Ceramic Tile to Laminate kitchen floor
Hello,
I would like to remodel my kitchen floor which currently has ceramic tile over a masonry board subfloor, which I believe is installed over plywood. The adjacent dining room and living room have solid hardwood floors.
My wife would like laminate floors in the kitchen, and I would like a contrasting hardwood that doesn’t look like an attempt to match the existing hardwood. So, we’re getting laminate because that’s what the boss wants! :). I do understand that hardwood may be riskier in a kitchen so I’m okay with the laminate floor decision.
My questions are about installing the laminate floors. When we demo, should we try to leave the masonry board in place? Does the masonry board have to be removed and a new subfloor more suitable for the laminate floor install be put in? Can the laminate flooring be installed over the masonry board? I’m a little nervous about the condition of the plywood under the masonry board and worried that if the masonry board comes up it may reveal rotten or old plywood that may also need to be replaced. It is an older wooden house. So I’d like to leave the masonry board in place if possible.
I’ve seen lots of people install laminate over existing tile but none removing the tile and installing over the masonry board. Am I setting myself up for failure trying to leave the masonry board in place?
My next question would be what sort of subfloor should be put in below the laminate over the masonry board or over the play wood if the masonry board has to come up. I currently have 3/4” thick hardwood floors in the adjacent dining and living room and I would like the new kitchen floor to be flush with the existing floor when installed to avoid any sort of unsightly or prominent transition strip covering the gap between the different floors.
With the laminate floors typically being so much thinner than the 3/4” tile we’re removing I’m not sure what to install under the laminate to achieve a flush interface between the floors. All the laminate stuff we’ve seen is something like 6.5 mm or 12 mm thick. So I was thinking a half in plywood over the existing masonry board and then the 6.5 mm laminate might be right to achieve the flush interface with the existing 3/4” hardwood floors? Is plywood over old masonry board a terrible idea?
Sorry for the long post and all the naive questions, I’ve never done this before and I’m a little nervous about tearing it up and then making a big mistake on install that we have to have fixed later.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Hunter
Replies
Do you have a dishwasher and is the ceramic and cement (masonry?) board under it?
What’s the distance between your current floor and the bottom of the countertop ?
For laminate you want FLAT subfloor under it. No dips or ridges.
Thanks for the reply.
The dishwasher, range, and the refrigerator are all on top of the ceramic tile. They will all have to be temporarily relocated to remove the tile and install the laminate, plus any changes to the subfloors that need to be done.
I would really like to maintain the exact same distance between the top of the new floor and the countertops. As is, the current tile and the adjacent hardwood are installed flush with eachother. This is what I'd like to maintain.
So any new subfloor I put in, plus the laminate would need to be very close to the same thickness as the masonry board plus the tile.
From your reply, should I infer you mean the masonry board should be taken up and new plywood put in its place?
I think it might be difficult to get the old thin set and tile mortar off and get the old masonry board completely flat. I understand grinding or sanding that stuff can be quite bad for you.
I am prone to overthinking these things though. Can some combination of foam or cork underlayment be laid over the existing masonry board to provide a flat substrate for the new laminate? Assuming I can find a combination that will allow me to achieve the laminate install flush with the existing hardwood?
I can’t see it from here but if it was my job I would most likely Plan to take up the tile and cement board and then see what we have. Further, I’d figure screwing down the sub floor.
Is there a floor register you could pop out to see further what kinds of build up you have?