Flooring Tile - Preparing Subfloor for small octagon tile

Good Afternoon all...

I hope someone can give me some direction as to what to do... I have a 10x10 bathroom floor that I spent the better part of 4 nights with a chisel and hammer breaking up the tile floor.. I now am left with a floor that I gouged up fairly bad in some spots getting the chisel under the tile and also I have some spots of old thinset I guess that I need to sand down. I was thinking of using a 60 course sanding disk and my palm sander?

In reading all the posts here, I am convinced I should use 1/4" backerboard over the plywood. My questions is: In putting the 1/4" backerboard down for the smoooth surface, doing so will put me about 1/4" over the toilet flange when I put the tile down. Is that an issue I should worry about, or will the wax ring take care of me there? If it is an issue, I will just go the way it was before and put the tile down on the plywood subfloor...

Also, I went to home depot and saw the cement board and the easy to cut backerboard.. I was going with the easy to cut plain backerboard.. tan color.. $ 9.95 for a 3 x 5 sheet.

Thanks!!!!!!! You guys are great

Jon

Install the backerboard, it get's installed over unmodified thinset with a 1/4" trowel and backerboard screws.:)

1/4" difference is not that bad, they make thicker wax rings with the cup on them, just for this.:)

Thansk tileman.. I was just doing a little more research.. what if i used Ditra instead of the backerboard? looks like it is easier to work with and wont present the issue with the flange.. any thoughts? in regards to my tile selection.. we are going for the old fashion look with the small white octagon tile sold in sheets 1 foot square. are these more suseptible to cracking?

Ditra has restrictions on how small a tile can be used over it. Their website has the information. I would stay with the backerboard for this.

Thanks for the heads up... will stay with the 1/4" rhinoboard... one last question. Cutting the round hole in the rhino board to fit over the toilet flange... do i try to get under the flange, or just around it and fill under it with thinset? i am guessing just cut it so it fits close to the flange and supply valve, then fill in the rest with thinset.

Cut up to the flange and tile up to the flange, the toilet will cover it all.:)