so i was wanting to lay some ceramic tiles down in a small room. right now in the room i think theres vinyl tiles and they r laid right on top of the pplywood floor. so im just wondering am i able to just lay the ceramic tiles right on top of the plywood floor after i tear up scrape up the old floor? any advice?
the plywood is a subfloor. after you remove the vinyl. you should lay an underlayment before tiling. check at the tile store for instructions. Don't think you can do a quick cheap job on tiles because the tiles or grout lines will crack and you'll have to redo everything. The subfloor makes for a clean fresh starting surface and should be screwed down every few inches as per instructions.
Zocko is correct. Also the concrete board underlayment should be screwed to the sub floor as recommended by the manufacturer. 8 o.c.? Also the joints in the concrete boards should be staggered to achieve maximum strength and not encourage long weak lines. If there is any deflection or movement noticed when heavy loads are moved across the floor after the concrete board has been installed, look for the reason and solve it. Otherwise you will be called back to fix grout pop outs and then you will have to solve the movement problem. If the plywood is less than 3/4 or the joist spacing is greater than 16 you should be concerned.
Kat and Kevin, It is not absolutely critical to put down material over the plywood before tiling. It's just better to do so. Nowadays, most people use backer board on top of the plywood. This is because backer board doesn't shrink or swell due to changes in moisture content. However, I've seen and done tiling directly over plywood in the past. This is done when customers are on a strict budget. In most homes built with plywood sub floors, tar paper is usually used between the two layers of plywood sub flooring. This acts as a moisture barrier and prevents the bottom layer and floor joists from being exposed to moisture. (I have seen tiling work done directly over plywood and it has lasted, without cracks in the gout, for 20 years). Having said that, it's best to lay down something like backer board. Increasing the height of your floor can be a problem with any addition to the plywood sub floor. Sometimes doors or other items can be affected by the increased height. You can also use different thicknesses of backer board to prevent too much height, while still using the board.
