Is it possible to lay tiles on plywood - preparing the base and laying the tiles. Elastic adhesive for tiles on plywood: why you need it and how to use Tile adhesive for laying tiles on plywood

The use of ceramic floor tiles is very popular. Such material is durable, practical and has an attractive appearance. True, in order to lay tiles, it is desirable to have a perfectly flat base. Plywood is often used to achieve this. The result is a flat surface, the tile lays down neatly and easily, however, if you know all the nuances of such work. Laying tiles on plywood on the floor has its own characteristics. It is about them that will be discussed in this article.

Why choose plywood

Some finishing professionals rarely use plywood. This material, in their opinion, is not as strong as a concrete screed. But plywood has one indisputable advantage - it's simplicity and speed of installation. There is no need to knead the solution, pour it in and wait almost a month until the screed hardens. It is enough to lay the sheet, and you can continue to work.

It is very important to choose the right material. For laying the tiles, it is necessary to use moisture resistant plywood. Most often it turns out to be a veneered variety. It costs a little more than usual. It should also be remembered that the sheet thickness should be between 20-30 mm. But otherwise, subject to all the rules, it is quite acceptable to use plywood as a basis for laying tiles.

Preparing the base for the tiles

Before you start laying plywood sheets, it is worth doing some preparatory work. Namely:

remove the old floor finish;
clean the base from dirt and dust;
to seal cracks and joints between the floor and the walls. This is done using a sand-cement mortar;
if the subfloor is wooden, then you need to cover it with an antiseptic;
install beacons using the building level. Alternatively, a line can be used that is drawn on the wall around the entire perimeter of the room. It will display the level at which the plywood sheets should be installed.

For the installation of plywood, glue is used. Using a notched trowel, the adhesive is applied to the base in the place where the first sheet will be laid. The plywood itself must be degreased and free of contaminants before installation. After laying the sheet in place, it is tapped with a mallet and slightly moved from side to side. Such "maneuvers" will allow the glue to grip better.

The sheet must be aligned horizontally, checking the position with a building level. You can adjust the position of the sheets using the thickness of the adhesive mass. If the irregularities are too large, then wooden blocks or pieces of plywood can be used. But they must be firmly fixed to the subfloor.

After laying the first sheet, proceed to the next. In this case, it is necessary to leave a gap between them.

Note! If the installation is carried out in a warm room, the joint width should be within 1–2 mm.

After gluing the sheet, holes are made in it for additional fastening with dowels to the concrete floor. The number of holes will depend on the size of the plywood, but there should be at least four of them. On a wooden base, plywood can be fixed with self-tapping screws.

Sometimes it is difficult to find plywood of suitable thickness. In this case, you can glue two sheets together. Such a base will be more reliable and will exclude possible tile delamination.

The next step will be sanding and dusting. Then a primer should be applied. There should be at least two such layers. If work is carried out in a room with high humidity (for example, in a bathroom), then a layer of waterproofing is required. After that, you can start laying the tiles, of course, letting the primer dry.

How to stack

Now let's talk about how to put tiles on plywood on the floor. In principle, there are no special differences from installation on a conventional concrete screed. First, the adhesive solution is mixed, it can be two-component or silicone-based. The volume of each portion should be enough for 1–1.5 m 2 of the laid tiles. Don't do more. The glue hardens in an hour, and during this time it will be possible to lay no more than one and a half square meters of tiles.

Work can be started both from the far corner of the room and from the middle. Everything will depend on your skills and room configuration. But in any case, first you should perform a dry layout. Thanks to this, you can avoid a lot of pruning.

Note! Care should be taken when laying horizontally. For this, a building level of at least one meter in length is used. This will be more accurate. To level the tiles, you can change the thickness of the adhesive layer.

When laying, plastic crosses are used, which are inserted between the tiles. With their help, the same width of the seams is achieved.

After all the tiles are laid, it is necessary to wait until the glue mass has completely solidified. Usually, one or two days will be sufficient. Only then can you start grouting.

Video

This video clearly shows how tiles are laid on plywood:

When working with walls in a log house or frame house, you often have to face complications, because the tree shrinks a lot, and also deforms a little during the seasons. Because of this, you have to use a plywood base. How to glue tiles to plywood, every master should know, tk. this situation can await anyone.

Correctly selected tiles for mounting on plywood are practically not subject to deformation.

Features of the preparation of the base

Tools and materials:

Plywood.
Roulette.
Marker.
Jigsaw.
Screwdriver.
Wooden bars.
Polyurethane foam.
Level.
Grinder.
A rag with water.
Primer and wide brush.
Bituminous waterproofing and round brush.

Working with plywood is the best option among all analogues, because a properly selected plate hardly deforms, does not bend and almost does not "play" when the temperature changes. There are 3 minimum indicators that are taken into account - CIS (22 mm), Europe (28 mm) and when laying on logs (30 mm). It is optimal to use the highest indicator, because although this is an obvious cost overrun, then you can not be afraid of complications.

Scheme of the phased laying of tiles on plywood.

When plywood is mounted on logs, it is imperative to take a step between them of 0.3-0.4 m, while self-tapping screws should not be spared. If the plywood does not have enough attachment points, then surface stress will increase, and with it, the chances of cracking increase. To make sure that it is perfectly horizontal, you need 2 tools - a square and a level. The square allows you to organize a right angle to the floor and ceiling, and the level allows you to perfectly carry out the work process.

Plywood is used not only for walls, but also for floors. the problems can be similar. Here you can buy sheets 2 times thinner, if this will save money. Such sheets are stacked 1 by 1, which ultimately gives the same indicators of thickness and strength, and together they are sewn with the same screws.

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Tiles on plywood are laid on the floor in the case when it is not possible to use other materials to level the rough base. At the same time, it is important to observe the installation technology, otherwise the coating will not be used for long. Plywood must be protected from liquids as this material is highly susceptible to moisture.

In addition, you need to provide sufficient strength to the roughing base. This is due to the fact that plywood bends even with a relatively large sheet thickness. The lack of static material is the main reason for the destruction of the cladding.

It is generally accepted that only a concrete screed can be used as a rough base for ceramics. However, this is an erroneous opinion, since the method of laying tiles on plywood with your own hands also allows you to get a coating with a sufficient level of reliability. But for this, the material must be at least 22 mm thick. Otherwise, the coating will not provide sufficient strength. If the plywood will be laid on top of the log, you need to prepare a more durable material. For this, sheets with a thickness of at least 30 mm are used.

Plywood belongs to the group of wood-based materials and is therefore exposed to liquids. To avoid the formation of fungus, moisture-resistant sheets should be used in rooms with high levels of humidity. If you plan to use plain plywood, you need to provide reliable moisture insulation.

When choosing this method of installation, it should be remembered that when leveling the rough base, you need to use a large number of self-tapping screws. The smaller the step between the fastening elements, the higher the level of coating strength. When installing plywood, the logs should be spaced at a distance of 30-40 cm.For comparison, the fastening of a natural wood covering is carried out by means of crossbars, which are located at a distance of 50 cm.

Plywood sheets are laid in 1 or 2 layers. A distance of 1 cm is left between them and the wall. The sheets should be located at a distance of 0.5 cm from each other. Such measures make it possible to compensate for the linear expansion of the material. If all the above conditions are met, the plywood will last much longer, and the facing in the form of ceramic tiles will not be damaged.

Features of wood-based materials

Plywood, as well as sheets of similar properties (OSB, chipboard), contain wood in a crushed form. It can be wood chips, shavings. The raw materials are held together and formed into sheets by means of resins. If you plan to lay tiles on a plywood base, you should take into account the following features:

The use of resins in the production of wood-based materials makes it possible to obtain moisture-resistant products that are characterized by increased strength. However, such plywood has significant drawbacks. A decrease in adhesion is noted. The more resins were used, the worse the adhesion of the subfloor to the glue. For this reason, the tiles will be loosely fixed. In addition, some of the resins used in plywood manufacture contain formaldehyde, which can be hazardous to human health.
Considering that the material contains shredded wood, it is just as easy to deform as solid natural wood. This means that plywood will swell and dry out when the ambient temperature changes.

Cladding nuances

Considering that a gap of 3-5 mm is left between the sheets of wood-containing material, these leaks should be filled with putty, having previously treated the ends of the plywood with linseed oil. When the materials are completely dry, a primer must be applied to the entire surface of the rough base. Moreover, it is recommended to repeat the procedure. After that, you can start facing.

Laying tiles on plywood is carried out provided that the sub-base is well protected from moisture. Considering that wood-based materials contain resins, due to which there is no need to apply a waterproofing layer over plywood foxes, it is recommended to lay a moisture-resistant coating only on the side of the log system. Additionally, plywood must be treated with an antiseptic.

Preparation for work

When choosing a tile, take into account the color scheme of the interior of the room. In some cases, the flooring is isolated. For work you will need materials:

Grouting. It is recommended to use epoxy compounds for finishing the tiles in the bathroom. In other rooms, you can use cement mixtures or epoxy-cement.
Tile adhesive for plywood. Standard cement-containing mixtures are not used. This is due to the exposure of plywood to moisture and high temperatures, which leads to a change in the dimensions of the sheets. It is recommended to carry out the work with special glue. Available varieties: two-component, silicone, mixes for moving surfaces, parquet adhesive based on modified silane. With their help, you can not only glue tiles to plywood, but also increase the moisture-proof properties of the coating.
Waterproofing. It is recommended to use liquid or powder mixtures.

You should be aware that treating the surface of the subfloor with a primer also helps to increase the moisture resistance of plywood. It is recommended to sand the base before applying this composition. So that the caps of the self-tapping screws that fix the plywood sheets do not interfere, it is necessary at the installation stage to drown them into the surface layer of the wood-containing material.

Before you start laying the tiles, you must first put a serpentine mesh on the rough floor. Its use improves adhesion. This does not change the tile laying technology. Glue can be applied on top of the mesh.

Laying tiles on the floor

The correct selection of the adhesive composition determines the quality and reliability of the coating. To work you will need tools and materials:

crosses;
spatula with teeth;
containers for water, glue;
roller.

First you need to lay the tiles on the plywood without using any glue. This measure will allow you to arrange products in accordance with the pattern, if any. In addition, pre-nesting will help determine where the material needs to be trimmed. Then an adhesive is applied to the rough base.

Special mixtures for flexible coating are characterized by a liquid structure. This means that in the process of laying tiles on a plywood floor, you do not have to use a rubber hammer, the main function of which is to seal the adhesive after the cladding is laid. A heavy roller is recommended instead of this tool. It is rolled over the entire surface of the tile. This is sufficient to seal the adhesive mixture, since polymer-containing materials are characterized by a liquid structure. This means that the composition itself will be distributed over the surface.

In order to properly glue ceramic tiles, you need to determine the size of the seam joints between the products. Too great a distance will lead to gradual deterioration of the coating. This is due to the insufficiently high stability of the base. It is best to place items as close to each other as possible.

Plywood glue dries quickly, therefore it is recommended to apply it on a small area (for finishing 1 m²). Moreover, you need to immediately clean the surface, since then you will have to make a lot of effort to clean the tiles. Finishing work can start from the corner of the room, move along the wall or diagonally. There is another option - installation of finishes from the central point of the room.

The final stage

A feature of beautiful styling is the grouting of seam joints. It can be done as follows:

a trowel mixture is prepared, it is recommended to do this in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions;
the cladding coating is cleaned of dust, dirt;
using a rubber spatula, apply the mixture, and a large portion is taken, since this will allow you to fill the smallest leaks between the tiles, and after grouting, the excess will be removed.

Finishing of the joints of the coating should be started the next day after the end of the laying of ceramic products. If you start grouting right away, this can lead to deformations in the glue layer between the tile and the rough base. However, some types of mixtures dry quickly, which allows you to continue finishing work within a few hours after the end of the installation of ceramic products. Considering that plywood is not very stable even after fixation, it is recommended to choose sufficiently reliable but elastic mixtures as a grout.

There are situations in which there is a need to lay tiles on plywood. This process is necessary when replacing the flooring or when completing the walls. The physical characteristics of a plywood basecoat differ significantly from a concrete base. Therefore, the laying of tiles will be different.

Advantages and disadvantages of the procedure for installing a tile covering on plywood

Beginners are wondering - is it possible to lay tiles on plywood? For experienced professionals, this is not a difficult task. But the procedure as a whole is relatively complicated and elaborate. The tiling technique is the same, but there are differences at the preparatory stage.

Laying tiles on plywood has the following advantages:

speed of work execution;
low mass characteristic of the base, which is well suited for wooden houses on foundations with low strength parameters;
no need to perform time-consuming and expensive work on the construction of a concrete or cement-sand base for coating;
it is possible to lay tiles on the plywood floor in rooms with damp operating conditions (baths, lavatories).

Despite the positive aspects of plywood flooring for tiled flooring, you need to take into account its disadvantages:

it is not allowed to mount the "warm" floor system on the plywood base;
there is a need for additional waterproofing measures for rooms with high humidity conditions;
the thickness of the plywood sheet must be at least 22 mm.

Surface preparation for a plywood base

Before laying plywood, you need to perform such preparatory measures as:

remove the old finishing putty from the surface;
clean the base from debris and dust;
to seal cracks and joints of the floor with the walls using a cement-sand mortar;
in the case of a rough wooden floor, additional antiseptic measures must be taken;
install the necessary beacons using the building level.

You can replace the level with a line drawn on the wall around the entire perimeter of the room. It will show the level at which the plywood sheets should be laid.

Preparing the base for plywood flooring

Fastening plywood to beams with a thickness of 30 mm. With this value of the base thickness, the required rigidity is provided, at which the mounted tiles cannot crack or vibrate.

To eliminate the stress of a solid sheet of plywood, it is divided into several parts. Then they are fixed on a plank floor or a log system in a checkerboard pattern. If it is necessary to lay the substrate on the logs, the gaps between them should be within 30-40 cm.

When laying plywood flooring, there is no need to limit the number of self-tapping screws, since their more frequent pitch minimizes the plywood sagging and reduces its vibration. Self-tapping screws must be screwed so that their heads are recessed into the plywood. This should be done to prepare the base for floor and wall tiles.

During the installation of a plywood base, it is necessary to regularly check its horizontalness by means of a building level.

Situations often arise when you have to use thinner plywood. What to do in this case? You can use thin material, but in several layers. In this case, it is necessary to lay out the squares so that the seams of the lower layer do not coincide with the upper ones. To obtain the required hardness of the plywood base, the sheets are fastened to each other and fixed with self-tapping screws.

Plywood base laying process

The base plates should be placed with certain gaps between themselves and distances from the walls:

the size of the gap between the sheets must be at least 5 mm;
distance from the edge of the plywood to the walls - 10 mm;
the gaps are then foamed.

Before laying the tile on a plywood base, it must be leveled with a grinder and cleaned of debris.

The sanded surface is dust-free, because laying tiles on plywood without preliminary preparation is practically impossible. This procedure is performed with a vacuum cleaner, damp cloth or sponge.

Then, measures are taken for additional protection and plywood base (priming):

the primer should be applied in two layers;
in the case of rooms operated in high humidity conditions, the plate must be moisture resistant;
but before attaching the tiles to plywood on the floor or on the walls, the base is still subjected to additional waterproofing measures;
in this case, a special composition is used as a waterproofing material.

After the primer or special waterproofing compound has completely dried, the stage of preparing the plywood base is considered complete. Next, the stage of installing tiles on plywood begins.

Installation of tiles on plywood

How to lay tiles on plywood? This is possible if the following procedure is followed:

mark the base;
prepare an adhesive composition;
lay in even rows using special delimiters.

Markup

It is necessary to apply the required markings to the plywood surface. It is performed in accordance with the previously selected pattern (staggered or diagonally).

With a conventional arrangement, the position of the first and next row should be noted. This is necessary so that, after the completion of the work, it is possible to neatly cut the rows for the device of abutments directly to the walls. Laying should be carried out from the far wall to the entrance to the room, this will make it possible not to walk on the previously laid tiles.

Adhesive preparation

Special glue is used for work, surface preparation usually does not cause problems.

The glue is prepared in small volumes, but sufficient for the device of one square meter of surface. The composition is applied directly to the prepared surface of the plywood, permissible in a thin layer, because the strength of the future cladding depends on this. The tile is pressed against the base and holds for several seconds.

To keep the tiles neatly laid, you need to constantly check the evenness of each row with a level and use a rubber hammer to correct the installation. Such measures are needed to ensure that the tiled surface is even.

Panel laying process

When laying tiles, it is best to use special dividing crosses, with which the thickness of the seams is regulated.

The laid tiles with the use of these tools have an aesthetic appearance, are easy to use and maintain.

The result of a properly done work should delight over the long years of operation of the coating. The question of how to lay tiles on plywood is not difficult if you follow the simple rules for tiling.

Often a situation arises when it is necessary to lay tiles on plywood. This procedure is required when it comes to changing the floor or when completing the wall structures. However, the plywood base is very different from the concrete one due to the physical properties of the material, and therefore the technology of the tiled cladding here will be somewhat different. Below is a detailed analysis of how to lay tiles on plywood, and you can see the difference in it.

What is this article about

Laying pitfalls

In order to achieve a high-quality result and at the same time not to face premature collapse of the cladding, two main factors should be considered when laying ceramics on a plywood base.

The main component of the plywood structure is wood, which has certain properties that are manifested under the influence of different conditions. So, for example, under the influence of water, wood is able to soak, swell, and when it dries, on the contrary, it shrinks, narrowing in size. In other words, such a basis will not be static, being in a dynamic state all the time. This can cause damage to the top coat and even its destruction;
One of the components of the plywood material is resin, the presence of which does not affect the adhesion qualities of the base for the better. Therefore, tiles on plywood are not glued in the same way as this facing process is presented in the classical sense.

Then how to glue tiles to plywood, if you cannot do it in the usual way. And is it possible? Modern industry has already provided for a solution to this non-trivial task. For fixing ceramics for such a situation, there is a special adhesive and auxiliary means have been developed.

Suitable adhesive

Therefore, it is very important to correctly determine the adhesive composition on which the tiles could be glued to the base made of wood material. Here you need to take into account the following nuances:

Delamination can occur with a veneered variety of plywood material, and therefore it is recommended to use compounds that do not differ deeply into the structure of materials;
Plywood sheets are a rather flexible type of finishing materials. Under an exorbitant load, their sagging is not excluded. The gluing of the tile elements should be carried out taking into account that they could not move away in case of an accidental impact or when the sheets sag.

Therefore, elastic varieties of adhesives are the best choice here. But the use of other alternative formulations is not excluded. A distinctive feature of such tools is that when the base goes into a dynamic state, they allow the tile to move simultaneously with it.

Their composition necessarily provides for the inclusion of such highly elastic components as fiberglass, microfiber, silane, silicone and other modifying polymer additives. Such compositions are usually presented in liquid form, which allows you to skip the moment with tapping the cladding - when pressing on the elements, the mixture is independently distributed on each of the glued sides. However, the ceramic coating can be glued to plywood with other types of adhesives. For example, like this:

liquid Nails;
NC varnish, foam shavings;
liquid glass;
polyurethane foam.

However, such solutions are not the highest quality in terms of gluing surfaces, so you should always choose specialized proven compositions.

Installation work on the base

Newbies may still have doubts about whether it is possible to lay tiles on plywood. For professional tilers, tiling on plywood floors is nothing new. However, the whole process as a whole is quite laborious and painstaking. The tile installation technology is identical everywhere, the difference lies only in the preparation of the base and the choice of a suitable adhesive.

According to the European standard, laying tiles on plywood, chosen as a substrate, is allowed only with a thickness of the latter in the range from 22 to 28 mm.

When plywood boards are laid on logs, their layer can reach about 30 mm. With such an indicator of the thickness of the base, the necessary rigidity is provided, at which the laid layer of cladding cannot vibrate and crack.

To eliminate the possibility of stressing the whole canvas, it is divided into 4 pieces. Which are fixed to the plank floor or log system in a staggered arrangement. If you need to lay the substrate on the logs, the intervals between them are made at 30-40 cm.

When fixing plywood, you should not limit the consumption of self-tapping screws, since their more frequent attachment will ensure minimal deflection of the sheet, which will affect the reduction of its vibration. In addition, self-tapping screws are screwed in so that their caps are recessed into the thickness of the plywood. This measure is dictated by the need to smoothly sand the surface in preparation for laying tiles and the laying technology itself.

When laying plywood, all the time they control its horizontalness by means of a building level.

However, in practice, situations arise when there are sheets of less than the prescribed thickness. But it is not possible to get material with the required parameters. What to do then? You can also use thin material. However, the substrate in this case is made such that it will be represented by several layers of plywood. In this case, the squares should be laid so that the seams of the lower lying layer do not overlap the upper ones. To give additional hardness to the substrate, the sheets must be glued to each other and reinforced with self-tapping screws.

Please note: due to the dynamism of plywood under the influence of factors such as humidity, temperature differences, the base squares should be placed at some distance between themselves and from the walls. The gap between the plywood fragments should be 5 mm, between the plywood and the walls - 1 cm. Subsequently, the void will be closed with a plinth or foamed.

After sanding, dust is removed from the surface, since it is almost impossible to glue ceramic tiles on plywood with an uncleaned and unprepared surface. This is done with a vacuum cleaner, a damp sponge or soft rags.

Another important reminder regarding the base for flooring in rooms with high humidity conditions (kitchens, bathrooms). That is, for such premises, they choose not standard plywood, but its moisture-resistant variety. But before gluing the tiles to the plywood, the latter is covered with an additional layer of waterproofing material (this is done both on the wall and on the floor). As a waterproofing agent, a special mixture, already induced or in a powdery state, is purchased.

When the primer and waterproofing coat is dry, the preparation phase is complete. Then you can start gluing the tiles to the plywood.

Installation work with tiles

After choosing a suitable adhesive (two-component, polyurethane, for movable bases, parquet) and preparing the base, the laying of the floor tiles on the plywood begins.

Initially, the layout of the elements is done "dry". The tile pattern is laid out so that, according to the scheme, the cut elements (constituting at least half of the tiles) are at the walls. If necessary, the center line, which is beaten off first, is transferred a little in order to create an even and beautiful cladding pattern.

Elements can be glued onto a tile adhesive solution or fixed with self-adhesive materials. Next, they are rolled with a roller, expelling air bubbles. Tiles and plywood are laid with the elements tightly adjacent to each other.

When laying the tiles on the walls, a wooden plank is nailed at the height of the second row to prevent the elements from slipping. This strip will become the support for the entire web until the adhesive layer dries. Therefore, it will be removed and the first row will be filled with cut elements.

Since it is also possible to put tiles on plywood on the floor in different ways, then they begin to lay out the elements here either from the second row, or from the point of intersection of the center lines.

It is recommended to limit the spreading of plywood with a glue mixture to an area within 1-4 elements, and not to process an area of more than 1 sq. In this case, the agent is distributed on a wooden base with a notched trowel. After the adhesive layer has dried, the joints are planed, after having removed all the crosses, clamps and pegs from them.

That's all the subtleties regarding the question of how to glue tiles on plywood.