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This is how you lay a PVC floor over existing tiles

Can you actually lay a PVC floor over tiles? That was the big question when we wanted to lay a new floor a few months ago after the renovation of the living room, kitchen and utility room. The existing floor is quite variable in our house. There is a tiled floor in the living room, the kitchen and the hall. There is a smooth tile in the utility room. There is also a concrete floor in our office and in the chill area behind it another tiled floor with smoother tiles. So a mess. Nothing is the same and everything has a different background. Very inconvenient when laying a PVC floor.

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Can you lay a PVC-floor over tiles?

I therefore looked up a lot of information about laying a PVC floor over existing tiles before we made our final choice for the floor. And even with all that information, we weren't sure. You really just have to experience it, but at least I can give you the necessary tips. Perhaps you would also like to lay a PVC floor over tiles and you are also looking for good information. I hope that I can help you with this blog to make a good choice.

I'll show you how we approached the project of our PVC floor. How the subfloor was and what we did to be able to lay the PVC floor properly.

What kind of PVC floor do you have?

First of all, it is important that you know what kind of PVC floor you are going to install over your existing tile floor. What quality PVC are you looking for? Are you going for a PVC floor that needs to be glued, or do you want a PVC click floor? We opted for the latter variant and I am very happy with it. This PVC click floor is easy to install yourself and also of extremely good quality. Our PVC floor comes from Ambiant Floors and has a total thickness of approximately 8 mm. A top layer of 5 mm with a bottom layer of 3 mm. With this floor, the underlay is also hard and unable to correct large irregularities.

If you choose a PVC floor that will be glued, you can certainly not lay it directly over existing tiles. Not even if you have very smooth tiles. You will then always have to level first to ensure that the joints are also nicely filled and that you have a stable and even surface for your PVC floor.

However, we noticed that with a click floor you have more options and I am very happy that we finally opted for a click floor from the vt Wonen floors collection.

Lay PVC floor over tiles

Laying a PVC floor over tiles is not an option.

Secretly I had hoped that it would work if we used a subfloor. I went looking for an Isotac gold subfloor and read a lot about it. Some suppliers indicate that this subfloor would be well suited to lay a PVC floor. So I thought we could get started that way, but Ambiant strongly advised against it. I have therefore not been stubborn and we have chosen to level the flagged tiles first.

Tiles are inherently very rough and the joints are also very wide and irregular. This means that your surface is simply not level enough for a PVC floor. If you ultimately want to lay a beautiful and stable PVC floor, you start with a good base.

We have therefore leveled our living room, hall and kitchen. But as said, we have smooth tiles in the utility room and we did it differently there.

Lay a PVC floor over an existing tile floor

Coincidentally, the tiled floor in the kitchen was somewhat lower than the tiled floor in the utility room. By removing the threshold between the two rooms and leveling the tiles, we were able to have the floor in the kitchen connect nicely with the floor of the utility room. We were then able to lay the PVC click floor over the smooth tiles in the utility room.

This floor has been in it for a few months now and is still in excellent condition. Laying a PVC click floor over tiles is therefore perfectly possible, provided that your tile floor and your PVC floor meet a number of conditions.

  • Your tile floor should be smooth and the tiles should not be loose
  • I think this works better with an existing tile floor with larger tiles than with smaller tiles
  • You need a quality click PVC floor
  • Our click floor is 91*45 cm and it is super neat; perhaps the size of the PVC click tile still plays a role

Are you going to equalize? Keep this in mind

Do you have a tiled floor that you want to lay PVC over and are you going to level it? Then I have a few more tips for you if you get started with leveling yourself:

  • Certainly if you are not that experienced, it is nice to do this with at least 2 people
  • We were 3; 2 people to mix and carry the fairing with equalization and myself to distribute the equalization with a smoothing comb
  • Make sure that the smoothing is really good lump-free
  • Work really wet in wet; if part one of the equalization has already dried up somewhat before the tub with new equalization is added, you can no longer make the equalization properly flat and you will get 'drops'. These also become hard and give a 'bubble' in that place in your floor.