We are looking to replace the flooring in out living room, dining room and kitchen with ceramic tile. Does anyone know if there is a problem a piano's weight on ceramic tiles? Is there a best practice for putting it down to reduce/eliminate cracking? This would be installed on the first floor over wood joists.
Thanks Ken
You need a backer board to lessen or eliminate the flexing. How much is needed will be determined by the construction of the floor. Joist sizes are different so I can't tell what you have. Talk to your dealer about it. There may be simple ways of distributing the weight of the piano also.
Is tile good for bad for the acoustics of a piano?
Thanks for the info. We have 2x10 16oc joists. I was figuring that we would need a backer board. Of course, we don't want to have to do the whole area with the backer board. Would it be feasible to put the backer board only in the general area where the piano would be? Using a thinner underlayment so that the 'base' flooring would be the same thickness?
As for acoustics, tile and other hard flooring just make the room more acoustically 'live'. This can be countered with curtain and other wall coverings.
I (well the tile guy) replaced my kitchen and dining room with porcelain tile, as it was recommended as stronger than plain ceramic tiles.
Yes, best practice calls for an underlayment for the tile, as well as thin set mortar to set the tiles in. In my case, the floor had a layer of furring strips, which had to be replaced with plywood, before putting the tile underlayment board down.
Porcelain for floors, ceramic for walls is what I was told.
It would be a standard practice to do the whole area with backerboard, if you don't do a wet bed.
And definitely use porcelain tiles, like the other comment suggests.
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