ᐅ Vinyl flooring over tiles? Any experiences?

Hello everyone

We are buying a house and would like to cover the tiled floor, which extends from the ground floor to the first floor, with either hardwood flooring or vinyl. The house has underfloor heating.

Are there any pros or cons to laying the new flooring directly over the tiles? Would it be better or more advisable to remove the tiles?

We would like to install the flooring in a herringbone pattern.

ddosh88 schrieb:

Are there pros and cons to installing over tiles? Is it better or more advisable to remove the tiles?

Cons:
- Heating efficiency suffers significantly
- Possible need for leveling compound under vinyl
- Doors may need to be shortened

Pros:
-,-

Do yourself a favor and remove the tiles.

nordanney schrieb:

Cons:
- Heating efficiency is significantly reduced
- leveling compound may be required for vinyl
- doors need to be shortened

Pros:
-,-

Do yourself a favor and remove the tiles.

I almost expected that.

How much does tile removal plus surface preparation cost approximately per m² (per sq ft)? So I can do some calculations.

I would like to see the evidence showing that the heating efficiency is significantly reduced by the tiles beneath the vinyl. Tiles have a thermal resistance (R-value) of 0.01 m²K/W (0.01 m²K/W), while vinyl, including impact sound insulation, is around 0.04-0.07 m²K/W (0.04-0.07 m²K/W). Hardwood flooring can even reach 0.1 m²K/W (0.1 m²K/W) or more, depending on the material and thickness of the covering.

Specifically:
The vinyl itself reduces the efficiency—not drastically, but noticeably. The tiles underneath don’t really matter.

There is no reasonable, understandable reason to remove the old tiles!
The entire surface will be ground down with a diamond blade, then the dust will be vacuumed and it will be cleaned with an alkaline primer.
Afterwards, a leveling compound must (not can) be applied evenly with a trowel so that the grout patterns do not show through the new floor covering.
However, removing the old tiles is definitely not necessary, as long as they are firmly fixed!
In my opinion, the risk that the underlying screed (with underfloor heating) will be significantly damaged by the unavoidable mechanical stress involved in removing the tiles is clearly high.
So it’s better to leave the current condition as it is and build on it, rather than taking on huge costs, dust, and additional – that is, avoidable – problems.
Regards, KlaRa