tiling on ply

[mole81]

Hi, we've laid some floor tiles on 12mm ply in the bathroom, using this:

http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/st ... ber=054032

A couple of the tiles have started to wobble and broken, is this because this adhesive isnt flexible or designed to go onto wood?

Could someone please advise and if not correct, offer an alternative?

Thanks.

[warmadmax]

yes to both questions, it says for concrete floors so probably isn't designed to adhere to wood, plus it doesn't look flexible
on top of all that, if the 12mm ply flexes at all underfoot, then the tiles will start to come up as it breaks the adhesives bond...

is the 12mm ply overboarding the floor boards?

i'm sure someone will be able to advise what the best course of action is,

personally i can think of two options, but in both cases your going to have to clean everything up and start again.

1) re-do with suitable adhesive, i'm going to be using ardex X7001 plus it's P51 primer (DTW ceramics on here sorted that for me )
wood draws water out of the adhesive so needs to be primed with what the adhesive says on it,

2) overboard with cement tile backer boards, over the ply with 6mm versions IF the floor doesn't sag when you walk on it
then you can use normal flooring adhesive, possibly even the one you've linked to

[mole81]

yes the 12mm goes over floorboards.

can the tiles be saved then or will they all need to come up?

the ply was also uni-bonded before the adhesive went on...

[warmadmax]

please don't say uni-bond PVA....

don't know if or how the tiles could be saved, depends on the type of tile,
I did read on here that if you soak them in water for a while, maybe warm water,
the adhesive should soften, possibly enough to get it off the tiles.

you'd then need to let the tiles dry out after if this works

[mole81]

umm yeah pva...is that bad?

the tiles were cheap anyway, so might not be too bad to buy more!

[warmadmax]

have a read

pva-why-you-shouldn-t-use-it-as-a-tilin ... -t168.html

[mole81]

oh.... :O

thanks for that!

[All The Gear]

Sorry to add to your woes, 12mm ply isn't thick enough for floor tiling.

[mole81]

Really?even if i use flexi adhesive and the floorboards underneath are firm?

[wine~o]

In conclusion, ply not thick enough..

Pva'd which is a No-No..

Then wrong addy used...

You could have employed some-one to cock it up for you...

[northwales4u]

Some good news, sort of. As mentioned about soaking your tiles, as long as its just the adhesive if you soak them in hot/warm water its goes back to mush so you can clean them. If you have grouted them then, um, at least they were cheap...

[wine~o]

Some good news, sort of. As mentioned about soaking your tiles, as long as its just the adhesive if you soak them in hot/warm water its goes back to mush so you can clean them..

According to the wickes website the addy is "waterproof"

[northwales4u]

hopefully the OP bought the addy from Homebase where he/she got the tiles (how expensive is it in there?!)

[wine~o]

ooops my bad...Homebase not wickes....same applies though..

[northwales4u]

ooops my bad...Homebase not wickes....same applies though..

bummer.....