What can I lay Ceramic tiles on?

Tile Sub straight or Tile foundations

Tile sub straight is an important part of tiling. In fact before you tile the sub straight must be correct so that the finished tile work will look right and last for years. For bathroom walls the sub straight must be able to handle water without rotting. For timber walls villa board (fibre cement sheeting) is nailed to the wall making sure it is flat and that the walls are as square as possible. Other sub straights include cement render over bricks. Water resistant plasterboard is not recommended for bathrooms. Floor sub straight must have very little flex and the best is concrete slabs.

Timber walls:

Bathrooms

- 6mm Villa board or fibre cement sheeting is the preferred sub straight and is nail in place to the timber studs at 150mm intervals.

Kitchens

water resistant plasterboard with the joins set (plastered joins) is the great base for tiling a splash back.

Concrete Floors

The easiest to tile are flat concrete floors. If your home has a concrete slab that has been laid property then tiling a hallway or kitchen is fairly straight forward. The sub straight is flat inflexible and should give a surface to tiles that will make the job last a long time.

However if your concrete floor is a bit rough then you should apply a cement based floor leveling compound. This is fairly simple process and will take out the small highs and lows. This floor leveling compound can be purchased from a good hardware supplies outlet. Once this is complete you will be able to start tiling on a level floor.

Concrete floor for bathrooms

Bathrooms have a concrete screed under the floor tiles to get the tiles to fall to the drain. You only need a small amount of fall as water will run to the lowest point. 1-3deg is enough. If you are installing 300mm x 300mm or larger floor tiles the floor must only have sight fall and be very flat. Small mosaic tiles are more forgiving and can take more fall. The screed is made up of sand and cement and I have found that an additive to make it bond to the concrete sub floor and spread easier is the best to get you floor correct.

Timber sub straight floors:

You can tiles straight over the chipboard flooring and timber floor boards. However you must make sure that the floor does not have too much flex or bounce in it. If it does and you lay tiles on it without fixing it your grout will continue to fall out and even crack the tiles. The second point to make sure you use the correct 2 part glue for timber floors. This glue is made for timber is able to take more movement.