There are many options for wood flooring. Traditionally they are covered linoleum, laminate, parquetboards are varnished or painted with enamel. At the same time, some amateur craftsmen doubt whether ceramic products can be placed on a wooden base. In the kitchen or in the hallway, where there are special operating conditions for all coatings, tiles are considered one of the best materials. But how will it behave in combination with a natural wooden base? How to fix it on the boards? How to lay tiles on a wooden floor?
Foundation Features
In many old houses and in modern private dwellings, the floors are made of wooden parts. This is a simple design, consisting of several elements:
- lags;
- draft flooring;
- clean coverage.
As a finishing coating, any modern products that are in harmony with the tree can be used.
The base of natural wood has many advantages. The most important is the availability of the material, its relatively cheap cost, and, most importantly, environmental friendliness and absolute safety for those living in the house. Wood has excellent thermal insulation characteristics. Therefore, walking on a wooden floor is always pleasant and comfortable.
A wooden floor is often used as a base for alternative flooring. However, you need to know the behavior of the boards when they come into contact with other materials.
Tiles and wood
Tiles - ceramic tiles, made in the factory from clay and other sedimentary rocks. It is an excellent material for facing surfaces in rooms with high humidity and cases of frequent temperature changes. In addition to water resistance, it has other excellent performance and decorative characteristics that make it popular and in demand among professional builders and amateur craftsmen.
Ceramics and wood are considered incompatible materials, as they have a different nature of origin. A tree is a "living organism". It is able to "breathe" and move, undergo temporary changes. The tile is more resistant to external influences. He is not afraid of water, heat and cold, fungi and insects.
Due to the different structure, these materials can reject each other. In some cases, tiles glued to a wooden base quickly fall off. Why is this happening and is it possible to lay tiles on a wooden floor with your own hands?
Wooden floor lives its own life: it "breathes" and is able to deform. The tile blocks the movement of wood. Under him, she "clogs" and loses her freedom. The tree is strong in its strength and integrity. It resists, expands, and forces the tile to conform to itself. Ceramics - a more fragile "creature" - does not withstand, cracks and crumbles.
In addition to the impact of materials on each other, when used on the floor, they experience the pressure and force of human activity. This creates an additional load and affects the state of both materials.
If you do not take these points into account when laying ceramic tiles on a wooden base, over time you can be very disappointed in your repair. Let's figure out how to lay ceramic tiles on a wooden floor.
Preparing wood floors
A wooden floor as a base for tiles must be pre-prepared. It is necessary to carry out a number of activities with him.
- Examine the boards and timber under them for integrity and safety.If during the inspection serious defects (rotten parts) are found, they are removed and replaced with similar new ones. If all the elements of the base are well preserved, but gaps have formed between them, they are hammered together or the gaps are filled with wood putty.
- Carry out alignment. The surface under the tile should be ideal, without significant differences in heights and bumps. Usually, a sander is used to level a wooden floor. It not only eliminates height flaws, but also smoothes the boards.
- In some cases, for this purpose, thick plywood. The sheets are laid apart and fastened with glue so that nails or self-tapping screws do not protrude over time.
- primed or saturate with a protective compound - a prerequisite for maintaining the performance of a wooden floor under a tile. Thanks to special compositions, wood is strengthened, many processes occurring in it stop or slow down. The tree does not deteriorate for a long time.
When all the preliminary work on the base is completed, you can move on to the question of how to lay tiles on a wooden floor.
Base marking
To correctly lay the tiles in even rows or create an ornamental image, mark the surface. It starts with a drawing. Most often, builders place square products from the center of the room or from the wall opposite the exit. Marking can be carried out using the tiles themselves, laying them out simply without glue. When the first row is laid out, it will become clear whether trimming of the tiles will be required.
It is rarely possible to correctly calculate the dimensions of the room and tiles. Therefore, there is a need for cutting fragments. This is done with the help of a special device as accurately and accurately as possible.
We glue the tiles
The tile on the wooden floor is attached with glue. It is purchased along with ceramic products. The store will help you choose the optimal composition and make the required calculations for its quantity.
When the tile and adhesive are ready to use, you can start laying the tiles on the wooden floor.
- The adhesive composition is distributed evenly over the surface with a notched trowel. In this case, a strip is carried out in the width of the tile row.
- If the first row is laid along the wall, 1-1.5 cm recede from it. Subsequently, this gap is closed with a plinth.
- Tiles are placed on a wooden floor, pressed to the base and checked for level. The distance between individual fragments must be the same. To do this, use plastic crosses or ordinary matches.
- Upon completion of laying the tiles, the room is left for a while, allowing the glue to dry.
- After that, the seams are closed with a special grout and seal the joints between the wall and the floor.
If you put tiles on a wooden floor in accordance with all the rules, the coating will last for many years and retain all its performance properties.
