ceramic tile over vinyl?

[Rob Stanhope]

is this worth the time saving?I WANT TO DO THIS RIGHT,BUT IT'S A HELL OF AN AREA.TRYING TO DO IT QUICK FOR A FRIEND,AND NO MONEY.

[Charlie Reals]

is this worth the time saving?I WANT TO DO THIS RIGHT,BUT IT'S A HELL OF AN AREA.TRYING TO DO IT QUICK FOR A FRIEND,AND NO MONEY.

I take it you are talking vinyl flooring in which case I wouldn't do it. I guess you could scratch the vinyl to affect a hold but I don't recommend it if you want it to last.
just my 2c's

[Jim Rimmer]

No way, no how. Long term your asking for loose tiles, cracks, lots of trouble.

[Jim O'Dell]

Not worth it if you want it to stay. Too much movement. I've got a good section I will be doing in the next few years, and I'm not looking forward to it. Use a scraper to get all that you can. Then a diamond cup blade on an angle grinder will get the glue off and score the concrete. But it makes a horrendous amount of dust. A good mask and proper ventilation is a MUST. Jim.

[Mike Cutler]

Rob

If you drop in on John Bridge's Tiling Forum, You'll find many threads and discussions on that exact subject.
The consensus from the Pro's on the board is not to do it.
Tiling is a lot of work to do properly, and even more work when done improperly.

[Alan Bienlein]

Well I guess I'm the odd ball. I laid ceramic tile in our masterbath and didn't remove the vynil flooring. Screwed down 1/4" hardi backer and not a single problem in over 7 years.

If the vynil is on concrete then yea I would remove it but if you have 3/4" underlayment under it then I would just put down the hardi backer board and be done with it. Just finished doing our kitchen the same way.

[Bruce Page]

This falls into the category of "a job worth doing is a job worth doing right"

[Rob Stanhope]

I knew that it was probably a bad idea,but like i said Im doing this as a favor,I was hoping i could get more contradiction on my better judgement. It was worth asking ,and I appreciate the feedback.

[Peter Stahl]

Another very important thing is a bouncy floor, very bad for ceramic tile. Go to the John Bridge's Tiling Forum and join and read some post, lots of good info there. They also have a floor deflection calculator to tell you if it's ok for ceramic tile or not.

[Tim Boger]

is this worth the time saving?I WANT TO DO THIS RIGHT,BUT IT'S A HELL OF AN AREA.TRYING TO DO IT QUICK FOR A FRIEND,AND NO MONEY.

There are some very nice sheet vinyl floor choices available these days, perhaps using a similar material over the existing would be a reasonable option.

Tim

[Jason Roehl]

If there's subfloor AND underlayment underneath the vinyl, that could make the tearout quicker if you pull the underlayment and vinyl as one, depending on how the underlayment was installed.

Personally, I'm not a fan of constantly adding floor coverings without tearing out the previous. It just makes any problems down the line harder to find and fix, and it really doesn't add that much extra work. I've got 2 bathrooms that have carpet over vinyl and a kitchen that has vinyl over vinyl, and when I get around to those projects, it's ALL coming out, to be replaced with tile done right.

[Lee Schierer]

Well I guess I'm the odd ball. I laid ceramic tile in our masterbath and didn't remove the vynil flooring. Screwed down 1/4" hardi backer and not a single problem in over 7 years.

If the vynil is on concrete then yea I would remove it but if you have 3/4" underlayment under it then I would just put down the hardi backer board and be done with it. Just finished doing our kitchen the same way.

That makes two of us. I put down ceramic tile in our bathroom over 12 years ago. I screwed down 1/2" cement board over the vinyl, which was securely attached to eh subfloor. I roughed up the vinyl with a belt sander, swept up the sanding dust, put down thin set with a vinyl additive, screwed down the concrete board every 6" as recommended, put down more thin set for the tile and haven't had a crack yet. The underlayment was 3/4" plywood.

[Greg Cole]

This falls into the category of "a job worth doing is a job worth doing right"

Or if ya don't have the time to do it right, do you have the time to do it twice?

[Don Alexander]

many many years ago when i first started in construction i learned a very valuable lesson " it takes at least 4 times longer to do it twice than it does to do it right the first time and you never get as good a job if you have to do it twice"

remember the kids story about the tortoise and the hare? its a good thing to keep in mind as a general rule of thumb

[Dusty Fuller]

I'm contemplating on how to best do the exact opposite... vinyl over tile... but I know the answer and that's precisely why I haven't done it yet.

I agree with the rest of the folks, it wouldn't do well long-term.