Recently, my carpet got a bit singed in front of the fireplace. so, I decided to place tile in front of the fireplace. I plan to remove the carpet and the padding. what will be left is the plywood and 2x4‘s. not exactly sure if there is anything under the plywood since this was an addition and is on top of the garage, where the garage is not underground but has cinderblock walls. when my son jumps around, it kinda shakes the floor.what I need to know is if cement board has to be used. can I just place tile over plywood with the appropriate adhesive? remove plywood all together? what is the simplest method for a single momma with low funds who is not familiar with laying tile? my second inquiry is about finishing it off. I can do the grout easy enough, but what about where the tile meets the carpet? I really hate the cheap look of those metal things, but I don‘t know what other options there are except for folding (?) the carpet under (?). suggestions?thanks in advance!!
3/8 drill. square drivers, trowel. grout float several 5gal buckets and sponges. Buy a sheet of tile cement board. its 3/8 thick and a box of backer board screws made specifically for the tile board. it comes in 3'x5' sheets. Standard code is 18 from the edge of the fireplace. I built mine 24 because it looked better. I had to also add carpet strips around it to hold the carpet down. built that part up a bit as well and used a strip of bamboo flooring trim made to hide the transition between wood flooring and tile.
In the very least you ll need cement board. For 2 reasons.. One is to have the proper support so the tile won t break and the second is because its fire code ( unless this is a sealed gas fireplace) to have a non combustible in front of the fire place.. There are codes on how big this must be also. Not doing so could possible void any fire insurance you have if a fire should occur.. As far as fixing the carpet it s best to turn and tack the carpet to the tile.. You ll need a carpet installer to do this.. Any questions you can e mail me through my avatar and check my qualifications there. GL
