Vinyl over Bathroom Floor Tile - Bad Idea?

tightauldgit

So my bathroom floor is looking pretty bad at the minute. Got a few cracked tiles, one broken and one completed lifted. I suspect whoever did the job the first time around wasn't all that great, plus years of water getting in all the little nooks and crannies means that under the tiles isn't the best and hence they are cracking where there are possibly small voids. 

Now, of course the right thing to do would be lift all the tiles, the toilet, the sink etc and redo it with new tiles and someone who knows what they are doing. But that sounds expensive and I haven't got the funds for that at the minute. 

So plan B is just to try to patch up the tiles as best I can and fill any gaps I can see in grout etc and then put cheapish sheet vinyl over it to make it presentable as a DIY job. Now I can hear all the professional tilers/floorers clutching their chests already, but on a scale of 1 to 10 how bad an idea is it? 

Is there a better way to do a low cost temporary-ish solution. I appreciate its going to have to be done properly eventually but I'm thinking if I can get away with it for 2 or 3 years I would probably get the whole bathroom redone and new shower etc. For the minute budget is in the hundreds rather than thousands.

I could in theory lift all the tiles, level and lay vinyl but i don't want to get involved in removing toilets etc so levelling around a toilet seems a bad idea.     

CliveOfIndia

In theory it would work as a temporary measure.  See if you can get an off-cut/roll-end of vinyl, this can be a lot cheaper than buying a piece of the "correct size", as it were.  It won't look perfect (what's underneath any type of flooring is every bit as important - arguably even more so - than the flooring itself).  But it'll do as a stop-gap measure for a couple of years.

Just be aware - it's actually really tricky to cut vinyl around sink pedestals, toilets etc. and get a neat job.  Make a cardboard template if you can, then use that to mark the vinyl.  Even then, go by the old adage of "measure twice (or 3 or 4 times!) and cut once".

mi-key

You can get thin ( 3mm thick ) waterproof laminate flooring that comes in 'planks' Would look a lot nicer than just putting lino down 

mi-key

This is the sort of thing, is cheap, but actually looks quite nice when fitted and they do various finishes

https://www.diy.com/departments/livingandhome-set-of-36-dark-grey-rustic-style-wood-plank-pvc-laminate-flooring-5m-pack/0735940231701_BQ.prd

tightauldgit

Yes, vinyl tiles might be a solution. I'll maybe go check some out at a DIY store - a bit worried they'd be too thin to mask the tile underneath

grumbler

mi-key said:

...waterproof laminate flooring...

I don't believe that such thing really exists.

tightauldgit said:

So plan B is just to try to patch up the tiles as best I can and fill any gaps I can see in grout etc and then put cheapish sheet vinyl over it to make it presentable as a DIY job. Now I can hear all the professional tilers/floorers clutching their chests already, but on a scale of 1 to 10 how bad an idea is it?  

I think this is doable - if the tiles are very flat, not convex. Just make the floor as flat as possible.

housebuyer143

No reason you can't..I put vinyl floor over some gross tiles in my downstairs toilet and it looks really good, you wouldn't even know the tiles were under there. I picked a pattern though so it might hide the tiles underneath better than a plain colour might.
Make sure you seal it well in a bathroom, all edges so no water can get under it.

mi-key

grumbler said:

mi-key said:

...waterproof laminate flooring...

I don't believe that such thing really exists.

tightauldgit said:

So plan B is just to try to patch up the tiles as best I can and fill any gaps I can see in grout etc and then put cheapish sheet vinyl over it to make it presentable as a DIY job. Now I can hear all the professional tilers/floorers clutching their chests already, but on a scale of 1 to 10 how bad an idea is it?  

I think this is doable - if the tiles are very flat, not convex. Just make the floor as flat as possible.

The flooring is made from just PVC, so is waterproof. Worse case if water got under it you could lift it and reglue with contact adhesive.

Most 'proper' laminate flooring is made from that fibreboard stuff, and any water makes it swell 

sugar-walsh

There's a company, jess rose vinyl, who makes some decent looking vinyl tiles. Not cheap cheap, but likely to be less than getting a tiler in. Is it worth laying some sheets of thin plywood over your tiles if they're cracked/broken to help even the floor out? Clearly I'm not a tiler...

grumbler

mi-key said:

grumbler said:

mi-key said:

...waterproof laminate flooring...

I don't believe that such thing really exists.

tightauldgit said:

So plan B is just to try to patch up the tiles as best I can and fill any gaps I can see in grout etc and then put cheapish sheet vinyl over it to make it presentable as a DIY job. Now I can hear all the professional tilers/floorers clutching their chests already, but on a scale of 1 to 10 how bad an idea is it?  

I think this is doable - if the tiles are very flat, not convex. Just make the floor as flat as possible.

The flooring is made from just PVC, so is waterproof. Worse case if water got under it you could lift it and reglue with contact adhesive.

Most 'proper' laminate flooring is made from that fibreboard stuff, and any water makes it swell 

Absolutely. If you google for "waterproof laminate flooring", the results won't be 'waterproof' in real life.

tightauldgit

grumbler said:

mi-key said:

grumbler said:

mi-key said:

...waterproof laminate flooring...

I don't believe that such thing really exists.

tightauldgit said:

So plan B is just to try to patch up the tiles as best I can and fill any gaps I can see in grout etc and then put cheapish sheet vinyl over it to make it presentable as a DIY job. Now I can hear all the professional tilers/floorers clutching their chests already, but on a scale of 1 to 10 how bad an idea is it?  

I think this is doable - if the tiles are very flat, not convex. Just make the floor as flat as possible.

The flooring is made from just PVC, so is waterproof. Worse case if water got under it you could lift it and reglue with contact adhesive.

Most 'proper' laminate flooring is made from that fibreboard stuff, and any water makes it swell 

Absolutely. If you google for "waterproof laminate flooring", the results won't be 'waterproof' in real life.

The issue that "laminate" is a wooden fibre product, but I think I understood we were talking about a vinyl product. There's a lot of stuff out there with similar names/descriptions obviously. Just as a lot of 'vinyl tiles' are little more than stickers that sit on top of whatever is underneath.

I've put laminate in my downstairs toilet because it doesn't need to be waterproof just able to handle the odd splash. But I don't think I'd do laminate in this bathroom because it's where I shower etc so there actually is likely a need to be 'waterproof'