Tiling onto Plywood?

[jimh20]

Hi,

I'm tiling our bathroom (DIY), and got good advice about mosaic borders.

Now I'm trying to tile the plywood face of the shallow box which contains the pipes and cables for the over-the-bath shower. I sealed the ply with BAL SBR, and am using BAL Blue Star adhesive, for 333x250mm ceramic tiles.

A couple of the tiles have fallen off, although plenty of adhesive was used, and is still firmly attached to the ply. I'm intending to box in the bath with ply on a stout frame, and tile that. I'll need to bore a few holes through the tiles in these areas, so it's not looking good!

Am I doing something basically wrong here? The ply was tiled successfully for years, with little 4in x 4in tiles.

Thanks again for any advice. Regards, Jim

[pjc]

adhesives have changed now days ply is not a good surface to tile on if you can overboard it with plaster board or backer board or replace it

[CCTiling]

The tiles are right on the maximum size limit for tubbed adhesive so you would be better off using a cement based adhesive but as pjc states cement based boards is the best option for wet areas

[Dave]

That adhesive is not suitable for tiling to ply..

Best to use a flex cement based one... and also do as above prep wise if possible.

[garretridge]

never use tubbed addy anymore hate the stuff as above flexi cement addy or overboard if possible!

[jimh20]

Thanks for the advice, Guys.

If I need to cover the ply, and re-tile, how do I fix a 4 or 6mm backer board to cover the ply?

If I use backerboard, and also for the last plasterboard wall of the bathroom, should I use another adhesive, and exactly which?

I'm really grateful.

Jim

[jimh20]

Hi Guys,

A final thanks to you all. I've got the mosaics in and looking good, and backerboard solved the plywood problem nicely.

Cheers, Jim