Installing Carpet on top of Ceramic Tile

[dannykoos]

I am planning on having carpet installed over top of a ceramic tile floor. We bought a house about 6 months ago, a two-story w/ basement. The whole main level, two living rooms, kitchen, hallways, dining room...was all ceramic tile!! Same style, same color. In any event, instead of going throught the chore of pulling up the tile, our carpet layer said he can just go over top the tile in the two living rooms where we want carpet. Neither room has any doors that we need to worry about the floor getting too high. My question is, has anyone ever had this done...carpet over tile? How did it work out? Carpet guy says if they can't nail the tackstrips down, he may try gluing them...anyone seen/have this done before?? Thanks!!!!

[pushkins]

I've seen it before both with nailed and glued tack strips.

Glue inevitably fails on tiles so I'd suggest if your going down this path to make sure the tack strips are nailed.

Not sure why your carpeting over tiles, in most places tiles are upgrades.

Have you considered large area rugs ?

[dannykoos]

I like ceramic tile...in certain places...kitchens, baths, hallways, etc. Not in a living room where I want to be able to hang out, maybe stretch out on the floor, have my kids play on. What about, I have read on the internet where you can pull up tiles just along the wall so there is a place to easily nail down the tack strips? Or if not, are there nails he can use that will go throught the tile? I told him i am not at all worried if the tile cracks.

[pushkins]

You can remove the wall tiles and add tack strip, the problem with doing this is that your adding another level (lower than the tile) and this looks kinda funky and really is not practicable.

Have the carpet layer use longer nails , he should put them in in the grout lines this will make the job a whole lot easier.

Hint: The better the padding the better the longevity and comfort of your carpet. People go cheap on the padding and wonder why the carpet doesn't last.

[dannykoos]

Yeah, I was wondering about how it would look if you only took out tiles around the walls..thought maybe padding would help make up for it. Anyhow, yes, we put new carpet in the bedrooms upstairs and used the best pad available and will be using the same for this job. Thanks again. While on the subject of pad, I live in Ohio and order my carpet/pad from a guy in Georgia. This pad he sold me was called "healthier choice". It looks a lot diff than pad I usually see. The usual stuff is that recycled looking "foamy" stuff. This healthier choice stuff is one solid piece of material...almost looks like the foam raft you might use in a pool (that is the best way i can explain it). Have you ever heard of/seen this stuff? Thanks!!!