Installing Vinyl Tile Over Plywood

Vinyl flooring is usually not installed directly over the subfloor in residential applications.

Installing vinyl tile over plywood. How to lay self stick vinyl floor tiles. The main caveat is that all vinyl formats call for a smooth subfloor including sheet vinyl vinyl tile and luxury vinyl planks and tiles. This means you want the sub floor to be as smooth as possible. Because you can install sheet vinyl over existing vinyl it offers the option of changing design without breaking the bank.

Plywood underlayment is a thin plywood material that is most commonly used under resilient flooring materials such as vinyl and linoleum sheets and tiles. To install ceramic tile over wood the wood surface must be structurally sound enough to support the weight of the tile. This means that over time it will conform to the shape of the floor beneath. But a number of precautions must be taken to ensure a successful installation.

This means that you will see grooves in the vinyl where there are gaps between the plywood sheets. If you re installing new plywood use galvanized screws to fasten it and countersink the screw heads. A number of different types of substrate are used for tile including plywood. In most cases 4 by 8 foot sheets of particle board or plywood must be installed in preparation for the vinyl floor install.

The plywood will expand and contract at a different rate as the tile causing cracks to develop in the grout lines or tiles over time. The basic premise for any surface is the same. No matter how firm the subfloor. Installing over wood.

Our plywood is really old and cracked so i was concerned that it would be too absorbent so i chose not to mop the plywood but we always mop the concrete. While most floor tile these days is installed onto a layer of cement board or similar backerboard it is possible to lay tile directly over plywood. It can also be used under hardwood laminate and carpet but this is much less common these days because subflooring is typically smooth enough for these materials many of which are installed with a different type of underlayment or pad. Vinyl isn t very thick and it is quite plastic.

On a plywood subfloor you need either a layer of cement backer board or an underlayment membrane like custom building products wonderboard and redgard between the subfloor and tile for the thin set adhesive to achieve a.