Ceramic Tile install in Trailer

The tile forum with the best information is the John Bridge Tile Forum. Good folks there. And John owns an RV himself.

While you can tile over plywood, even in homes, its not a great idea. Having a tileable surface installed over the pywood such as Ditra (mentioned above) or cement board or a crack isolation membrane such as GreenSkin or CrackBuster Pro will provide an acceptable surface. Ditra will add about 1/8" to the tile assembly and is self classified as an 'uncoupling" membrane offering no crack isolation or protection. The thinnest of the membranes is Greenskin. Both GS and CBP are peel and stick. Ceement board adds nothing to the structural integrity of the floor no matter how they are installed. It simply gives you a tileable surface. Cement board should be set in a bed of thinset, then screwed to the floor with the proper fasteners.

The plywood below everything is the next hurdle. You should have a deflection no less than L360. Not sure how you can get the deflection for the floor in an RV. The quality of the plywood is another concern. At the very least you'd want a good BC grade. No sheathing, no particle board and nothing under 3/4". The thicker the better. Multiple layers set in a staggered pattern then glued with a full spread of glue then screwed together will give the stiffest flooring.

There are no flexible cement based thinsets. There is one thinset made for sound reduction that is flexible; Laticrete 125, but Laticrete will not warranty the product for this use.

There are no flexible cement based grouts. You can use a pre-mixed grout, but they tend to re-emulsify* and get dirty easily. You can fill the joints with grout matching 100% silicone, but again no manufacturer will swear by the installation. A single component grout might be your best option.

Tile selection is important as well. The toughest will be through body porcelain, followed by porcelain, then ceramic. While very pretty, natural stone is the worst choice.

As a member of the National Tile Contractors Association, I can tell you the party line will be; tile your RV at your own risk. While some RV's may have the proper deflection we can't say that all do. Thus the recommendation remains the same.

* Yes, I know there is no such thing as re-emulsify as when wetted it simply emulsifies, but then most people don't know that like you do.

If it were at all possible, my TT would have a heated tile floor.

Afterall, I'm Italian and we tile everything.

Houston Remodeler wrote:
If it were at all possible, my TT would have a heated tile floor.

Afterall, I'm Italian and we tile everything.

LOL

Thanks for the great responses. I go around and around about this, really wanting the luxury and ease of a tile floor. I am still looking at all kinds of options but finding some truly GREAT tile here in Mexico that we just dont get up north spurred me on again. And at only between 88 and 200 pesos a Square meter it's such a great bargain....

This guy seems to have it figured out

http://flextile.com/

Houston Remodeler has very good advice, only one thing to add is the possibility to use silicone instead of thin set and instead of grout. The silicone will remain flexible as the RV moves. Ensure you use enough silicone for adhesive to the floor to give the tile a good base; use of not enough silicone and a point load on the tile could cause it to crack.
Good luck with your project. A trial run on a separate piece of plywood is the way I would proceed to test any method prior to installation in your RV.

Houston Remodeler wrote:
The tile forum with the best information is the John Bridge Tile Forum. Good folks there. And John owns an RV himself.

I was going to post the same until I got farther down on the posts. Best tile forum out there, bar none.

In a house, min. subfloor thickness is typically 1" to 1 1/8" but depends on joist spacing. "Ceramic" floor tile in a trailer is very risky. A small contained area where you have an appropriate subfloor may work in a trailer. Tiles will shrink and expand with temp. extremes and there will be vibration and movement that will cause the grout to fail and some may even come out. Water will get through to the sub-floor due to hairline cracks in the grout that you can't see. You could use epoxy grout but that stuff is so strong, the tiles will break instead of the grout failing. You could possibly use sanded caulk but will still have issues.

If you add a layer of plywood to stiffen the subfloor and then also consider the thickness of the tile and mortar, you will have a build-up height that will really interfere with cabinet doors, entry door threshold, toilet, etc. Even just the tile + mortar thickness alone will probably cause issues (about 3/8" height). There is Schluter Ditra tile underlayment, but not suitable in a trailer. If you have a slide, how would you deal with the increase in floor height.

Sounds like a lovely idea on the surface, but it's not practical in a TT or FW. If it ended being a failure and you needed to pull it all out, man what a job that would be... If it were do-able, you'd read about folks doing successful installs but everything out there basically says not a good idea. Vinyl laminate planks have been successfully installed by many RV owners

Houston Remodeler wrote:
This guy seems to have it figured out

http://flextile.com/

It looks like he promotes using ordinary ceramic/porcelain tile in small sizes and is just selling silicone based adhesive and grout, sponges, float and tile saw. His tiling examples don't show any open floor areas. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I'd trust the John Bridge forum way ahead of the flextile site.

I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I'd trust the John Bridge forum way ahead of the flextile site.

Me too.

Is the tile hard bisque or soft bisque. Either can be used as a back splash. I wouldn't recommend soft tile on the floor.

The key to success is silicone rubber grout and adhesive. They both flex with movement. I tiled my entryway, steps, hallway and bathroom floor 4 years ago and 15,000 miles of travel. The jobs are still perfect.