You’re Going to Tile Over What Part IV

We are quite often able to tile directly over sheet vinyl as long as it is properly affixed to the substrate and as long as it is not perimeter glue down vinyl (the source of our only failure from tiling over vinyl, a $3000 lesson!). When perimeter glue down vinyl warms up it floats above most of the floor and the resulting movement will cause a failure in the installation. Similarly vinyl squares are a potential failure as often the glue holding them down has become weakened over time, making the vinyl tile unsuitable as a substrate. If there is a wood floor under the vinyl, then it needs to be of sufficient strength to support the weight of the new tile and not allow deflection (up and down movement) in the floor which will result in failure. Often we find that older homes have a fairly strong floor system and we are then allowed to attach our tile directly to the vinyl using the appropriate glue. If the sheet vinyl is over cement it has the benefit of adding another level of installation from the ground and also will act as a crack isolation barrier to protect the new tile from a cracking cement floor.

Not too long ago a typical tile installation utilized a 6x6 quarry tile (baked clay) or a 8x8 ceramic tile on kitchen, bath and foyer floors. In those days it was often said that small areas required small tiles. We have found that just the opposite is the case! The bigger tiles will not only make a room look larger but because it has less grout joints it is much easier to maintain. We have had great success in tiling directly over such old smaller tiles with large body tiles to great improvement!