To describe just what a subfloor is before really mentioning the different sorts suited towards floor tiling, it’s essentially the ground which can’t be seen that the visible top flooring is mounted on, and as a result the subfloor is connected to the primary solid flooring of the room. Just like a slice of cheese between two bits of bread, the subfloor could be everything from underlay for carpet floorings, to solid cement and wire mesh based flooring between existing hardwood planks and flooring.
Inside a basement for instance, should you look upwards to determine an incomplete ceiling, this can be wooden planks mounted over joists that will take into account your primary flooring within the above room. Whether it were your bathroom or kitchen, a necessary solid subfloor would need to be installed just before floor tiling to be able to completely seal the wooden floor against water seepage in to the basement, and also to also prevent shifting from the tiles because of expansion and contraction from the wood when uncovered to numerous climates, temperatures, and moisture. In case your floor tiling subfloor isn’t installed properly from the primary flooring, then cracks may seem inside your finished grouting or even the actual flooring, therefore you should do that properly either it’ll make or break your finished floor tiling project.
Starting with a choice of plywood subfloors which aren’t so generally used nowadays, these may be somewhat costly because of the escalating price of timber products, with wood being vulnerable to expansion/contraction. Typically for floor tiling, when installing a plywood subfloor, the general thickness from the primary wooden floor and plywood subfloor should not be a under 1-1/4″ inch thick. In a rough guess, in case your existing floor was say 3/4″ inch thick, you would then require sheets of just oneOrtwo” inch plywood to create the entire thickness to at least one-1/4″ inch at least, but safe it might be easier to install 3/4″ inch plywood to create the general thickness to at least one-1/2″ inch.
The plywood you need to use ought to be of construction grade for indoor-only use, just like outside-use plywood it’s usually been pressure given various chemicals you don’t want lingering regarding your home. When lounging additionally, it, make sure and put the rough incomplete side facing upwards, as this gives a much better surface that your ceramic tile mortar to connect itself to.
When lounging your sheets of plywood, these ought to be connected to the existing wood floors by using woodscrews, but because helpful information for screw placement, you need to first remove a grid around the sheets regardless of their size to make sure a real and positive attachment. This pattern should essentially be one screw every 4″inches round the outdoors fringe of the plywood beginning from each corner. Then working for the center from the sheet, one screw every 8″ inches inward of all the second from the outdoors screws. The outdoors screws ought to be placed a minimum of 1/2″ to threeOrfour” inch inward in the edge to avoid the very best ply from splitting and producing annoying upward splinters when screwing within the wood screws. Pre-drill these markings if you want to create attachment from the screws simpler, however if you simply do, make certain that the drill bit is of narrower diameter compared to screw you use.