Installing Sheet Vinyl Flooring Over Ceramic Tile

A homeowner s guide to floor underlayments.

Installing sheet vinyl flooring over ceramic tile.

Vinyl flooring is a great idea. Smooth out the tile then smooth out the ceramic tile before laying the vinyl. Today i am sharing my one year follow up review of the product. The longer i live on this planet the more i shy from taking risks i think it has something to do with all of the trouble i encountered as a teenage daredevil.

While you don t have to remove your vinyl sheet flooring to install a new tile floor over it the tile council of north america recommends that old sheet flooring be cleaned of wax or bond breakers and new tile should only be laid over one well attached layer of vinyl. Once this step is complete you can continue installing vinyl flooring as with any other substrate. Roll on adhesive for plain vinyl. Remove your baseboards and doors and cover the entire floor with sheets of underlayment to give your vinyl tiles a smooth and flawless surface they can adhere to.

Ceramic tile has grout joints that are uneven so if you were to install the vinyl over top you would see the grout joints underneath the vinyl. Over one year ago i installed luxury vinyl tile directly over pre existing ceramic tile flooring. Use a self leveling compound to fill in the grout joints. You can definitely install vinyl flooring over ceramic tile but you may have to spread leveling compound or lay plywood or hardboard to flatten the floor first.

Cracked or missing tiles should be fixed or filled in. 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. If the tile floor has wide or deep seams use an underlayment rather than installing the vinyl directly on the tile. Vinyl flooring can be installed directly over ceramic and porcelain tile flooring.

Your greatest concerns when installing a vinyl floor over the existing tile are the tile s joints and the floor s height. Wide seams between the tiles can create slight depressions in the vinyl flooring. Before you start see if any tile is broken or damaged. And no resilient flooring with a cushioned construction will work beneath ceramic tile.