Plywood underlayment is a thin plywood material that is most commonly used under resilient flooring materials such as vinyl and linoleum sheets and tiles.
Ceramic tile over luan plywood.
Luan is a hardwood species containing extractives sugars.
Luan plywood is an unacceptable and unapproved substrate to receive tile or cementitious backer units cbu.
It can also be used under hardwood laminate and carpet but this is much less common these days because subflooring is typically smooth enough for these materials many of which are installed with a different type of underlayment or pad.
Plywood in ceramic tile installations.
Never have that under tile.
The books says a minimum of 3 8 underlayment grade plywood no 1 4 then use ditra or a 1 4 cement backer board both are installed in a wet bed of thinset.
If you are looking for correct then the luan has to come up.
Ceramic tile stone and or cementitious backer unit installations utilizing any luan species will not be warranted by custom.
I just finished prepping my 16 x 16 kitchen for ceramic tile.
I then installed 1 4 luan on top of this and was planning on attaching the ceramic tile to the luan.