Ceramic tiling onto Karndene?

[Hysteresis]

I have Karndene securely laid onto a suspended Block floor.
It is in good condition with no signs of lifting at any place.
I want to lay ceramic tiles onto this floor and wondered if anyone has experience of successfully laying ceramic tiles onto Karndene/Amtico.
My initial thoughts are that there would be no problems with it and would make any subsequent lifting of the tiles comparatively easy in say 10 years time when I get sick of the sight of the tiles.
If the ceramic tiles fail to stick to the Karndene then clearly by thoughts are not to be recommended.
If I have to lift the Karndene has any one any good tips to make the removal easy such as say heating the Karndene prior to trying to lift them.
I favour laying the tiles on to the Karndene but would value some experienced advice.

 

[cjard]

Glue one tile down and see how well it sticks. I reckon it'll be alright actually, having had my tiler let half a bucket of mapeker set. I ended up smashing the bucket to pieces trying to get it out..

Consider that you could also use the same glue that glued the Karndean down.. after all if it sticks Karndean to stone it should stick stone to Karndean! It'll be something like F46, in which case better let it dry to tacky before laying on it. Note, If your subfloor is uneven, do not consider his route. Pressure sensitive acrylic adhesives are not intended to help level out uneven floors in the same way that a thicker bed of cementitious adhesive will and any undulations in the floor will result in cracked tiles when used

 

[dazlight]

Take up the Karndean and do it properly. Why take the rest for a few hours work.
I use a blade scraper, all depends what glue the Karndean was stuck down with.

 

[Hysteresis]

Thanks for your reply daylight. I know you are right but lifting the Karndean will I am sure be a nightmare, hence my suggestion. I think the adhesive was the Karndean product as it was laid by a Karndean registered fitter. As it was laid onto a Block floor I suspect it will have stuck like it was part of the block floor. Did you use a heavy duty blade scripture of the type that looks more like a CrowBar?

 

[dazlight]

Yes mate. If PS adhesive they will fly up. If HT it will take ages.
You can hire a bully stripper from a hire shop.

 

[Hysteresis]

Excuse my lack of knowledge here, but what is PS and HT adhesives.
If I can locate my original Karndean fitter, I will see if I can determine what he used. The thought of lifting the HT adhesive sounds daunting, I am taking of 20 sq M.

 

[Notadecor8ter]

How old is this karndean...bleeding expensive stuff to tile over!

 

[Hysteresis]

The Karndean is only 7 years old, but is too dark for the area in which it located.
It's bleeding expensive stuff to remove as well as tile over.
My problem is removing it, which would be resolved if I could tile over it. It seems that the problem of removal is dependant upon the adhesive used initially. I probably need to have a go at living one piece to see if it comes up easily, then review the plan of attack.
I was hoping that someone on this site had tiles over Karndene to advice me.

 

[dazlight]

Why not lay something like quickstep Livyn over the top of the tiles. It's a vinyl plank or tile fitted like laminate with a thin underlay.

 

[cjard]

. It seems that the problem of removal is dependant upon the adhesive used initially.


I was hoping that someone on this site had tiles over Karndene to advice me.

To be fair to dazlight, that is pretty much what he said already..

Probably no one in the history of ever has admitted to tiling over Karndean becuase people would look at them funny.. However, I personally can't see why it wouldn't work, as tiles are laid on plastic matting (Schluter Ditra) all the time. That matting has webbing to help the adhesive stick but I have doubts as to how necessary it is, for the aforementioned reasons of trying to get gone off tile adhesive out of a bucket and smashing the bucket before succeeding in getting the adhesive to let go. You could do worse than abrade the surface of the Karndean with a floor sander and 40grit paper first, but I've never personally felt like tile adhesive needs to adhere tiles to a floor in any considerable capacity; gravity will do an adequate job of that. The adhesive just needs to fill any uneven gaps between tile and substrate, to prevent it rocking when walked on. It's not as though your Hoover will suck a floor tile up, and there isn't a lot you do with a floor that imparts an upward force on a tile

In the time you've spent asking around on the intertubes you could have laid a test pad of 4 tiles and checked the ease of laying, quality of adherence and ease of removal yourself by now!