What do I need to do to prep a heated plywood floor to lay ceramic floor tiles? Is there a special mastic/glue

Question

I would like to know how to prep and install Ceramic floor tile on a heated plywood floor. Is there a better underlayment? sheeting? special glue/mastic?

How about the tile themselves, should the be 'special?

Is there a particular grout that is needed to withstand expansion/shrinkage?

Thanks!!

Answer 1

if this is radiant heat that is set in concrete, you really don't need another underlayment.  If not and you still have a choice the better underlayment would be hardi backerboard or durock

Make sure that the tile have a wear rating of 4 or 5, these are both commercial ratings and most would be made from porcelain.  Ceramic tile is fine as long as it has these ratings. (a wear rating of 3 starts your residential floor tiles, but personally, I would keep those in light duty areas only.  As far as your thinset (please don't use mastic--it would take forever to dry and I don't think it would hold up to the heat)  there are several companies out there that produce great products.  One such company is laticrete.  I would recommend their 254 platinum series.  It is a polymer modified thinset that will give you excellent durability.  If you don't have this brand in your area Mapeii also has excellent products.  As far as your grout as long as you use a fortified grout you should be fine

Again Laticrete produces a great product.  You can also use a grout enhancer to mix with your grout instead of water.  This gves you an added advantage of truer color as well as inhibiting the growth of mold

Hope this helps

Answer 2

i agree with twonk.  tile is not meant to be glued directly to plywood.  an underlayment is needed to sufficiently set tile over wood.  a 1/4" hardibacker is enough, or 1/2" durock or hardibacker if you choose.  thinset the hardibacker/durock to plywood with a multiflex thinset (ultraflex II is recommended available at lowes, or laticrete if you choose, but make sure it says multiflex on it.) with a 1/4" notch trowel and s***w board every 6 inches.  then set your tile.  there's no "special" tile.  :) just pick what you like.  no mastic!  mastic is for certain applications on walls.  remember the thinset rules:  3/8" notch of thinset for any tile up to 12", 1/2" notch for tiles between 13" and 16" and 3/4" for any tile 18" or more.  no special grout is needed.  mapei from lowes is a better grout than custom from home depot, in my opinion.  good luck!

Answer 3

I have used premixed tile bond to stick tiles to wood and it worked well. In my experience as long as you have a good layer of adhesive and push the tiles in properly so that there is no gaps under them it can be laid on anything flat. I would just make the gaps between the tiles larger to compensate for expansion. normally it is 5mm.