Installing Travertine tile on plywood subfloor

July 22, 2021
Tile installation

RON HAZELTON:
About establishing tile over plywood floors, there isn't any a person who understands just how better than master tilesetter, Armen Tavy. In fact, he's created a patented technique and product that practically guarantees professional-quality results.

However, as Armen points out, it's what exactly is beneath the tile that produces all the difference between a tile job, destined for failure and something which is going to hold-up for the life of your home. That's especially true whenever tile is being set over a plywood subfloor.

Before laying tile over any plywood subfloor, it is vital to be sure that a floor itself is free of extortionate deflection or bending, that may pop grout joints and loosen or split tiles.

A glass of water can detect deflection that is otherwise difficult to see with your attention. Just one sheet of 3/4" inch plywood is normally not sufficient as a substrate for tile. The tile business advises a subfloor that's at the least an inch-and-a-1/4 thick.

In this situation, we're going to add a second sheet of 3/4" inches external class plywood. The plywood seams where the sheets meet, ought to be offset from each other. This provides additional energy and minimizes flexing during the joints.

Another way to cut back deflection is by using appropriate nailing. Utilize a chalk range to mark out a grid. Underlayment should be nailed or screwed every 8 inches in the field and every 6 ins around the perimeter. The nails themselves ought to be for enough time to pass through both levels of underlayment.

Make sure you drive all nailheads flush with, or underneath the area with an additional hammer blow and leave a 1/16th"-inch gap between sheets to allow for development. Today this could seem like overkill but an adequately installed subfloor is an important key to a trouble-free tiling task.

Installing a tile job often means virtually that. Really laying out the tile throughout the room both in guidelines, making use of spacers for the grout joints. What you want to avoid are slim slivers of tile around the edge of the area or tiles of differing widths using one side of the room, versus another.

Source: www.ronhazelton.com
Share this Post