Exploding floor

Mar 09, 2008 8 Replies

I've posted about this before, every winter the ceramic tile in my kitchen pops off the floor (thinset over plywood). At first I thought it was temperature because it usually occured on the coldest day of the year. But what about humidty, can the dry air of winter cause a plywood sheet to shrink enough to cause the tile to pop off?



Its too late for this year, the damage is done. but next year I will be having a humodifier going to test the theory out.


Its not humidity it is the subfloor is substandard.

Even though the manufacturers say you can thinset over plywood, it's generally a bad idea. Tile is very stable, tile is not. If you don't want to use backer board, you should use a cleavage membrane.

R

re: Tile is very stable, tile is not.

I'm so confused!

It's okay. That's why people come here. Welcome.

He's quoting Hamlet.

From the sequel, "Hamlet 2, the Handyman's Edition", first performed at the London Home Expo in 1623.

"Whether tile is very stable or not, that is the question."

Tile = wood in the second part of that sentence => tile is very stable, wood is not. Wood wants to move, tile doesn't want it to, wood moves anyway, tile loses.

R

To tile, or not to tile, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the kitchen to suffer The dent and ding of dropped stoneware, Or to take care against a sea of movement And by aligning, end them. To tile: to sweep.

Great book. I have a signed first edition. ;)

R

I guess The Bard was really into home repair. Before Hamlet 2, there was Romeo and SWMBOliet

Romeo:

But pop! What tile from yonder kitchen breaks? It is ceramic, and plywood is the sub! Arise, fair tile, and kill the splendid decor Who is already spoiled and spread with shards

SWMBOliet:

O Adhesion, Adhesion, wherefore art thou Adhesion? Deny thy holding and refuse thy task; or, if thou wilt not, be but stuck my tile, And I'll no longer be a Sweeper.

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