Vinyl plank wood look over ceramic tile

[Tdutch]

Searched the threads couldn't find anything. Looking at having vinyl wood look plank flooring done throughout the house. I'm trying to avoid tearing up all the tile. The tile is ceramic. The grout lines aren't huge but they aren't flush either. The tile I'm looking at is 5mm thick, 20 mil wear layer, spc core, vinyl bottom with attached pad. Obviously the best way to ensure the grout line don't show through is to tear it all out. The second best option is to level the grout line and floor over. But would the vinyl being 5mm thick be ok going over the ceramic without tear out or any other prep to the tile or grout?

Thanks

 

[havasu]

That is exactly what I did. If your tile is sound, and you can afford to raise your flooring without jeopardizing door thresholds, it is easily doable.

 

[Tdutch]

That is exactly what I did. If your tile is sound, and you can afford to raise your flooring without jeopardizing door thresholds, it is easily doable.

So you didn't address the grout in any way by leveling or anything? How long has the vinyl been down now?

 

[havasu]

The existing tile was a 20" x 20" 1990's color with 1/16" grout lines. They had a factory jagged edge. The first 1000 feet, the workers I hired floated the entire floor with a thin coat of thinset, coming back the next day to sand it down. It created so much dust, we decided it wasn't worth continuing. The remaining 1000 feet, we just laid it on top of the existing tile. My issue was the carpeted bedrooms. We needed to build it up 1/2", so we floated the concrete floor with a waterproofing glue, then set down plywood and set it with concrete nails every 6". This way, all the flooring in the house became the same level. And we now have vinyl plank wall to wall. I added new baseboard and I think the floor turned out great. Here is a pic.

 

[highup]

Cortec rep told me the grout lines needed to be filled on s job I did recently. I filled the grout lines first, then floated out the floor. It's easier to do it that way than to do both in one process.
Have you played with a good straightedge to see how uneven the tiles are?

 

[highup]

That's a fairly thin floor, so I think you will need a fair amount of prep work to make it lay down nicely.
Wood is supposed to look flat, and so should vinyl planks because they will follow the floor contours. If it's uneven or wavey, the planks will look that way too. Prep is very important.

 

[Jon]

The existing tile was a 20" x 20" 1990's color with 1/16" grout lines. They had a factory jagged edge. The first 1000 feet, the workers I hired floated the entire floor with a thin coat of thinset, coming back the next day to sand it down. It created so much dust, we decided it wasn't worth continuing. The remaining 1000 feet, we just laid it on top of the existing tile. My issue was the carpeted bedrooms. We needed to build it up 1/2", so we floated the concrete floor with a waterproofing glue, then set down plywood and set it with concrete nails every 6". This way, all the flooring in the house became the same level. And we now have vinyl plank wall to wall. I added new baseboard and I think the floor turned out great. Here is a pic.View attachment 10455View attachment 10456

Hav did they use a water based smoothing compound with maybe too much water to create the dust?
We use a product like this which when dry is hard to sand with only a little dust
https://www.lookfloors.co.nz/product/463/ardex-arditex-na-self-levelling-and-smoothing-compound

 

[highup]

How thin can you pour that Ardex product? Is there a minimum thickness?

 

[Jon]

I dont use Ardex but a similar product troweled on. I would think that Ardex Arditex is not really a leveling compound but a smoothing compound. Other brands say their products are self levelling which is true if one was to put enough coats on K15 is a more self levelling compound which one pours on then push around
Different products have different "sand" size where you get Rapid which is more for bulk, our other layer uses Rapid all the time over the whole floor along with Feather finish
I prefer products like that Ardex with the additive as the additive makes it stick better. On a tile floor you would probably need at least fairly thick two coats to make it flat also to get rid of the grout lines

 

[havasu]

Jon, I wish they would have just used a self leveling compound and been done with it. Instead, they just used a flash coat of thinset, then used a power sander to take away 90% of what they just put on. It didn't work out well. The flooring I chose is very heavy, and a commercial quality, and stone dust is added to the plank for durability. I selected it from a warehouse where they installed it on their loading docks and drive forklifts on it. Lastly, I failed to add that I installed this floor over a year ago, and still looks like new.

 

[highup]

What was that flooring brand, Hav?

 

[havasu]

The spare boxes are out of reach, but believe it is "Prime E Urban Style, 7" x 60", 5.5MM.

 

[highup]

Nice looking material.

 

[Jon]

I dont use Ardex but a similar product troweled on. I would think that Ardex Arditex is not really a leveling compound but a smoothing compound. Other brands say their products are self levelling which is true if one was to put enough coats on K15 is a more self levelling compound which one pours on then push around
Different products have different "sand" size where you get Rapid which is more for bulk, our other layer uses Rapid all the time over the whole floor along with Feather finish
I prefer products like that Ardex with the additive as the additive makes it stick better. On a tile floor you would probably need at least fairly thick two coats to make it flat also to get rid of the grout lines

Just adding to this
There is another brand here for a smoothing compound which has big letters on the side of the bag saying Floor Levelling compound This product is dangerous for the layers as the customer sees this FLC on the side of the bag thinking their floor is going to be level. There is no way this product will actually level a floor as it any of the levelling properties.
This is the stuff but there is no photo of the bag
https://www.allnexconstruction.com/...ba42c3ad0be/Matrix-Floor-Underlayment-TDS.pdf

 

[justinrobinson]

The existing tile was a 20" x 20" 1990's color with 1/16" grout lines. They had a factory jagged edge. The first 1000 feet, the workers I hired floated the entire floor with a thin coat of thinset, coming back the next day to sand it down. It created so much dust, we decided it wasn't worth continuing. The remaining 1000 feet, we just laid it on top of the existing tile. My issue was the carpeted bedrooms. We needed to build it up 1/2", so we floated the concrete floor with a waterproofing glue, then set down plywood and set it with concrete nails every 6". This way, all the flooring in the house became the same level. And we now have vinyl plank wall to wall. I added new baseboard and I think the floor turned out great. Here is a pic.View attachment 10455View attachment 10456

Hey, This is amazing