Can wood flooring be installed over ceramic tile?

Question

I live in a condo. The previous owner had off-white ceramic tile installed on the entire first level! I don't like it - can it be covered with hardwood or does all the tile need to come up? Thanks

Answer 1

to answer your question, no.......not with out alot of prep.....

lic. gen. contractor

Answer 2

It needs to come up.  Even if you use 'floating' flooring that attaches to each other, and rests on top, you'd end up having to cut doors and jambs.   You would be raising the floor height too much.

Answer 3

The tile doesn't have to come up. Float a thin coat of a latex floor float (Home Depot) over the tile and the wood is ready to install. If you choose a wood that is 3/8" thick you may not need to trim the doors. There needs to be at least a 3/4" space under the doors after the wood is installed.

The baseboard needs to be taken up and re-installed after the wood. Under-cut the door jambs so the wood will slide under and look good.

Answer 4

This depends on a few things. Is it a completely flat surface or is the tile sculptural and have a wavy top surface? Would you consider a floating floor system? These are usually either laminates or engineered and can go over a foam sheeting which could be placed on top of the tile. You could also do a glue down depending on how flat the surface is, and if the tile is down well and not loose. A solid 3/4 thick nail down would not work well unless you took up the tile and made sure the sub floor was a good working surface.

My choice in a condo would be to float a floor over a foam sheeting. Engineered although they have warranties probably will scratch etc and depending on what you choose may or may not be refinish-able. Plus in 10-15 years you may not be there and/or the tile may be in style again or carpet could come back or lighter colored flooring etc. Owning it, I would go with an inexpensive engineered, they are much richer looking than the laminates and you may appreciate that if you ever sell.

He is right you will have to plane down doors and cut jams and also pop your moldings and reuse or replace them. But that is easier than tearing out tile even if it is on a nailed down wire system on plywood rather than backer board. And, flooring hieghts may differ because the thickness of the tile and together with what it was attached with, may not be the same as the floor you choose anyway. Sometimes in order to make up the difference they lost by taking out the tile and backer or scratched wire, people go with a 3/4 solid which are generally (unless you find a deal) higher in price. Plus if it is a wire job you may also have to replace some of the plywood flooring after the rip out.

But keep in mind you need a flat surface to avoid all that tile rip out.