u/radicalelk

Redoing a kitchen in a ~100-year-old house.

After demo, I’ve got plank subfloor, and adjacent wood floors sit about 3/8” above those planks.

Plan was: -1/2” plywood over planks

• thinnest membrane possible
• thinset + 3/8” porcelain tile

That puts the tile roughly ~1”+ above the planks, meaning ~5/8”–3/4” higher than the hardwood.

Questions:

• Is plywood over planks basically required here?
• Any lower-profile approach that’s still legit?
• Would you just use a reducer, or rethink the floor height entirely?

Trying to do it right without creating a tripping hazard. Appreciate any input.

Replacing the tile in our 100year old kitchen and getting concerned about the height of the new tile transitioning into the rest of the house (original wood floors). The Underlayment we are ripping up is only 1/4 thick or so. The recommendation is to use double or more than that. That, in addition to the membrane, thinset and potentially some self leveler is adding up to nearly 1.5” of difference between the new tile and the wood floors, which feels ridiculous right?