Can you lay a timber floor over tiles?

[Catnipmanor1234]

I have lovely pale coloured tiles on the kitchen, small dining room, and 'tv' room. They are lovely BUT the tiler who did the grouting did such a terrible job with the grouting. Used too much 'glue' to adhere the tiles - consequently it 'squished' up between the tile spaces, thus making it hard for the grout to be applied effectively. Tried different tradies to help; but nothing has made any difference. Basically there was not enough room for the grout. SO my question is: can a wooden floor (floor boards) be laid successfully over the tiles? I certainly do not want to go to the mess and inconvenience of removing them. No Way. TKU

[MitchellMc]

Hi @Catnipmanor1234,

You might like to post some pictures of the most troublesome areas so our knowledgeable members have a better idea of the issues you're dealing with. They could have some suggestions the tradies didn't think of.

You can certainly lay a hybrid vinyl plank floor over the tiles. These are similar to the older laminate floating floors but completely waterproof. There is still the option of using laminate flooring, but these do require your tiles to be even and flat.

I typically would recommend going for the hybrid vinyl as it is 6mm thick, but one of our talented members @diy_hausdesigns, recently contributed an amazing and budget-friendly transformation of tiles with self-adhesive vinyl planks: DIY flooring using adhesive vinyl over tiles. Their results really speaks for themselves. You might also like to take a look at these helpful guides: How to choose the right type of flooring and How to lay vinyl plank flooring.

Here are a couple previous discussions on the topic: Can you lay vinyl floor planks over existing tiles? by @chrisway and Hybrid floor over tile or remove tile and re-tile? by @AntonT.

The other option is to have someone cut the grout and glue out with a rotary saw. Tedious work, but it could be done. Once the grout and glue have been removed, the tiles can be regrouted appropriately.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

[Catnipmanor1234]

To Mitchell.  Thank you for your reply. I'll have to find the other SD card which has the images. It was truly a badly (and I'm being polite) done job. I love the tiles, but it's the grouting, or lack of it etc., that is the problem. I'll find the card, and send you the images. This job was done about 12???? years ago, and I've had the grouting professionally cleaned; but as you know it never stays clean.  I also asked you about depleted soil in 'hexis'. I mean hexagonal above ground planters.  Got them from Bunnings, 5 ++ (?) years ago. They stand about 2' high.  Think I just lost the inspiration to keep on going with them. As the soil seemed to dry out so quickly. Mind you, they are at the back of the house, but get a good deal of sunlight, and hot sun. I'll 'just have a good talk to myself' to get myself going again. Again, many thanks for your two replies. Regards, Gabrielle.😼

[EricL]

Hello @Catnipmanor1234 

Just in case you find yourself wondering what tools are necessary to remove the grout and adhesive in the grout lines are, you'll need a Ryobi 18V ONE+ Multi Tool R18MT3-0 - Tool Only or similar in conjunction with a PowerFit 1 / 16" Precision Cut Grout and Mortar Removal Blade. 

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric

[Catnipmanor1234]

Hello Eric: Thanks for your info.. However, I had this done a few years ago by a professional and his son. Didn't make a huge difference, well not much at all and in the process they chipped several tiles (thank goodness I had spares).  I think the original problem, is that too much adhesive/glue for the tiles was applied causing the glue to ooze up between the spaces between the tiles, thus there was not enough room for the grout to stay 'put'. I guess I'll have to live with it. I'll hunt around and see if I can find the SD card with the images. Many thanks, Eric. Gabrielle.

[Catnipmanor1234]

Hi Mitchell:  Have found the relevant SD card. I'll just show one image -  because it is representative of the grouting job that was done. I've had all sorts of people in; steam cleaning, a professional who dug out most of the 'grout' though there wasn't much to dig out because of the space taken up by the excess glue -  unfortunately he chipped several of the tiles (I had replacements), then regrouted. Really there wasn't much point in hind-sight - as the problem remained the same. Not enough room for the grout. If you have any magic solution (other than laying down hybrid flooring), I'd be grateful.

this is about as bad as it got! 

Gabrielle.

[EricL]

Hello @Catnipmanor1234 (Gabrielle)

Thank you for posting a photo of the condition of your floor. I can see clearly now why the glue and grout removal was unsuccessful. You are absolutely right the tiler used way too much tile adhesive on those tiles. Any attempt to remove them would result in the tile getting damage as it has anchored to the sides of the tile.

Your proposal of using wooden floorboards is definitely the way to go. I recommend having a look at the hybrid vinyl plank recommended earlier as these are waterproof and already has a foam underlay attached to them.

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric

[Catnipmanor1234]

Hi Eric. Many thanks, again for your input. Over the years, I've somehow managed to lessen the impact of the 'grouting' disaster. Now in several places, the grout has come out, and I think, at the moment, after about 10 months of absolute stress, and unexpected costs (amounting to over $8,000), the flooring will have to wait. But at least, I now have some idea of what to look for. I would say that the kitchen floor (not a huge kitchen), is probably the worst. TKU Gabrielle  ps do you have contractors that will do a quote for this flooring?

[EricL]

Hi @Catnipmanor1234 (Gabrielle)

I'm sorry but there is no flooring installation service on offer. However, I suggest posting the job on Airtasker or Hipages so that you can see how much the going rate is for floor installation. My only suggestion is to put in as much detail as you can so that the installers that see it will quote you appropriately.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

[Catnipmanor1234]

To Eric: Oh, well that's a shame. Because I knew that if Bunnings was involved, there would be no trouble. Thanks for your advice. I've not had a wonderful experience with Airtasker, nor the last time I used HiPages. I put an ad. in for some shrubs and whatnot to be trimmed. They did a woeful job, made such a mess, put a lot of the green stuff in our bin (they were meant to take it ALL away), filled our bin up and then used their hedge trimmer, in the bin to chop up all the green residue. You should have seen the inside of the bin. Chopped almost to pieces. They just hacked at the bushes, in fact one salvia was almost cut to pieces. With a bit of TLC, after a year, it's finally back to its beautiful shape.  They also stole the petrol out of my husband's lawn mower, to fuel THEIR 'chopper'. They hadn't even bothered to bring a supply of fuel. No ladder, no rake or broom. Unbelievable. One of them had a go at trying to fix my husband's lawn mower, that is before they stole the petrol from it, and totally buggered the whole mower up so it can't be used again!. were paid in cash, and they didn't in my opinion deserve one cent. It took me basically a week plus to clean up all the debris they left. So you might see that Hipages are not my fav. web site. I advised Hipages of the problem, but basically they couldn't have given a d...  All they are interested in is getting tradies to register with them, and to say the least, that is all they are worried about.  TKU again, Gabrielle.