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Our bathroom floor is all white tile which I don't like for various reasons. Is it possible to just lay vinyl tiles over it? Or would the floor feel weird and uneven? They are larger tiles, maybe 8 inches by 8 inches or so with standard sized grout. TIA
The tile floor would need to be floated with an embossing leveler (also called patch) to eliminate the unevenness from the grout lines. Then vct could be laid and the floor would feel level.
Thank you Evey Wow that sounds complicated and/or expensive if I had someone do it
Would it work if I found similarly sized vinyl tile to slap over the same area where each tile is? Or perhaps sheet vinyl with grout lines in the same place? Assuming I could find squares the right size :P
The white tile is just sooo awful. We just bought the house and all the grout is a nasty gray color (except around the bath and shower where they obviously caulked it before selling), and the white tile shows off every speck of anything on it.
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Before I go on, let me state my bias. When I first saw this thread, my gut reaction was "why would you want to cover up tile with a crappy material like vinyl tile?!" You have now kind of explained it, but keep in mind, by covering up the tile with cheap vinyl tile, you will be loosing home value.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Indigoblue
Thank you Evey Wow that sounds complicated and/or expensive if I had someone do it
Would it work if I found similarly sized vinyl tile to slap over the same area where each tile is? Or perhaps sheet vinyl with grout lines in the same place? Assuming I could find squares the right size :P
If you put the same size vinyl tile down, then the gaps in the vinyl tile (and there will be some) will line up with the grout lines which are indented from the tile. So I'm guessing the edges of the tile will not stick well at all, and be subject to curling. That will let moisture into the floor (since it is a bathroom, there will be water on the floor). Once the vinyl tiles get wet underneath, they don't stick well and they mold underneath (I saw this in my last house).
I would suggest looking into reglazing your tile/bathroom. It will be more expensive that just slapping down some $1 sq ft home depot vinyl tile, but will refresh the tile, grout, and bathtub. And its much cheaper than replacing the tile.
The thin sheet of plywood is a good idea. You'll need a thicker sill at the door, but it would work..
No matter how thick the vinyl is, unless the tile is very smooth with NO bumps or cracks, sooner or later those bumps will show. If you use a sheet vinyl with a specked pattern, even one with little raised bumps, it won't show as much.
But let me tell you a horror story. We knew that the floor in the house we bought had ugly ceramic tile over something. We just didn't know what. Later we decided it had to come up and vinyl go down. It was tile on top of tile. Enough moisture and water had leeched through the tiles that most of the floor joists had just about rotted through. We had a lot to replace.
You don't know how well that ceramic tile was put down. Be smart and get it up. It's easy to do, wham it real good with a sledge and then chip up the pieces.
What indigo said. My mom for what ever reason put vinyl over wood flooring and within 6 months, the vinyl has cracked at the seams of the wood flooring. It was a DIY, and it's her house, so I can;t complain. She ruined a perfectly good wood floor.
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You can clean grout pretty easily. Just get some acid, mix with a lot of water and mop it up after it sits for a while. You can also re-grout. Scrape off the old grout and put new in whatever color you like, maybe a nice contrasting color that won't show dirt so easily.
Maybe you could put a nice area rug so the floor isn't so cold when you step on it.
I'm really partial to hardwood and tile flooring but vinyl???? yuck... sorry.
You can clean grout pretty easily. Just get some acid, mix with a lot of water and mop it up after it sits for a while. You can also re-grout. Scrape off the old grout and put new in whatever color you like, maybe a nice contrasting color that won't show dirt so easily.
Maybe you could put a nice area rug so the floor isn't so cold when you step on it.
I'm really partial to hardwood and tile flooring but vinyl???? yuck... sorry.
Hopefully, you will read this and respond as this thread is a little old. Where would one find acid to clean grout?
Location: Lots of sun and palm trees with occasional hurricane :)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bmack
Hopefully, you will read this and respond as this thread is a little old. Where would one find acid to clean grout?
It's actually Muriatic Acid. Any home improvement store - Home Depot, Loews, Ace, etc.
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