You Can Install Laminate Flooring over Ceramic Tile

There may be times when you want to install laminate flooring over ceramic tile. Most of the time ceramic tile is a lot of work to remove, not to mention it can be dangerous. Ceramic tile is like glass when it breaks. The edges are really sharp.

Sometimes it may come up fairly easy if the thin set used to install the ceramic tile isn't a good quality. Most of the time, from my experience it is hard to take up.

I have seen in mobile homes where they use a mastic rather than thin set to install ceramic tile from the factory. If this is the case you will need to allow a lot of time to remove it. It sticks so well to the wood sub floor that when you try to remove it it chips up in small pieces, as well as taking some of the wood subfloor up with it.

One of my clients had this in their mobile home. The factory installed white ceramic tile with white grout. After a while it is impossible to keep the white grout clean. This is the reason why I installed laminate over the ceramic tile.

Here in this photo to the left is the ceramic tile before installing the laminate flooring over it.

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Some Issues When You Install Laminate Flooring over Ceramic Tile

Some things that may be an issue is the ceramic may have high corners. In this case its best to chip them off so the laminate floor will lay flat.

Another issue is where the laminate stops at the edge of the ceramic. there will be a height difference to the adjoining floor. This can be corrected with the transition strip.

In this photo to the left, I installed laminate tile over the ceramic tile. You can see at the doorway with the laminate on top of the ceramic tile it creates a higher floor.

In this case I will have to install a square edge transition so the carpet can be installed up to it. The problem is, the transition that comes with the laminate flooring isn't tall enough to work with the two layers of flooring. You can see here if I try to use the transition it will not reach the floor. The gap underneath needs to be filled in with something. What I find that works good is the laminate flooring itself.

I either measure or estimate the gap that needs to be filled in. Then I cut the pieces from scraps of laminate that I'm installing, using a table saw. I want the face of the laminate I'm cutting to face out, this is the side you will see.

After I cut the pieces, I slide them under the transition on the floor to check height. I do this first before I glue this strip to the bottom of the transition with construction adhesive.

Installing Laminate flooring Under Dishwashers

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When you install laminate flooring over ceramic tile up to dishwashers, you need the laminate flooring to go under the front legs of the dishwasher. If the front of the dishwasher is not sitting on the laminate you may not be able to remove the dishwasher in the future. Installing laminate flooring over ceramic up to the dishwasher makes the floor even higher.

Most of the time the legs on the dishwasher can be adjusted. This is something that should be checked before starting the laminate installation.

Here in this photo I am adjusting the leg of the dishwasher so I can slide the laminate underneath it. I use a pry bar in the back to lift up on the dishwasher then I use some pliers to turn the leg clockwise. This screws the leg in and allows more room to slide the laminate under it.

This is after I installed the laminate under the dishwasher. You can see how the leg is sitting on the newly installed flooring.

Installing Laminate Under Refrigerators

Another issue when you install laminate flooring over ceramic could be the top of the refrigerator. If there are cabinets above the frig that sit too low, the frig may not fit under it when the laminate flooring is installed. Ckeck the clearence between the frig and the cabinets above to make sure you don't have any surprises later.

I have had this prblem a time or two. Once we had to cut the bottom of the cabinet so the frig could slide under them. Other times the cabinets could be raised up a little. Thats not fun to do.

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