shel wrote:
Question - can anyone help?
I am putting down a ceramic tile floor in the basement that has two layers
of glued down vinyl tiles over the concrete. Since they existing flooring
is tightly glued and undamaged, can I put the ceramic tile over them or do I
have to scrape the vinyl and glue off first?
Thanks for any help you can give - Shel
shelperkins (at) cox.net

You might want to consider using one of the elastomeric anti-crack
products like "Flex-Guard"

http://www.crackisolation.com/

as an underlayerment.

Also, with two layers of "vinyl tile" on the floor it's possible that
at least one of them is old enough that it might be *asbestos* tile or
have been installed with an asbestos containing mastic.

One red flag for possible asbestos floor tile is a 9"x9" size, another
is an appearance like one of these:

http://mainegov-images.informe.org/d...estosfloor.jpg
http://www.dolir.mo.gov/ls/nursingho...stos_tiles.jpg
http://www.bainenvironmental.com/images/whitetile.jpg
http://www.isitasbestos.com/images/floortile_sm.jpg

Needless to say, you probably don't want to turn a weekend tile project
into a asbestos abatement program, so before removing tile or adhesive
that might contain asbestos have an industrial hygienist or other
qualified individual sample and identify suspect material, and if it is
asbestos research your options, asbestos contanin material can
sometmes be left in place if in good condition.

Michael Thomas, Paragon Home Inspection, LLC, Chicago IL
mdtATparagoninspectsDOTcom