I have carpet throughout my kitchen -- the no pile stuff from the 1970s -- not very practical. We want to lift it and put in hardwood eventually but in the meantime, want to rip it up and lay peel and stick tiles. We will have to scrape up the foam underlay underneath it and underneath that it appears there is linoleum. Do we need to do any prep work other than clean with TSP or can we apply peel and stick tiles right to the linoleum. How long will the tiles last?
Answer:
Good try! Done your way, the tiles might last all of about a month. You should take everything off right down to the sub-flooring. Now you can lay in quarter-inch underlayment and when you do, you'll try to make sure none of the screws you fasten with go into joists underneath the sub-floor because that is what squeaks are made of. Put a white chalk mark on the wall at either side of the room where the joists are and that will help. Underlayment is attached every 6 to 8 inches in the field and then every 3 to 4 inches at the edges. That done, you can seal the joints, but not the scew heads, with a cementicious product before laying in the peel and stick.
