Leveling for Ceramic Tile

[tev9999]

As my kitchen remodel progresses, I have discovered a new layer of linolium on the kitchen floor. There could be asbestos and the black tar type mastic will be a pain to remove, so I am leaving it. I've already checked the hardibacker website and it says laying over linolium is fine as long as it is in good condition (it is) with the right thinset. Right now the floor consists of 1X6s diagonal to joists, 3/4 ply on that, and the linolium.

I've got one area that is about 2 X 2 feet where this is no linolium. This was a wall and framed in closet that was removed, and is on the edge of the room where it will transition to carped. Since there was no plywood over the 1X6s, I added 3/4". It is stilll a little lower than the rest of the floor due to the thickness of the linolium - probably 1/16" or less.

I was thinking of using some self stick vinyl tiles I have laying around to "shim" this area up to the same level as the rest of the floor. This makes it exactly level. Any issues with this? Would floor leveler be better? Is it not even an issue since the thinset and 1/4" hardibacker will level it out?

Thanks for any advice.

[SQLit]

Every ceramic tile application over vinyl tile I have seen has failed in less than 3 years. Your mileage will vary.

Why not use a slightly thicker bed of thin set? Instead of the scrap tile.

[Norminn]

clipped

When we had our LR/DR tiled over concrete, formerly covered with carpet, we had the issue of tile adjacent to terazzo in several places. The terazzo was slightly higher - about 1/8" - than the normal thinset/tile. The contractor told us he would apply slightly thicker bed of thinset at the joints to raise the tile and make it level with the terazzo. I was very leery, and afraid it would stand out and look like a booboo. It turned out beautifully, cannot be seen to "slant". I have no idea whether the solution would be different over ply, but our contractor had several tricky issues to deal with and did a gorgeous job. We have just a grout joint between tile and terazzo, as we did not like the metal strips sometimes used at joints.