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Discuss Tiling onto Ply, can it be a success? in the DIY Tiling Forum area at TilersForums.com.

Hi,

I've been doing alot of research prior to tiling the ground floor of my home, approx 40m2. The structural floor is 18mm Ply and after reading all the horror stories of failed floors I am getting nervous on whether I am looking at failure before I start! I can't find anywhere online a successful tile on ply job, So ... Can it be done?

The floor construction is 4x2 joists, spaced at 400mm centres, levelled and fixed. I have already installed underloor heating, 70mm celotex between joists and 30mm anhydrite screed level with the top of the joists. Then overboarded with 18mm Ply. Ply has been sealed on the underside and edges with SBR and glued and screwed every 150mm with joints finishing on the joists. The biggest room span is 3m and is supported halfway by a small supporting wall, So joists only span 1.5m.

The floor is flat (no more than 3mm over 2m) and very solid. There is no deflection in the floor except 1 board edge about 2ft will move down 2mm if pressed hard (Screed must not of been perfectly level and so left a 2mm void between the screed and ply), I plan to fix this but unsure how? The rest of the floor is very stable with no movement.

I have bought Ditra and Ardex Af200 to bond to ply (3mm V notch trowel) .. then tile 600 x 600 rectified porcelain tile with Ultimate S2 adhesive, 20mm x 10mm round notch trowel, 3mm grout line, Lash levelling clips, and grout with BAL Superflex wide joint with GT1 Admix.

The underfloor heating has been in 1 year already, screed was left 1 month before ply, commissioned correctly and is the heating is working perfectly. I plan to turn it off 48 hours before starting anything.

So my question is, is there anything else I could possibly do to prevent failure? After reading online I'm almost at the point of putting down engineered oak onstead of tiles.

Has anyone successfully tiled on Ply with ufh that has lasted?

Thanks, Adam.
 
O

Old Mod

So ... unfortunately I can't take the Ultimate S2 back.

Apologies misread first sentence, you don’t have to answer obviously, why?

Setaflex will be under £200, you can flog ultimate on ebay if you have to, you can easily recover half your costs of setaflex.
You may even find someone on here who would want it for the right money.

The cost of the failure would be astronomical in comparison.
 
J

Just Rizzle

WHY DO YOU HAVE WOODEN HANDLES ON PANS.
ANSWER BECAUSE WOOD IS AN INSULATOR.

take up all the wood and replace with 2 layers of backer board 90 degrees to each other both adhered to the screed floor and the other to the 1st layer of backerboard. this will allow better heat transference so reducing you soon to be sky high heating bills if you have wood as the layer above your ufh,and also reducing your 100% chance of failure due to the ply or wood.
 
The heating has been installed for 1 year already and works perfectly. Heating bills have went down, floors are warm to touch even with laminate flooring. I realise backer board would be better to tile on than ply hence why I am getting advice and hence the title of the thread.

Can someone respond to my previous comment on the correct adhesive from CTD?

I am now going to return the BAL grout for standard wide joint.

Thanks.
 

Wayne Brown

TF
Esteemed
Arms
213
548
Norfolk
6mm for me with those mats for full coverage.

Am I reading this right, you have put ply over an anhydrite screed with ufh?
I thought that bud why fit ply over the screed ? It is such a poor conductor of heat and is a laminated product any moisture in there will result in failure of the floor there are far better options. Kop
 
The Screed is between the joists and not load bearing. It is supported by the insulation underneath. The 18mm ply is the structural load bearing floor and although it does insulate, it doesn't make the system ineffective and requires the flow rate to be slightly higher than a screed floor.

After living with it for a year I can say I'm impressed with the efficiency and performance and I must say I was sceptical before installing it.
 

Dan

Admin
Staff member
5,039
1,323
Staffordshire, UK

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