Plywood Underlayment Tile

This guide will show you how to prepare your subfloor for a tile installation project to ensure that it s fit to support ceramic or porcelain tile.

Plywood underlayment tile.

A 3 4 inch plywood subfloor on a joist structure with 24 inch spacing needs the extra thickness of cementboard or the floor will flex and the tiles will crack. Hardwood plywood underlayment specialty panel. It can also be used under hardwood laminate and carpet but this is much less common these days because subflooring is typically smooth enough for these materials many of which are installed with a different type of underlayment or pad. You can use it as underlayment for tile.

Plywood underlayment is a thin plywood material that is most commonly used under resilient flooring materials such as vinyl and linoleum sheets and tiles. X 47 75 in. Some professionals however will use plywood as thin as 1 4 inch for resilient flooring if the subfloor is in particularly good condition. Uncoupling membranes aren t recommended for tiles smaller than 2 inches square and should not be used when covering old hardwood flooring due to adhesion problems.

You do however have to properly prep the plywood before use though. Basically you ll be making a sort of quot poor man s quot. If water seeps through the tile installation to the underlayment it will not cause the wood to swell as happens with interior grade plywood. In fact due to the problems that edge swelling creates underneath a finished floor a couple of national ceramic tile associations have discouraged the use of osb as a subfloor or underlayment.

Plywood used as underlayment for sheet vinyl flooring should also have a sanded smooth surface on the topside. On a plywood subfloor you need either a layer of cement backer board or an underlayment membrane like custom building products wonderboard and redgard between the subfloor and tile for the thin set adhesive to achieve a good bond. A final mark to check is the thickness of the plywood. Most underlayment approved plywood is at least 11 32 inches the standard recommendation.