Installing Porcelain Tile Over Vinyl Floor

Laying tile over vinyl flooring on a plywood subfloor.

Installing porcelain tile over vinyl floor.

When bonding vinyl tiles in place or when bonding new tile to old vinyl tile there are some considerations you must make before determining whether you can use thinset in the application. Once you ve removed lose or broken pieces patch the empty sections with a liquid cement or mortar letting it settle level with the tile floor. Consider this sample procedure for leveling a ceramic tile floor prior to installing glue down or floating vinyl. A unique and time saving way to apply ceramic tile directly on top of vinyl flooring using the tavy thin skin system home owners are now able to lay ceramic tile over surfaces that would have never before been possible.

Apply thin set adhesive to the vinyl flooring with a notched trowel. Apply thin set adhesive to any joints in the backer board. Ron and armen tavy demonstrate one such surface in this project as they install ceramic tile over vinyl flooring. The best candidate is fully adhered glued down sheet vinyl flooring.

Your greatest concerns when installing a vinyl floor over the existing tile are the tile s joints and the floor s height. Screw or nail 1 2 cement backer board on top of the vinyl while the adhesive is still wet. Not every form of resilient flooring is suitable for receiving tile directly. Installing ceramic tile over vinyl or linoleum surfaces can be more complicated than expected and probably should be avoided whenever possible.

This isn t possible with every flooring material but it s often possible to install ceramic porcelain or stone tile over resilient flooring including standard sheet vinyl vinyl tile or linoleum. Before you start see if any tile is broken or damaged.