Facing a wooden floor with tiles, the nuances of combining materials, preparation and installation of the base, the technology of installation of the coating. Laying tiles on a wooden floor is a completely feasible task, despite the fact that such a base does not fit into the usual ideas about reliability, since wood can change its shape with fluctuations in temperature and humidity. However, modern building technologies have already solved this issue. You will learn how to put tiles on a wooden floor with their help from our material.
Combining wood and ceramics in floor construction
The instability of a wooden subfloor is the main obstacle to installing a hard tiled flooring on it. Due to its structure, wood tends to increase in volume from an excess of moisture, and then decrease from its lack.
In addition, after installation, the new wooden floor shrinks for two years until it takes its place. During this and even later period, various deformations are possible. They have an extremely unfavorable effect on the solidity of the adhesive base of the tile cladding, disrupting its structural bonds. These internal processes result in flaking and cracking of ceramic tiles.
In addition, there are three more reasons why many people avoid tiling a wooden floor:
- The wooden base of the impervious tile floor is deprived of the possibility of air access, which leads to its rotting.
- The durability of wood is much less than that of ceramics.
- Wood floors are warmer than tiles and are more pleasant to walk on.
If a reason for laying tiles on wood is nevertheless found, you will have to "reconcile" these materials, different in their structures. To do this, it is necessary to create a special damping layer, which will absorb all deformations of the wooden floor elements. Its elastic part will face the base, and the hard part will face the tile. Only this technology will allow for high-quality laying of tiles on a wooden floor.
Preparing the subfloor for laying tiles
It is possible to prepare a wooden base for facing with ceramic tiles if the floor is more than two years old and the process of its shrinkage has already ended. Work should start with a revision of the wooden floor. Its design usually includes beams, joists and boardwalk. Even if outwardly it looks like new, does not bend or creak, the floorboards will have to be removed for a complete revision. This is necessary to assess the condition of the internal elements.
After dismantling the flooring, you should first carefully examine the logs and beams. Those that have begun to rot need to be replaced with new ones. If the logs were laid at a distance of more than half a meter from each other, they will have to be dismantled and laid, but with a smaller step. Otherwise, the wooden base may further bend from the weight of the tile covering and destroy it.
The process of laying the basic elements of a wooden floor must be controlled by the building level. All parts must be located in the same horizontal plane. Flat pads made from broken tiles or bricks can be used to level the beams.
After the installation is completed, the beams and logs should be abundantly soaked with an antiseptic. This procedure is very important, since the durability of the load-bearing wooden floor elements, and hence the integrity of the external ceramic cladding, depends on its quality.
When the solution dries, the space between the logs must be covered with fine expanded clay to insulate the future floor. The level of insulation should be several centimeters below the top of the log. This will provide a ventilation gap under the boardwalk after installation.
The floorboards removed earlier for inspection of the log must be prepared for reuse. Now they will serve as a wooden base for laying tiles. First of all, it is worth removing a layer of old paint from the outer surface of the boards. This is necessary to impregnate their wood with an antiseptic.
There are three methods to choose from that can be combined with each other: mechanical, chemical and thermal. In the first case, cleaning is done with brushes, scrapers and sandpaper. In the second - with special washes that dissolve paints and varnishes. In the third - with a building hairdryer by heating and softening the paint layer, followed by its mechanical removal.
After cleaning, the boards must be treated with an antifungal compound and laid on the logs. In this case, expansion joints of 3-5 mm should be left between the individual flooring elements. They provide the possibility of linear expansion of the material.
Fastening the flooring to the joists is carried out using galvanized wood screws. It is recommended to screw two screws into the extreme logs, one to the ordinary ones.
There should be no flaws on the surface of the boards. If holes from old fasteners or fallen knots are found, the defective places must be repaired with putty, and after it dries, the entire wooden base should be leveled with a grinder.
In the process of installing the flooring around its perimeter, you need to leave a centimeter technical gap, and then glue it with a polymer membrane, which looks like a tape. To do this, fold the membrane strip in half and stick one half of it on the floor, and the other half on the bottom of the wall. You can find instructions on how to apply the damper tape on its packaging.
The preparation of the wooden base ends with the formation of an insulating layer on its surface. Two options are possible here. In the first case, the flooring is coated with heated linseed oil or latex impregnation, then immediately covered with a paint net. In the second, parchment or waxed paper or roll bitumen insulation is laid on it.
Coating device for tiles
After installation and insulation of the plank flooring, it is necessary to create an even intermediate coating on it, which will absorb the deformations of the underlying layer when its wood swells or shrinks due to changes in humidity and air temperature. There are three ways to arrange such a layer.
Dry coating installation
This solution is the simplest and most common. It consists in creating an intermediate layer of moisture-resistant plywood, on top of which ceramic tiles can be laid.
There are many ways to mount plywood onto a boardwalk. One of them consists in arranging point supports or lag systems on top of the boards, which are covered with sheet material. Another method is to lay an adjustable floor on the deck, which has screw supports under the plywood sheets. You can also simply screw the quarter-cut sheets of plywood, OSB or moisture-resistant drywall to a flat plank flooring.
At the final stage of installation, plywood or a similar base must be sanded, its joints filled with a sealing compound and covered with a primer.
When laying ceramic tiles on plywood floors, choose a two-component polyurethane adhesive, which creates a strong but flexible backing underneath the cladding. This property of the adhesive is especially useful for damping the weak linear vibrations that wood-based panels have.
Wet installation of the coating
It consists in the installation of a cement or polymer screed on the waterproofing layer of the wooden floor boarding. Unlike a conventional screed for ceramic tiles, such a coating has a small thickness due to the need to reduce the load on the floor. It may not be able to support the weight of standard screed thicknesses.
Another feature of the "wet" coating for tiles is its complete isolation from the walls of the room, that is, the base is made according to the "floating floor" model, which provides for the mandatory presence of a deformation gap around the perimeter of the enclosing structures and around the outlets from the floor of utility lines.
This design allows small movements of the wooden floor elements, but at the same time the cladding located on a monolithic base will not feel these movements.
The lightweight screed should have a thickness of 30 mm. It is undesirable to reduce it, as this will reduce its reliability. Cement screed is prepared from a mixture of cement, sand and plasticizing additives. The polymer contains a two-component polyurethane mixture and water glass.
Before pouring any of them on top of the waterproofing laid on the boardwalk, you need to secure the metal mesh with screws. Subsequent actions are carried out as usual. After leveling, the coating must be left to dry and then primed to improve its adhesion to the tile adhesive.
Leveling material sticker
This method of installing the base for laying tiles on a wooden floor is the fastest in execution. Its essence consists in gluing moisture-resistant gypsum plasterboard sheets to the prepared flooring of boards.
In this case, an elastic two-component polyurethane adhesive is used. If the stiffness of the coating seems insufficient, you can lay a second layer of gypsum board on top. Layer-by-layer stacking of sheets must be carried out so that their seams do not coincide in the vertical direction. It is recommended to fill the joints between them with a sealing compound, and then treat the surface with a primer.
As in all previous cases, the plasterboard base should be made according to the "floating floor" model. The technological gap that remains around the perimeter of the coating after laying the tiles should be filled with an elastic sealant, and then closed with skirting boards.
All of the above methods for arranging the base for tiled cladding are general recommendations that will certainly require improvement in each specific case of solving technical issues directly at the facility.
In fact, there are many more options for arranging such coatings. But it is important to understand the main principle of their design: the performer is required to create a kind of rigid "tray" installed on a movable wooden base. In addition, it is necessary to make sure that the intermediate damper coating allows the wood of the floor to "breathe" and, as necessary, move in any direction. With all this, the plank flooring should not affect the tiled flooring, otherwise it will inevitably destroy it.
Technology for installing tiles on a wooden floor
To work, you need to have a tape measure, a pencil, a building level, a painting cord, a drill with a mixer-attachment, a tile cutting machine, a soft mallet, a sponge, a notched and rubber spatula.
The process of laying tiles on a wooden floor with your own hands should go in the following sequence:
- First, you need to mark the base for the tiles. To do this, connect the midpoints of the opposite walls of the room along the floor with axial lines. This is done with a paint cord. Their intersection will indicate the center of the floor.
- Focusing on the markings, the tiles must be laid out for fitting on the floor, according to the intended drawing. This procedure should be started from the center of the room. This will clarify the issue of trimming tiles at the joints of the floor with the walls. It is desirable to perform it in places that are not so noticeable at first glance on the floor. For example, under radiators or near openings. Prepare the tiles for pruning in advance.
- Then the dry-laid coating should be removed from the floor and the tile adhesive should be prepared, zealously following the manufacturer's recommendations on this matter, located on the package of the mixture. The diluted glue thickens quickly, so you need to cook it in portions based on the amount required for laying 1 m2 floor.
- When choosing a spatula for distributing the adhesive mixture on the surface, you should pay attention to the size of its teeth. For large tiles, the height of the working edge of the tool should be 8 mm, for smaller tiles, the trowel should be shallower.
- After applying the glue, you need to take the tile and lay it on the surface covered with the mixture. Methodically continuing to lay the rest of the cladding elements, it is necessary to insert plastic dividing crosses into the gaps between them, which are designed to maintain the same width of the coating seams.
- The installation of each tile should be controlled by the building level, ensuring the location of the cladding elements in a single horizontal plane. All shortcomings can be corrected before the glue curing under the tiles begins. Glue should be added under the sagging products, and the ones protruding beyond the plane should be settled with a mallet.
- After laying all the whole tiles on the wooden floor, it is necessary to arrange the adjoining of the cladding with the prepared trimming. After finishing the installation, leave the floor covering to dry the adhesive.
- After the allotted time, you need to moisten the seams between the tiles and fill them with a fugue - a grouting compound. It can be cement based, polyurethane or epoxy based. The cement grout will require an additional waterproof layer of silicone sealant to be applied to the joints. It is recommended to fill the gaps between the tiles with a rubber spatula after removing the dividing crosses. After grouting, the lining must be cleaned from the traces of the fugue with a wet sponge.
Important! It is recommended to use polyurethane glue as an adhesive for laying tiles on gypsum plasterboard or plywood, and when installing it on a screed, a composition containing cement. How to fix tiles on a wooden floor - watch the video:
Technologically executed facing of a wooden floor will protect its wood from external damage and decay. In this case, the integrity of the ceramic coating will be guaranteed. This will ensure its durability and save the owners from unscheduled repairs.
