Going from Linoleup to Tile - Things You Should Know

I'm done with the flooring in the bathroom upstairs - basically going from a linoleum (cruddy vinyl tile) to real tile. It's a pretty common thing for people to do but there are a few things that you have to keep in mind or else the whole thing will go horribly wrong.

First thing to think about - the whole floor will be close to an inch higher than it is right now. So if you look at the floor in a bathroom and think about what needs to go up you run into 2 things right away. The toilet and baseboards. Baseboards are pretty easy; pop them off, take the time to sand and paint them, and then put them back on once you're done tiling. The toilet on the other hand is something that gets overlooked and at first can look a lot harder than it really has to be.

On an earlier post I put up a picture of a closet flange


It sits on top of the floor and the drain to your toilet goes there. Now that you've decided to tile you're raising the subfloor (unless you're going on concrete) by installing cement board, plus the actual tile. The wax ring that goes on the toilet drain isn't going to fill that gap. Luckily they make closet flange extenders for this exact purpose. They install pretty easily - spread some wax on the surfaces to be mated and screw them in. Now you're ready to install the toilet.



The other thing you want to keep in mind when you go from linoleum to tile is the actual subfloor itself. If you're installing on top of a concrete surface you're good to go. Wood, like on a second floor / room above a basement or crawlspace takes a little more thought. First off in my opinion you shouldn't tile directly on top of typical oriented strand board (OSB). It'll just flex too much and your tile won't stand a chance. It'll crack and break. If you have a plywood subfloor you're doing better but only if the grain runs perpendicular to your joists. But the other part is, you need to consider what's below the wood. Rather than get into great detail about joist spacing and whatnot, just plug your information in here to see what you're good to install. When everything is set up right you won't have to worry about a thing. It's something you can really feel when you walk on it after a while. A good installation feels really solid - almost like a concrete subfloor. It'll last until you're tired of looking at that kind of tile and are ready for something else.