Help with converting to tile backing boards

[peter241]

Ive been using ply for years and have read a lot about tile backing boards for floors and walls on this forum.

Im a little confused with the many types of boards for floors and walls & allso the costs and fitting techniques.

Can any one help with a painless convertion from ply to a backing board

Peter

[J4CK THE RIPPER]

Anyone?

[grumpygrouter]

As far as I am aware Pete, backerboard is not a substitute for ply on a floor if you are looking for strength. I personally would not recommend at all using ply on bathroom walls as it is too unstable for tiling in that situation. Backerboard is ideal for this. It is very water resistant and requires only the joints to be sealed to give a waterproof substrate.

There are various boards available for laying onto floors and in varying materials and sizes. It is quite a big topic so hopefully someone else will contribute too.

[Dave]

Grumps is right backer boards are not a substitute for ply as far as strengthening goes.....
The likes of wedi or similar are waterproof boards but cement boards like hardie backer are not fully water proof , they just don't break down when in contact with water....so are ideal for rooms with high humidity etc.......

[CBTC]

In brief for what its worth I follow thus; ex grade ply to floors but then best practice it is advised is to use either an uncoupling matting i.e. Ditra, or overlay with tilebacker board of some type; choice is for each of to make, different circumstances for each situation, preference of product, price and availability. Direct to timber adshesives are now far better than previously also so this could be considered depending on each jobs requirements.

For walls, yes on jobs where going from new, it is best practice to use backer board.
Last time I mentioned antything regarding this on here a ton of sarcasm followed, so many of the fixer types I guess just ignore the changes in tiling over the last 10 years. Dont get onto it again for gawds sakes - he asked didnt he.

[peter241]

Ive been using ply for years and have read a lot about tile backing boards for floors and walls on this forum.

Im a little confused with the many types of boards for floors and walls & allso the costs and fitting techniques.

Can any one help with a painless convertion from ply to a backing board

Peter

Just to clear things up, i DO NOT use ply on walls. i was asking for advice on some sort of backing board for a wall, and im unsure of what to use on a wood floor (ie, bathroom floor) instead of ply. What is the most cost effective and simplest to use in place of ply ?

[Dave]

I would use Hardiebacker 250 peter on the floor and hardiebacker 500 on the walls...... Here is an installation video....... >>> HERE <<<

And Hardiebacker can be bought from CTD...

[garythetiler]

tile backer boards are the way forward and have been in use in europe and the usa for many years now, the problem with tilers is we are very conservative and we tend to dismiss anything new that comes along ,the cement backer board is not used as a replacement for ply it is used to over lay flooring to enable a sound tile installation, you still need to adhere to the best practice where deflection occurs which is 1:360 active to inactive load whenever i have fitted cbu on floors i have stuck it down with polymer enhanced adhesive and fixed it mechanically with galvanised clout nails i have NEVER had a failure when using cbu but i have with uncoupling membrane especially in the early days when they where hessian backed hope this helps

[Holohana]

Hardi 500 is the way forward on walls as an alternative to plaster board. Fix as you would plaster board, tape seams and for belt and braces use something like bal wp1 tanking system. Job done. On floors use 250 on an adhesive bed and tile as you would as normal. After checking floor is suitable for tiling of course although ive never had any issues with it.

[CBTC]

Gary - yes the deflection rating is what we dont acknowledge here - it's part of the ANSI standards - I have the book on file - and marks the gap between USA tile standards and UK. The best of their tilers, TCNA types, want to work to the best standard as stated by the careful work to produce the ANSI and TCNA handbook. In the UK we dont seem to care about it, hence the anti TTA or any sort of combined focus of tiling standards, often pronounced against here.

[peter241]

Thanks everyone for the advice, i will look in to it a bit more