Domakihub Install Vinyl Plank Flooring Over Tiles the Right Way
The preparation steps most guides skip — and why they determine whether your LVP install lasts five years or fifty.
Reviewed by Domakihub home & decor pros · 2026-06-23 · 6 min read
Laying luxury vinyl plank directly over existing ceramic or porcelain tiles is one of the fastest ways to transform a kitchen, bathroom hallway, or rental unit without the cost and mess of a full demolition. The video above walks through ten field-tested tips for doing this correctly, and this article breaks down each critical preparation step so your flooring stays flat, silent, and firmly in place. Whether you are renovating a family home in Athens, refreshing a holiday rental on the Aegean coast, or upgrading hotel-room corridors on a tight turnaround schedule, getting the groundwork right is what separates a floor that lasts from one that buckles or squeaks within a season.
Why Tiles Are Both a Shortcut and a Trap
Existing ceramic and porcelain tiles give you a hard, level-ish substrate that floating LVP can theoretically sit on with very little added work. That convenience is real — skipping demolition saves labour costs and avoids exposing asbestos-era adhesives common in older Greek properties. But the same tiles that speed up your project can also destroy it if you skip a handful of checks that take less than an hour to complete.
The two main failure modes are hollow tiles that flex underfoot (breaking the floating floor's locking joints over time) and deep grout lines that telegraph through thin LVP as ridges you can feel and eventually see. Identifying both before you unbox a single plank is the entire game.
Choosing the Right LVP for an Over-Tile Install
Not every vinyl plank product is suitable for installation over tile. You need a product with a wear layer of at least 12 mil for residential use or 20 mil for commercial and rental applications, and a total thickness of 6 mm or more. Thicker planks bridge grout lines more effectively and are far less likely to show telegraphing after a few months of foot traffic.
Equally important is the attached underlayment. Many LVP products marketed as 'click-and-go' come with a pre-attached foam or cork backing — this is a significant advantage over tile because it provides a small amount of compression that compensates for minor surface irregularities. If your chosen plank has no attached underlayment, you will need to add a thin (1–1.5 mm) uncoupling underlayment sheet before you begin laying planks.
The 5 Preparation and Installation Steps That Decide the Outcome
- 1
Tap Every Tile and Mark the Hollow Ones
Kneel close to the floor and tap across the entire tile field with a rubber mallet or the handle of a screwdriver. A solid tile returns a sharp knock; a hollow or delaminated tile sounds dull and slightly resonant. Mark every hollow tile with a piece of painter's tape before you begin anything else. Any hollow tile must be re-adhered with an appropriate tile adhesive injected through a small drill hole, or removed and replaced entirely. A floating floor is only as stable as what lies beneath it — allowing flex in the substrate is the single most common cause of click-joint failure.
- 2
Fill Deep Grout Lines to Within 3 mm of Flush
Standard ceramic tile grout joints run 2–4 mm wide and 3–6 mm deep, which is enough to cause visible and tactile ridging through LVP over time. Mix a floor-levelling compound (also called self-levelling underlayment) to a slightly thicker consistency than the manufacturer's standard, then use a margin trowel or grout float to press the compound into every joint. You are not trying to create a perfectly smooth surface across the whole floor — you are simply eliminating the voids so the plank has continuous support. Allow the compound to cure fully (typically 4–6 hours at 20 °C) and then sand any high spots flush with a belt sander or grinding block.
- 3
Check and Correct Overall Flatness
Use a 1.8-metre (6-foot) spirit level or straightedge to sweep across the tiled surface in multiple directions. LVP manufacturers universally require the substrate to be flat within 3 mm over any 1.8-metre span — exceeding that tolerance will cause planks to rock, which stresses the locking joints and creates the characteristic creaking noise that signals imminent joint failure. Low spots deeper than 3 mm should be feathered out with additional floor-levelling compound. High spots — often the result of a single raised tile — need to be ground down with an angle grinder fitted with a diamond cup wheel. In Greek properties built before 2000, expect to find significant lippage between tiles; budget an extra hour for correction work.
- 4
Measure and Plan the Height Transition at Every Doorway
This step is skipped constantly and causes more visible installation failures than almost any other. Adding 6–8 mm of LVP on top of existing tile raises the floor level noticeably, and the transition from that new height to an adjacent room or to an existing hard floor requires a properly profiled transition strip — either a T-mould, a reducer, or an end cap depending on the height difference and the adjacent surface material. Measure every doorway and threshold before you purchase transition strips, because the profiles are not interchangeable. In doorways between rooms receiving the same new flooring, plan the plank layout so that the two runs meet directly under the centre of the door with no visible joint — this requires measuring from the door centre outward in both directions rather than starting from one wall.
- 5
Maintain the Correct Expansion Gap and Direction of Run
Floating LVP expands and contracts with temperature changes, and in a Mediterranean climate — where an unoccupied villa can swing from 10 °C in January to 45 °C on a tiled floor in July — that movement is substantial. Leave a minimum 10 mm expansion gap at every fixed vertical surface: walls, door frames, cabinetry, pipes, and columns. Use plastic spacers to hold this gap consistently during the install and remove them only after the entire floor is laid. As for run direction, orient the planks parallel to the longest wall in the room and parallel to the primary light source where possible — this minimises the visual effect of any remaining minor surface variation beneath the planks and produces the most natural-looking result in long corridor spaces common in Greek hotel layouts.
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FAQ
- Can I install LVP over tiles that have cracks in them?
- Cracked tiles are a warning sign rather than an automatic disqualifier. A hairline crack in an otherwise solid, well-adhered tile can be filled with flexible floor-levelling compound and then covered safely. However, if the crack runs across multiple tiles, if the tile sounds hollow when tapped, or if the crack is actively moving (indicating substrate settlement), you must address the underlying cause before installing any floating floor. Laying LVP over a moving crack simply transfers that movement to the new floor, where it will eventually appear as a ridge or, in severe cases, cause the planks to separate.
- Do I need to remove the existing tile adhesive if some tiles come up during preparation?
- Yes. Any tile adhesive residue or old mortar bed that remains after removing a damaged tile must be ground flat before you continue. Ridges and humps in the adhesive bed will telegraph through vinyl plank just as grout lines do. Use an angle grinder with a diamond cup wheel to knock down high spots, then skim the area with self-levelling compound to bring it back to the surrounding tile height. The goal is a flat, continuous surface — the material it is made of matters far less than its flatness.
- Is a floating LVP install over tile suitable for wet areas like bathrooms?
- Floating LVP is generally not recommended for full wet areas such as shower surrounds or rooms that regularly flood, because water can infiltrate the locking joints and reach the substrate below. However, for bathroom floors that see normal splash exposure — sink areas, toilet surrounds, or the floor area outside a shower tray — a quality LVP with a waterproof core (WPC or SPC construction) installed with a watertight threshold at the shower entry is a widely accepted solution. In Greek holiday rentals and hotel bathrooms, SPC core planks are the preferred choice for their rigidity and superior dimensional stability in humidity fluctuations.