3 4 Inch Plywood For Tile Floor Substrate

This means you can have a 3 4 inch wood subfloor covered by 1 2 inch plywood cement board or approved gypsum fiber underlayment.

3 4 inch plywood for tile floor substrate.

To cut backer board measure and mark the size you need. For many years the standard option was lauan plywood also called philippine mahogany or luan plywood which is made with an inexpensive tropical hardwood and therein lies its problem. 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. I built a home about 7 years ago that is having all kinds of problems with the tile flooring cracked tile displaced grout creaky flooring 1 2 deflection in some areas.

Use 5 8 inch thick exterior grade plywood placed with the smooth side up and the top grain perpendicular to the floor framing. Continue this process to lay the rest of your backer board panels leaving a 1 4 inch gap at the walls. We are thinking about having the 3 8th inch plywood torn out and replaced by 1 4 inch concrete board before the new tiles are installed. Now largely regarded as the very best underlayment for ceramic tile in any application floors walls and countertops cement based backer board goes by many names.

The builder hired used 3 4 osb for the flooring while the tile contractor used a 1 4 cbu under the tile thus achieving 1 in total depth. The bare minimum recommended by most tile setters is a total subfloor thickness of 1 1 8 inch. Use 16d common nails to create a gap of 1 8 inch between the sheets. Tile installed over wood floor systems must have a minimum of 1 1 4 inches of solid material beneath it.

Thin set was used instead of glue or adhesive. You can use it as a stand alone product as well as a finish type plywood if it has a laminate finish that you can paint or finish according to personal preference. It is generically called cement board or backer board or it can also be referred to by one of the common brand names such as densshield hardiebacker and wonderboard. Backer board panels typically measure 3 feet by 5 feet and can be trimmed as needed.

Leave a gap of 1 8 inch between sheets for thin set mortar or tile. The floor tiles became loose cracked and ugly looking over about 2 decades of use. Adding inch plywood to 5 8 ply will give you a combined nominal thickness of 7 8 inch. This provides adequate support for a wide range of finish materials.

Most plywood underlayment is about 1 4 inch thick and has square edges and a smooth knot free top face. It typically comes in 4 x 8 foot sheets. The average thickness of plywood sheets used for backer on counter tops is 3 4 inch. Cement based backer board.