Laying Hardwood Floors Over Tile

Installing wood flooring over an existing wood floor.

Laying hardwood floors over tile.

Yes you can install hardwood floors over ceramic tile but with a few exceptions. What types of installations over tile. Still you may need to tile directly over an existing hardwood floor for instance to avoid raising the floor level significantly relative to an adjacent floor. Whenever you install hardwood flooring over any type of subfloor you must ensure that it is completely level.

Floor tiles usually should be laid over a strong underlayment of cement board or treated plywood. Wood flooring can be installed over existing ceramic tile terrazzo or marble with proper underlayment or adhesives only on manufacturer s recommendation. If the hardwood flooring is composed of narrow boards with a very smooth flat surface you could leave the flooring in place and screw cement backer board down on top of it before applying the tile. Fasteners must penetrate a proper subfloor by at least 5 8.

Floating floors were designed for these types of applications. Yes you can lay a wood floor over tile if the existing floor is in good shape and without cracks. The best approach would be to remove the wood flooring and screw down a layer of 5 8 or thicker plywood followed by a layer of 1 2 cement backer board before laying the tile. If your ceramic tile has grout lines that give it texture you will need to fill those in to make your flooring completely level.

The simplest in terms of getting the job done without messy demo work would be a floating engineered floor. I would suggest 3 8 thick prefinished engineered hardwood flooring or easy to install laminate flooring.