TX_Dude wrote:
The wife wants to tile the kitchen with 1 ft square ceramic tiles.
So she goes out and buys the stuff at Lowe's. The salesperson
tells her that it's OK to ceramic tile over linoleum (or it may
be vinyl....whatever, it's a 1 piece sheet). I say it's not OK, that
the old flooring should be removed. The house has a concrete
slab and it seems to me that direct adhesion to the slab would
be best. The wife is giving me grief.... says I'm nit-pickin and
creating more work for myself.

I've done a Google Groups search on "ceramic installed over
linoleum" and the opinions seem to be split.

Opinions?

Rent or buy a big suction cup of the type used to hold large pieces of
glass. Go to the center of the most open area in your kitchen and
attach the cup, then pull. If the linoleum lifts then you can be sure
that the stuff is attached only around the periphery. Not only will it
be easy to get up, but it also would be best to get it up. If the
linoleum won't lift then neither will your ceramic tile and you can be
pretty confident that the results will be OK. Be sure to use a mastic
that's plenty sticky though, and it would be a good idea to rough up the
linoleum in some fashion. A belt sander with a 60 or 40 grain belt
should do the trick.

Mark 'Sporky' Stapleton
Watermark Design, LLC
http://www.h2omarkdesign.com