare a wood subfloor for tile a successful tile installation project requires a level surface.