ceramic tile

[books]

I am building a new house. I am going to hire to do some ceramic tile. Is it better to cement the tile in or use a backer board. Thanks

[Joseph Meehan]

What do you mean by cement?

Backer board or green board choice depends on the application.

[books]

Instead of using backer board they lay cement down. Alot of the new home builders do it. They say that there are less problems with tile cracking as the housee settles. The cement follows the floor.

[Joseph Meehan]

I have not heard of it. Are you sure they are not talking about thinset mortar? In any case if it is concrete, the recommendation is to allow the concrete to cure for at least a month. This might not be a problem for a new home, but having a bath out of commission for a month could be a problem for some people.

[Brikp]

I suspect he is talking about a mortar bed versus using a backer board. I have done a lot of DIY tile and have always used durock backer board. I ripped up a morter bed install once. It was a real PIA. The main problem with mortar beds IMO is that they create a much thicker finished floor. This will raise the finished height too high usually. The advantage is that they can make up for a wavey un-even substrate and they seem more solid. The old timers will probably prefer mortar beds, young guys backer boards.

read

[RB]

I'd use backer board (Durock) and Schluter's Ditra in new construction where you can select the elevation.

Depending on the geometry you quite possibly could just use Ditra.

RB

books wrote: