Replies

1. 
   T.Powderly | Feb 14, 2000 05:29am | #1

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   Bill
   I am not a professional tile installer but I recently ran into the same situation you speak of. My client wanted ceramic tile in their basement family room, which had vinyl tile over the concrete slab. After speaking with several tile installers all but one said they would go right over the tile, the only thing different would be the adhesive. There is a special adhesive for laying ceramic over vinyl. I must say that now that the job is done, it looks great and I wouldn't have done it any other way.

   Hope this helps
   tim

1. 
   davo304_ | Feb 14, 2000 08:57am | #2

   *Bill,I'm like T, I don't do tile work, except for in my own home.I was pondering the same thing, and found a tile setting adhesive manufactured by ARDEX. I don't know if this is the same stuff that T's crew used or not. To date, I haven't used it either (My wife's ready to kill me if I don't tile our floor pretty soon!), but I've seen a small demo of its use at (of all places) Home Depot.The actual name is ARDEX S-48 Cemastic Universal Tile Setting Adhesive. This stuff is in powder form and gets mixed with water. It did stick to vinyl flooring, and I could not pull the ceramic tile piece off once it had cured.Seemed to me to be a good product. I bought the stuff (at Home Depot), but haven't used it yet. The only problem I could forsee is that the vinyl flooring had better be tight, otherwise bonding to the vinyl will do you no good. If you had patches of loose vinyl, you could remove these sections and simply build up this area with 2 or more coats of the ARDEX as a leveler prior to tile setting (ARDEX makes this claim on their package).Anyway, hope this helps. I believe FHB has ARDEX listed in their classifieds? (I thought I have seen it listed there).Davo

1. 
   Bill_Heyde | Feb 14, 2000 09:41am | #3

   *I appreciate hearing from someone who has done it. I was always afraid that two different materials on top of each other and 'glued' together would have different rates of movement and that the uppermost one (the finish tile) would pop free or at least have grout joints failing. Can I ask how long has the new floor been in place? Any problems at all? Thanks again. Bill

1. 
   Bill_Heyde | Feb 14, 2000 09:49am | #4

   *Thanks also Davo, I appreciate the specific product info, although I have to admit, I do sometimes worry about advice I receive solely from Home Depot. I know that they do have some good people working there, you just have to be careful who you talk to...come to think of it, that could describe just about any business.Good luck with your own floor, sounds like you better get it started soon!Bill

2. 
   Guest_ | Feb 15, 2000 07:54am | #5

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   Bill:
   I hope you don't mind me tagging a question onto yours. I work in an ultrasound department, below grade, no moisture problems, carpet on floors. We'd like to pull up the carpet and replace it with vinyl tiles. Something about the blood and gel that's hard to get out of the carpet. Plus it's easier to roll one of those machines around on a vinyl floor. Peel and sticks look too thin, so we thought we'd go with the thicker ?vinyl? ones. Can we do this ourselves?? We're fairly good at minor renovations. how do you get the glue off the floor----Just scrape it????? What about that ugly 4" vinyl baseboard-- can we save it or do you have to replace it. Do we have to find the centre of the floor and work out -- the lights are usually dim in there and no one can see if the edges match. We want the tile to stay down, but we also have to do this in our spare minutes. So, no fancy diamond pattern. I'd appreciate what help you guys can give me. Thanks.

   P.S. I did try a search in the archives for tile on concrete, but couldn't get a response. Time expired.

3. 
   Bill_Heyde | Feb 16, 2000 08:57am | #6

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   Martagon,
   I will not claim to be an expert on vinyl tile installations, but I do know that you should not install true vinyl tiles on concrete below grade, regardless of percieved moisture problems. A true vinyl acts as a moisture barrier and a below grade concrete slab emits moisture and will therefore cause the vinyl tile mastic to fail. I have always been told that if you must have a vinyl tile type floor on or below grade that your only option was a vinyl compostion tile installed with my old friend the 'cut-back' adhesive. However, removing the residue from carpet glued to concrete is not something I have an easy answer for...kind of mimics the rational for my own post in the first place. That is, removing adhesive from concrete slabs is a difficult and messy adventure and not one to be undertaken piecemeal in spare minutes. How about a floating laminate floor layed over the top of the carpet???Some of the new laminate veneers are quite durable and certainly easier to clean than a blood stained, gooey carpet.
   Bill

4. 
   Bill_Heyde | Feb 16, 2000 08:57am | #7

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   I am a remodeling contractor in Lower Fairfield County Ct. and periodically run into a situation where we want to use ceramic or natural stone in place of linoleum (or vinyl tile) that has been applied directly to an on grade concrete slab. If you attempt to remove the original flooring, you are left with the infernal mess of "cut-back" adhesive and tiling over the existing floor seems dangerous at best.
   To date I have avoided this problem by recommending other flooring solutions (floating woods, new vinyl tile etc.) but I feel that I am shortchanging my customers.
   Does anyone out there have any real world experience with a successful solution? I would love to hear from you. Thanks for any help, the next time I attempt this will probably be in my own home!