Things to consider when considering putting flooring over a ceramic tile floor

I just moved into a new house and the basement is covered with white ceramic tile with grungy grout. White doesn't work for my household of 3 boys. And it's Seattle so the coldness of tile isn't welcome like it might be in warmer climates.

I'm thinking about either covering it w/carpet (bedrooms) & marmoleum (everywhere else) or ripping it out and then putting the new floor coverings down.

Any advice here? Does the tile have to go for my new floors to work?

My Advice:

This is not a straight forward answer as there are individual circumstances that have to be taken into account.  I am sure that you have already made a decision and the project is probably done but if you are like me it isn't and won't be for ohhhhh about 6 - 9 months!

Things to consider:

You currently have a floor covering that you can not go over directly.  The tile will have to be addressed with a solid surface of some sort such as plywood or some other subfloor material.  The downfall to this is if you have doors that open over the tile floor then you must take into account the amount the floor will increase in elevation and this will or may become a problem with the gap at the bottom of your door. 

Translation:  Most doors do not have much more than 1/2 "- 3/4" of space under them if that so if you came in with let's say even 1/4" plywood (which you would have to consider a flex factor here)would reduce that gap to 1/4" - 1/2" and then if you let's say put down even the thinnest of materials linoleum you would get an increase in your floor of about 1/8" or even 3/16ths depending upon the grade so now you are down to 1/8" - 3/8" gap.  You have to hope that your floor is very level with this slight tollerance as your door will sweep over an area and if there is any deviation AT ALL you will have to cut up the bottoms of your doors and that is not an easy task and can be disastorous depending upon the type of doors you have if they are hollow core you may not have enough solid plug material in the door to perform this step and then you will be left with just the skins of the door floating and the door eventually disintegrating and falling apart.

If you were to use some other type of material such as the ohh so popular laminate flooring then you are sure to be doomed to perform this project on all of your doors that open over this floor and like I said that can become laborious and problematic.

SO to make a short story long I would think that you would be better off removing the tile that is there and adding new plywood or some kind of underlayment and going from there.  This will avoid any severe problems that may arise due to the increase in elevation.  Another problem is between flooring materials (like between the kitchen and dining room or between a guest bathroom and the kitchen) the increase in elevation let's say it eventually equals 5/8" - 3/4" can become a tripping hazard at threshold locations.  I know that this is more work but the most improtant step is the prep work and the planning.

I think a linoleum or marmoluem makes a fantastic and durable floor covering and with three kids of my own I too know how hard the crew can be on a place!

Good luck to you and all others that may be looking at a project like this!

Happy Refurbing~

Sincerely,

James D. Van Raden

Owner~ Paragon Renovations

Moorhead, MN

www.paragonrenovations.net  or www.paragonbathrooms.com