Questions: Ceramic tiling over linoleum

[Al Kondo]

I am in the process of putting ceramic tile on my kitchen floors. I have removed the square vinyl tile that we had and found linoleum. The linoleum is welll fixed to the underlayment and in good condition. Therefore, I decided (after reading info on the Net) that I can place my ceramic tile on top. Here are my two questions:

1. I have cleaned the linoleum very well. However, there remains a "tackiness" on the linoleum. I imagine that it is a thin residue of the glue used on the square vinyl. The vinyl tiles are of the "peel off, and stick on the floor" kind. Do I have to get all of the tackiness off before I go any further

1. I have read some opinion on the Net that the best mortar to use to afix ceramic tile over linoleum is "latex modified thinset mortar". I bought some mortar at Home Depot called Versabond Fortified Thinset Mortar. The packaging calls this stuff "polymer fortified". I am not sure what this means. Will this stuff work for my application?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Al

[Bill Kearney]

Just pull up the linoleum and put down a real subfloor. Tile is a lot stiffer than you'd think. If you don't lay it down on a VERY stable surface it'll just crack. Either on the grout lines or within a tile. Why bother to go through the effort of laying decent tile only to have it get ruined?

[tev9999]

I just did this in my kitchen last week and so far all is good. I had a solid sub floor (1X6s below 3/4 plywood) that had 1950s vintage linoleum which I was afraid could be asbestos, so I decided to encapsulate it. The vinyl was in good shape with great adhesion. I did fix all squeaks with 2 1/2" drywall screws before beginning.

I used Mapei Ultraflex II thinset (polymer modified as you mentioned) under hardibacker board which was fastened with many screws. I filled the joints between the hardibacker board with thinset and fiberglass drywall tape when I put down the tile. Make sure your thinset says it is acceptable for vinyl. Also check out the hardibacker.com website for additional instructions.