backerboard ontop of concrete (tiling)

Jul 14, 2006 2 Replies

Alright, I'm new to tiling and I have this second story condo that has a conrete floor (at least it looks that way). What I'm



wanting to know is, should I lay backerboard over the concrete? Isn't the concrete stable enough for ceramic tiles? I know



that there will be cracks that need to be filled, and that I might have to use a leveling compound. But all that sounds



better than buying and hauling hardibacker into the condo and drilling holes into concrete slab. Any information would help


No, you don't need backerboard. Filling cracks is superfluous too as that will be done automatically when you spread thinset around to lay the tiles. It is also unlikely that you will need to level the floor unless they did a really lousy job on the slab.

The he will want to determine why the cracks are there and if the floor is moving.

If you're worried about the floor moving, or you know that it is, you could use a deocupling mebrane as described here:

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John

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