The Preparation for Tile Over a Resilient Floor

Check for Asbestos

• Older resilient flooring used asbestos to add durability and strength. However, when this mineral enters the air in your home through damage to the floor, it can cause lung damage or the cancer known as mesothelioma. If your resilient flooring contains asbestos, installing a subfloor of plywood or another stiff subfloor works best, according to Hometime. This prevents the asbestos in the resilient material from being stirred up by the removal or damage of the flooring.

Remove Cushioning

• Cushioned vinyl and linoleum won't properly support tile. When ceramic or stone tile is installed over a material that flexes like cushioned resilient floors do, the tiles and grouting between them break, says the Mr. Tile website. Vinyl tile handles flexing and bending better, but isn't as durable as ceramic and stone materials. An adhesive, rather than a mortar that can crack, works best for installing vinyl tiles over resilient flooring.

Check the Subfloor

• The resilient flooring you install the new tiles over must be fully attached to the subfloor below it. When most vinyl or linoleum is installed, only the edges are adhered properly, according to Creative Ceramic and Marble. You would need to pull back the original flooring and add more adhesive before installing any tile. The subfloor should also be checked for signs of it delaminating, where layers of the plywood or particle board split from the rest of the material.

Fill Any Voids

• Gaps and voids where the resilient flooring is damaged, worn down or pulled away from the subfloor need to be filled before tile installation. Like with cushioned resilient flooring, gaps in the existing material allow the tile above it to bend, creating cracks, says The Floor Pro. Using a vinyl leveling compound helps fill in voids at the surface of the material, while an epoxy injection kit is required to deal with openings between the subfloor and the resilient layer.