# Forum Home Renovation Tiling  Tiling on Timber floorboards

## cabman

has anyone layed tiles straight over a timber floorboards? i was thinking putting villa board down and lay the tiles on that with flexable glue...any ideas cheers

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## Gooner

You will need to lay down some ceramic tile underlay over the floorboards. I believe there is a general rule for how much flexibility the floor should have. I was told from an Ardex tech support guy max flexibility should be around 1/360th of joist spacing when an person weighing approx 85kg stands between the joists. I.e. if joist spacing is 600mm then you would expect no more than around 1.6mm deflection. However, I have never heard anyone else refer to this "rule".  
I used 6mm underlay and Ardex X77 flexible tile adhesive. You could use 9mm thick underlay for extra stiffness. Apparently the Ardex X56 is the more appropriate Ardex tile adhesive to use for flexible floors, but the X77 is also suitable. (X77 is quite pricey compared to other floor tile adhesives.). 
I lay down 10mm thick 45x45cm polished porcelain tiles on my floorboard with only 1.5mm grout lines (19mm thick tassie oak) and no problem at all. I did use additive in the grout for extra flexibility. Floor seems rock solid so far. 
FYI, the specs for Ardex X56 are shown below; 
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=subtitles>ARDEX X 56</TD></TR><TR><TD> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=bodytext>*Size (pack):* 15kg, 4kg</TD></TR><TR><TD class=bodytext>*Colour:* Light grey</TD></TR><TR><TD class=bodytext>*Coverage:* 9m² (10x10x10mm notched trowel), 13m² (6x6x6mm notched trowel) per 15kg.</TD></TR><TR><TD class=bodytext>ARDEX X56 is the first fast setting, highly polymer modified adhesive capable of bridging cracks to 1.5mm. This flexibility makes the adhesive suitable for tiling directly to timber without the addition of additives. ARDEX X56 is fast drying (sets in 4 hours).  
Suitable for walls and floors, internal and external situations. For commerical floors which are subject to heavy loads, ARDEX provides other systems.  
Classification: C1S2 (AS 4992.1) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

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## cabman

thanks for the reply mate where is the best place to buy the tile underlay from?
would bunnings sell it cheers

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## Gooner

Bunnings does sell tile underlay. Go to the James Hardie website for more information and installation instructions/requirements. E.g. the type of nails you need to buy to fix the underlay to the floorboards.

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## ChunkyCharcoal

PLEASE use an underlay.... I've just spent weeks pulling tiles up that were laid directly onto floorboards, cursing the clown who did it... :Doh:   
Bunnings is not always the cheapest for ceramic tile underlay. Go to a plasterboard supplier as well.

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