It is essential to have a substrate (or base) that will not shift, expand, or contract when laying tile, as this can cause the tile to crack. It was always a question that how to lay tiles like ceramic on plywood. Even the most skilled tile layers and experts can ruin an otherwise beautiful floor by using a base that is not dimensionally stable. A wide variety of additional kinds of floor coverings, such as laminate or luxury vinyl tile, have more flex and are more forgiving than conventional floor coverings. However, ceramic, porcelain, and glass tile, along with their service components of thinset and grout, are too brittle to resist even the most minute of substrate movements. 
The installation of tile made of ceramic, glass, stone, or porcelain on plywood can be accomplished with the help of the following pointers. You could try using a Plywood Intervening Sheet. Tile can be put on plywood. However, tile should never be installed directly on the plywood subfloor itself. Make use of an intermediate layer made of a thinner sheet of plywood. Keep an eye out for thinset that has a higher percentage of latex. To ensure that the tile will adhere to the plywood, a thinset must first be troweled on top of the plywood. Bonding to plywood requires an amount of latex that is significantly higher. It is recommended to use a high-quality unaltered thinset and combine it with a latex additive. Make Sure You Use the Appropriate Kind of Plywood For the substrate, either plywood or exterior-grade lumber should be used. You should under no circumstances utilize plywood with a veneer-bond finish. Plywood intended for interior use is referred to as veneer plywood because it is laminated on both sides with a very thin layer of hardwood. When a tile is laid on veneer plywood, there is a possibility that the veneer could get dislodged and released, which will result in an insecure substrate for the tile. Fasteners for the Space Field and Edge Correctly It is recommended that the top layer of plywood be screwed down every 8 inches along the edge and every 6 inches in the field, also known as the internal portion. Make sure that the tops of all of the screws are screwed down to the same level as the plywood. 
Separate the Board Joints Into Spaces It is important to leave a significant distance between the joints of the top layer and those of the bottom layer. It is best to avoid stacking two joints, one on top of the other. Maintain an Appropriate Space Between the Boards. Keep a spacing of 1/16 of an inch between the joints to allow for movement caused by expansion and contraction. If you do not allow any space between the boards, the edges of two sheets of plywood that are adjacent to one another may press against one another and deform when the plywood swells. Leaving a space opens the door for this natural growth to occur. Check the Plywood's Flexibility. Apply this straightforward test to determine whether or not the plywood has bent after it has been laid down. On the piece of plywood, place a dinner plate. Place a bowl of cereal directly on top of the platter. Using a separate container, pour the liquid onto the very top of the dish. After then, proceed to walk on the plywood that surrounds the basin. There should be some ripples in the water as a result of the vibration, but the water should not flow onto the plate. If this is the case, you will need to secure the boards with additional screws. If that doesn't solve the problem, the problem might be with the floor joists. The joists can be strengthened in a number of ways. One method involves shoring up the joists from underneath by sistering them with 2x10s or 2x8s. 
Obtain the Appropriate Screw Depth When you are screwing the top layer down, you need to be sure that you are not screwing any further than the plywood on the bottom layer. By transferring the movement from the joists directly to the top layer of plywood, driving screws all the way down to the joists nullifies the effect of double layering the floor, which is achieved by driving screws all the way down to the joists. Utilize a Membrane that Does Not Couple Installing a membrane that is both waterproof and uncoupling in between the tile and the first layer of plywood is a common method that is used to improve the performance of the plywood substrate. One of the most well-known brands of the membrane is called Schluter-Ditra. In Schulter-Ditra, it is stated quite clearly that Ditra is intended to replace the second layer of plywood. Cracking is caused by a link between the mortar and the flooring that is rigid and does not move. The function of an uncoupling membrane is precisely described by its name: it "uncouples," or releases, the bond between the tile mortar and the plywood, so enabling one surface to move independently of the other. In addition to this benefit, uncoupling tile membranes stop moisture from penetrating the surfaces below the tiles. Tip: Decoupling tiles is not a recently developed process. Since the time of the Romans and Greeks, people have been using shear release interfaces. This practice dates back thousands of years. Because there are two layers of thinset in addition to the membrane, installing an uncoupling membrane results in an increase in the overall height of the installation. 
This is one of the disadvantages of using uncoupling membranes. Options Other Than Plywood for Substrates The tile should always be installed on top of a cement backer board such as Durock, Wonderboard, or HardieBacker. This is the safest and most prudent course of action. Tile installation requires the use of a cement backer board. Backerboard does not contract or expand when exposed to water like other building materials do (mortar and grout both contain water). Even though exterior grade plywood is made to withstand severe weather, there is nothing that can handle wetness better than a product that is fully built of minerals (cement board). This is because cement board is not an organic product like plywood, which is made of wood (plywood). A cement board will not prevent floor deflection, but it will provide an ideal surface for tiling since it will attach to the tiles and fill any gaps between them. To begin, the porous nature of cement backer board makes it an ideal surface for creating a bond with thinset. This is the case even though cement backer board is not normally used. Second, a cement board makes it easier to fill in the gaps. Thinset will need to be troweled in between the cement board and the plywood before the cement board can be laid down. The cement board covers up any defects in the plywood, and the thinset that is applied underneath the cement board will fill in any gaps that may have been left.
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