The grout in my bathroom is cracking bad and i just had it installed a little over a year ago. I called a different tile guy to look at it and tell me why its cracking. So im trying to figure out who riped me off or whos trying to rip me off. this new tile guy said the grout is cracking because the other tile guy didnt pull the old vinyl up. I remember the other tile guy told me that the vinyl was my moisture barrier so i didnt need anything put on the floor other than the glue ( or whatever you call it) So this new tile guy is saying thats the reason why my grout is cracking because he needed to pull up the old vinyl and the grout would continue to crack until that was done. So that means i need my whole floor re-done with new tile.....so is this new tile guy telling me the truth. Can you install tile over vinyl?
The first guy totally B.S.ed you. Tile needs to be installed on concrete backer board that is glued and screwed to the sub-floor. Laying is directly on top of old vinyl is totally half ***-ed and will certainly cause problems down the road.
All I can say is: its on the whole now not a excellent concept to position it proper on best. It turns into much more likely for it to arise. And then the procedure of taking on a layer of laminate and a layer of ceramic tile might be that a lot more difficult while it got here approximately. I suppose the one technique to make that paintings with out taking on the ceramic tile is to make an air tight seal among the two. I could not supply you any strategies on how to try this although.
Installing tile over anything that can possibly move around underneath it is a mistake. My bathroom tile grout is breaking up only in one place on the floor - where the joint is on the concrete board backing. It was apparently not fastened down in enough places to keep the two sections of board from moving.
Tile can be installed over vinyl, if the subfloor is rigid enough, but I don't recommend it. Thinset does not adhere well to vinyl. I have pulled up tile floors laid over vinyl, and they come up very easily, barely sticking at all. Your problem, most likely, is that your subfloor is not rigid enough. This may be caused by floor joist spacing being too wide, or subflooring being too thin. At a minimum, joist spacing should be 16 on center, subfloor should be 3/4 tongue and groove plywood with 1/2 cement backerboard screwed and glued to it with thinset. Older homes have 3/4 plank subfloors, and some newer homes have 5/8 plywood subfloors, neither of which is rigid enough. In either case, the fix would be to glue and staple 1/4 lauan over the subfloor. Staples should be 4 apart along the edges, and 8 apart in the field. Lots of glue. So, if it was me fixing your problem, I would pull up the tile and vinyl, do whatever is necessary to make the subfloor rigid, and relay the tile. And I highly recommend epoxy grout. It's costly, and a bit more difficult to work with, but the end result is vastly superior. It's super hard, keeps it's color, doesn't stain, and requires no sealer. Good Luck with your project, hope this helps...
