I'm trying to lay tile in my kitchen, but I have Linoleum there. I tried to rip it uup but it's not working

Question

There seems to be some clay like tiles under that? My house was builtin 1956 did they use to put someything down on the concrete before they put the Linoleum ? If so can I just tile over that? I know not to tile on Linoleum but what if there is a layer of something else that's hard?

Answer 1

You need to put down something like 3/4 inch plywood to secure the floor, even it out, etc. Screw it to the subfloor, don't skimp on the screws. From there you can put down the tileset and lay tile.

Answer 2

I did this in my kitchen and the linoleum was way older than 1956. What we did was to take very sturdy scrapers, more like wide chisels, sharpened, and scraped the whole floor. Yes, it was a job. But see how far down it is to the concrete because sometimes there's a fiber mat underlay beneath the linoleum. You should probably take that up, too. We only had to scrape the linoleum cement off the wood floor. You might want to wear a mask and run an exhaust fan because you have no idea if they used asbestos in the product. A lot has changed in 50 years. If the linoleum was glued to preexisting ceramic tile, you might want to see what you have underneath anyway. But if it's uninteresting and solid, just build on top of it.

Answer 3

Do you mean ceramic tile? There is some screen you can buy, and then you cement over the screen and then you should be able to tile over it. I suppose you can just put the tiles down over it, but you should talk to a manufacturer and see if they have special cement that will hold better. I tiled over old ceramic tiles that way and they held for 10 years until I sold it and I'm sure they need a bulldozer to remove them.

Answer 4

theres a money issue here. the best way is to put on an underlay right over the lino. its only quarter inch and not real expensive. any thicker and you start to have trouble with doors and things not to mention differant heights of floor if it has to meet another. they sell special nails for this and need to nail every 4 inches. you can use screws, too, but make sure the heads go down in the wood. if money is a problem just put your hairdryer on the sticky lino and it should come right up. I only put down tile with adhesive, not the self sticking kind. but that depends on if you want it to last more than a month. get and keep the floor really clean.

Answer 5

You should have just tiled over the linoleum.

Answer 6

if its a gummy surface under there,u can use a propane torch to heat it up and use a strong putty knife to scrape it up while its warm little by little.if not u can put floor leveler on your ruff surface so its smooth then u can put the glue for tile down good luck