LESLIE: Next up, we’re going to take a call from Roger in Florida who’s thinking about doing some tiling, or so I think.
Roger, how can we help you?
ROGER: Hi. Thank you. Thank you for taking my call. Yes, my question – I’m going to be remodeling my home and I’m going to be putting some tile. Do I need to put on any base flooring on this?
TOM: Here’s what you need to do. If you’re going to use a 16×16 tile, you’ve got to have a pretty solid base to that. Now you could make the base out of plywood if you use probably at least 1/2-inch plywood or you could make it out of mortar. A mud floor is the best thing to do but that’s going to be fairly heavy. So I think what you’re going to probably want to use is plywood and something called thinset. Because if you don’t make it stiff enough – tile does not bend, as you know, and what’ll happen is it’ll eventually start to loosen up and can even crack; especially in the areas right above the joists in the floor.
So I think it is a good idea, and it’s really an important idea, to spend as much time as you can building a proper base for that, Roger. Because if you don’t, you’re going to end up with a tile job that’s just going to start breaking apart and falling off your floor and it’s just – it’s not going to be pretty.
Roger, thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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