How To Install Sheet Vinyl Over Ceramic Tile

Use a self leveling compound to fill in the grout joints.

How to install sheet vinyl over ceramic tile.

After 72 hours try to pull up the vinyl. Vinyl tile can be purchased as a peel and stick variety to make home improvement quick and easy or it can be adhered to flooring using tile adhesive as you would with most traditional tile. 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. Sold either as sheets or in tiles vinyl is easy to install and usually requires only a few basic tools to do so.

Before you install sheet vinyl the subfloor must be in good condition. Over time the vinyl will sink or be pressed down into the contour of these depressions telescoping the grout joints from the ceramic tile installation all the way up through the vinyl tiles. Loose lay perimeter bond sheet vinyl can shift beneath the tile installation making it unsuitable as a base for ceramic tile. Then smooth out the ceramic tile before laying the vinyl.

If it comes up easily there s too much moisture in the concrete to install a sheet vinyl floor. While standard sheet vinyl that is well bonded usually makes an acceptable base for ceramic tile that s not true of all forms of resilient flooring. In some cases vinyl can be glued directly to old vinyl ceramic tile and wood floors but special fillers and glue down procedures are needed. If the grout lines in the ceramic tile are deep you ll see and feel them under sheet flooring and if you choose to install preglued vinyl tiles they won t stick.

While there are different types of flooring you can choose vinyl planks luxury vinyl vinyl tiles or even wrap vinyl using a skim coat to even the floor surface is the secret to laying vinyl floor over old vinyl successfully. Next if the tile s joints are deep you ll want regrout them to bring them flush with the tile so that the lines won t telegraph show through the vinyl floor. Once the tile is leveled off your next step is to remove the toilet so that the floor can be laid under it not cut around it. Give the compound time to dry before moving on to the installation process.

The main caveat is that all vinyl formats call for a smooth subfloor including sheet vinyl vinyl tile and luxury vinyl planks and tiles.