Can you lay tile?

[Cacia]

do you not need a moisture barrier?

What happens if the wood becomes damp and swells?

Or do you float tile on a bed of mud?

 

[augk]

I never heard of using a moisture barrier. I believe it would defeat the bond between the adhesive the substrate and the tile. For non wet locations like hallways, foyers, kitchen floors etc.. plywood is fine. For bathrooms showers and the like, durock or backer boards are better suited for higher moisture areas. If the wood does get wet and swell you may be replacing your floor, but this would have to be like a flood or broken water pipe or something of that nature.

 

[Skull]

If you don't at the very least use a 1/2 wonderboard or hardybacker you asking for trouble( these products by no means will give you 100% satisfaction) ...the fact that your house is a raised foundation with floor joists and plywood subfloor means it is going to move no matter where you live. Moving floors are disasterous to tile gouts. If you jump up and down on your floor now and it bounces back ...consider another floor finish like wood, mfg wood flooring, or some synthetic flooring. Just the movement from heating and cooling will cause your floor to expand and contract daily. Keep in mind that the plywood will now have ceramic tiles which don't respond to heating and cooling like the subfloor its a gamble If you go ahead with the project. From my own experience with tiling my bathroom (raised foundation w/hardybacker ) once again last novemeber I re-grouted it for the third time since 2003. I hate to tell you but you will be re-grouting every other year. IMHO.

 

[DiVe_DaWg]

1" base of sound wood is recommended, no particle board or chip board of any kind as they will absorb the water in the mortar and swell, screw it down well into the floor joists and you will never have a problem. I know people that have used ¾” and haven’t had any problems, but have also seen problems from ¾”, ranging from loose tiles to cracking grout…

 

[DiVe_DaWg]

I would like to put some tile down but my floor is 3/4" plywood ? I know it's wood and it's on the floor and it's not thin wood. Question can I lay tile down without a concrete backer board down first? My house is on stilts if that means anything.
Thanks
Becky

BTW concrete backer would be great but expensive, my suggestion is 1/4" over what you have now, screwed and glued down (pl400 works well for this). I've not had any experiance with houses on stiltes, but assume frost heaving isn't a problem for you down south like it is here.

 

[mavdog]

I did tile in my kitchen 3/4" in plywood 1/4" durarock 1/4" tile plus the cement and screws to hold it all together. After 7 yrs I got about four cracked tiles from shifting during cold weather.

PS: don't use light color tile if you have a black lab that sheds.