Should Tile Be Installed Over Particleboard?

Basics of Particleboard

• Particleboard at its most basic level is pieces or particles of wood that have been compressed together into layers that are built up on top of each other to form a single sheet of particleboard. While particleboard is a common substrate for many types of finishing materials in residential and commercial construction, it is not a rated substrate for ceramic tile and natural stone installations.

Water and Wood

• The basics of concrete revolve around the chemical reaction of cement when water is introduced into the mixture. Water and wood do not generally mix the same way, and, while there are special pressurized and treated woods that can withstand water and are rated for use with tile installations, particleboard is not. Once the water in the thinset penetrates the first layer of particleboard it will peel away, leaving the top layer loose from the rest of the board.

Peeling

• Once the top layer has separated from the rest of the layers in the particleboard, your ceramic tile installation is essentially floating free. What this means is that there is nothing actually holding the tile installation in place because the thinset mortar isn’t stuck to a stable surface, which leads to tiles popping off the floor, grout cracking and overall installation failure.

Considerations

• While particleboard is not an acceptable substrate for tile installations, it is completely suitable for subfloor use in conjunction with some form of concrete or fiberboard underlayment for tile installations. As long as the particleboard is installed in double layers of five-eighths-inch-thick board as per industry specifications and then covered with a rated underlayment, you are good to go and will have an installation that lasts for years.