Tiling onto plywood Discussion Thread

Tiling onto plywood

I read some posts earlier regarding tiling onto plywood.

I did a job just over a year ago. When I looked at it I advised that the 12mm wbp plywood was not a satisfactory substrate. The customers builder argued that it was and that he had been building bathroom & wetroom walls like it for years with no issues. We eventually reached a compromise where I had to tank the walls with a membrane (I used Porcelanosa Imperband) first.

The back wall area is 2.4m across, and the tiles were 930 x 330mm. I used Mapei Keraquick to fix the membrane & Mapei Keraflex to fix the tiles.
The pics below show a vertical crack that runs from top to bottom right down the centre of the wall, i.e. where the two plywood panels meet.



I explained the issues with regards to thermal expansion caused by rapid heating and high humidity in wetrooms, but the builder knew best :lol:. I now have to strip everything out and build the walls correctly using a tile backer board, then re-tile all at the builders expense.

I hope the above helps illustrate why plywood is not a suitable tile substrate for high humidity areas.

Daz

Tiling onto plywood for the Original Article on Tiling Advice Forum