That is the question.

I'm going to take out the carpet from our living room and install tile. The subfloor is 3/4 OSB. Can I just put tile backer board on top of this or not? If so, should I go 1/2 inch instead of 1/4? I see a lot of conflicting information about this. Most say it's ok, but we talked with the Home Depot guy and he insisted it needs to be plywood. What thoughts?

Thanks!

Mike

On Saturday, July 2, 2016 at 4:01:13 PM UTC-4, Michael Wilson wrote:
That is the question.

I'm going to take out the carpet from our living room and install tile. The subfloor is 3/4 OSB. Can I just put tile backer board on top of this or not? If so, should I go 1/2 inch instead of 1/4? I see a lot of conflicting information about this. Most say it's ok, but we talked with the Home Depot guy and he insisted it needs to be plywood. What thoughts?

Thanks!

Mike

if your installing ceramic tile use concrete board and mortar the joints. be sure the cement board joints arent the same as the underlying osb joints

On Saturday, July 2, 2016 at 4:43:37 PM UTC-5, bob haller wrote:
On Saturday, July 2, 2016 at 4:01:13 PM UTC-4, Michael Wilson wrote:
That is the question.

I'm going to take out the carpet from our living room and install tile. The subfloor is 3/4 OSB. Can I just put tile backer board on top of this or not? If so, should I go 1/2 inch instead of 1/4? I see a lot of conflicting information about this. Most say it's ok, but we talked with the Home Depot guy and he insisted it needs to be plywood. What thoughts?

Thanks!

Mike

if your installing ceramic tile use concrete board and mortar the joints. be sure the cement board joints arent the same as the underlying osb joints

We saw some porcelain tile we liked, but it's ok to use concrete board over OSB? I'm not sure why the Home Depot guy was so insistent that that was a bad idea.

Thanks,

Mike

On Sat, 2 Jul 2016 14:57:45 -0700 (PDT), Michael Wilson
wrote:

On Saturday, July 2, 2016 at 4:43:37 PM UTC-5, bob haller wrote:
On Saturday, July 2, 2016 at 4:01:13 PM UTC-4, Michael Wilson wrote:
That is the question.

I'm going to take out the carpet from our living room and install tile. The subfloor is 3/4 OSB. Can I just put tile backer board on top of this or not? If so, should I go 1/2 inch instead of 1/4? I see a lot of conflicting information about this. Most say it's ok, but we talked with the Home Depot guy and he insisted it needs to be plywood. What thoughts?

Thanks!

Mike

if your installing ceramic tile use concrete board and mortar the joints. be sure the cement board joints arent the same as the underlying osb joints

We saw some porcelain tile we liked, but it's ok to use concrete board over OSB? I'm not sure why the Home Depot guy was so insistent that that was a bad idea.

Thanks,

Mike
Because it's a bad idea. Not saying your installation WILL fail, but
the chances of success using OSB will be significantly lower rhan with
plywood - and just putting plywood over the OSB is not quite as
effective as replacing the OSB and doesn't raise the floor level as
much.

On 7/2/2016 10:04 PM, wrote:

We saw some porcelain tile we liked, but it's ok to use concrete board over OSB? I'm not sure why the Home Depot guy was so insistent that that was a bad idea.

Thanks,

Mike
Because it's a bad idea. Not saying your installation WILL fail, but
the chances of success using OSB will be significantly lower rhan with
plywood - and just putting plywood over the OSB is not quite as
effective as replacing the OSB and doesn't raise the floor level as
much.


I'd talk to a real tile guy, not the Home Depot guy.

On Sat, 2 Jul 2016 22:43:26 -0400, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On 7/2/2016 10:04 PM, wrote:

We saw some porcelain tile we liked, but it's ok to use concrete board over OSB? I'm not sure why the Home Depot guy was so insistent that that was a bad idea.

Thanks,

Mike
Because it's a bad idea. Not saying your installation WILL fail, but
the chances of success using OSB will be significantly lower rhan with
plywood - and just putting plywood over the OSB is not quite as
effective as replacing the OSB and doesn't raise the floor level as
much.


I'd talk to a real tile guy, not the Home Depot guy.


I did when I tiled my foyer.

On Saturday, July 2, 2016 at 10:43:33 PM UTC-4, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 7/2/2016 10:04 PM, wrote:

We saw some porcelain tile we liked, but it's ok to use concrete board over OSB? I'm not sure why the Home Depot guy was so insistent that that was a bad idea.

Thanks,

Mike
Because it's a bad idea. Not saying your installation WILL fail, but
the chances of success using OSB will be significantly lower rhan with
plywood - and just putting plywood over the OSB is not quite as
effective as replacing the OSB and doesn't raise the floor level as
much.


I'd talk to a real tile guy, not the Home Depot guy.

Or just google. Did that and there is plenty of information there from
credible sources to figure it out, including this from HD:

"Tip: Make sure the subfloor will not deteriorate when it gets wet. Particleboard is not an acceptable subfloor material for tiling projects. Oriented strand board, or OSB, and exterior-grade plywood will work if first covered with a latex-modified mortar and a tiling backerboard. "

And did he ask the HD tile guy what the specific problem with OSB is?

On 7/2/2016 4:01 PM, Michael Wilson wrote:
That is the question.

I'm going to take out the carpet from our living room and install tile. The subfloor is 3/4 OSB. Can I just put tile backer board on top of this or not? If so, should I go 1/2 inch instead of 1/4? I see a lot of conflicting information about this. Most say it's ok, but we talked with the Home Depot guy and he insisted it needs to be plywood. What thoughts?

Thanks!

Mike


The tile manufacturer usually specifies the maximum allowable
deflection. Sometimes larger tiles require a stiffer floor.

For example, my floor trusses were 24" OC and 28' long (28'x28' room) so
I had to have 1.875" of combined plywood thickness. My wife and I were
screwing on the floor for days...and then we had to lay the tile.

http://tiledoctor.com/how-to-tile/deflection/